Music // Selling Out Is Hard To Do

‘Selling Out’ is a particularly well-worn term, fated to be bandied when there appears to be due reason to question the integrity of an artist’s decision to involve themselves with any amount of corporate sponsorship. It’s a weighty draw as well – corporate cash has a particularly powerful sway in the music industry; requests for endorsements and sponsorship of a plethora of goods are going to flood in when you have the requisite exposure. Whether you can resist this lure or not  relies on a fragile balance between principles and persuasion. Sadly for some, the principles, politics and attitudes that shape their careers are no challenge to overlook. In an industry powered by paper, money talks – and these are just some of the artists who just couldn’t resist it’s call.

Try and take yourself back a few years – before the re-union tour that followed the final tour that came shortly after the ‘Goodbye Tour’ which came shortly after the ’40 years Farewell Tour’. All those years ago, The Rolling Stones used to be fierce. Lauded as the rough-edged, delinquent antithesis to the saccharine boy-next-door years of Epstein-era Beatles, releases like ‘Paint it Black’ and ‘Sympathy for The Devil’ cemented The Stones’ image as a markedly darker force in music.

As their global influence spread and maintained their super-stardom over the decades, time saw Jagger et al use their hip-swinging charisma to endorse…erm…Windows ’95. Whatever you think about The Stones, there’s something undeniably shattering about the flagrant sexuality of machismo-driven ‘Start Me Up’ being paired with the tubby bloke playing with clip art 20 seconds in.

Whether you you think The Sex Pistols were revolutionaries or just a cleverly-marketed boy band, it’s hard to ignore the considerable footprint they’ve  left in popular culture. Frontman John Lydon tore a path through England, spitting his anarchical, anti-monarchist diatribe  over his bands jagged 3-chord punk, to much uproar – and forever fashioning him as an iconic, snarling figure.

After making such bold waves in the conservative haze of 1970′s England, Lydon’s moves have turned to mere ripples in the milk churn, as one of Punks key figures has turned to rebelling..against poor quality dairy produce. John Lydon’s butter adverts, apart from being unfathomably irritating, have left us in no doubt that any spark of rebellion Lydon once had has been extinguished.

This seems to be a pattern in the punk world – Lydon is by no means an exception to the rule. Iggy Pop was once too a similarly revered figure of counter-culture rebellion. A veritable whirlwind from Michigan, Iggy burst into the industry in an explosion of buzzsaw guitars and frantic energy. A formidable live performer, his live shows with The Stooges often involved large amounts of broken glass lacerations, vomit and some light self-exposure. Drug addled but still prolific, seminal releases like 1973′s ‘Raw Power’ are imbued with such fierce talent that it seemed Pop was due to self-destruct at any moment.

It seems however, that time has mellowed Iggy a considerable amount. Far from imploding, Iggy has decided to share with us all his secret to a safe and fruitful fiscal life: Insurance. Apparently promoting car insurance is the new ‘being a talented musician’, and the leathery-skinned one has a specific recommendation especially for you. It’s just a shame that the advert is so utterly depressing it almost makes you want him to get back on the heroin.

The weighty beat of Public Enemy’s impassioned political hip-hop will doubtlessly resonate well beyond their respective lifespans. Chuck D proved himself a talented, worthy lyricist and an inspiring voice to the disenfranchised. Releases like 1989′s ‘Fear of a Black Planet’ are now an intrinsic, important piece of Hip-Hop’s legacy.

The declining legacy of Flava Flav however, will probably not be the most pleasant thing in the world to look at retrospectively. Flav’s bizzare, electric headgear and over-sized clock necklaces were always a figure of fun, a caricature, but in the setting of his reality TV show ‘Flava of Love’, it becomes a whole lot more nightmarish. Apparently forgetting everything he’d believed whilst in Public Enemy, Flava’s show sees him presiding over a house of fame-starved women vying for his ‘love’ (see: money). What is most apparent about the concept (other than the fact Flav seems to have lost his mind completely) is that it’s run beyond one series. Apparently a house full of scrapping, money-hungry harpies presided over by an utter crackpot isn’t the soundest method of finding love then? Whatever happened to ‘Fight The Power’…

The spark of rebellion and strength of individual spirit is an essential facet in music. Without it, where’s the soul? If you want to end up with swathes of sickly boybands and preened, pampered starlets, fine, stick with the photo-shopped, the gritless, corporate masses. Whatever the reason for these corporate sponsorships (here’s a clue: £££), it’s a thoroughly depressing trend. What music really needs, so we can see these icons with the reverence they once deserved, is to ensure that future generations grow old ungracefully.