Sell-Out

The concept of a band 'selling out' you realise is very tainted nowadays. It is hard to distinguish whether or not a band has truly 'sold-out' because a lot of fans are often too harsh and do not realise why the band had to come to that certain point in their career. Musical styles change as well as appearances and with that audienes grow but there are many reasons why this happens, not just influence from other bands and musicians, but record producers and managers all play a role in defining bands' career moves.

One fine example of a band that has been branded a sell-out are the Kings of Leon. A young(well in their 20's) alternative rock band from Tennesse that formed in 1999. In 2003 they recorded 'Youth and Young Manhood', a fantastic album that is KOL in a nutshell. Four young deep southerners from America let loose in a recording studio. Caleb Followill wrote the songs and most of them as you could tell are about 'youth and young manhood'. Two years later 'Aha Shake Heart Break' was released and once again the band continued to play in their image, giving the fans what they wanted, regardless of whether everything was brilliant in the sales department although the album was deemed a success. Physically the band were very easy to distinguish. Often wearing t-shirts that were too small for them and Caleb and Nathan both had shoulder length hair and thick beards, although around the time of the second album Caleb had shaven his beard off. All of the band members had long hair though, this had always been a signature trait for KOL in the early days.

'Because of The Times' was released in April 2007 to very mixed reviews and saw the band take a very new direction. Songs like 'Mcfearless', 'My party' and 'Charmer' showed that the lads had went for a hard-rock blues with far more edge to it than the last two. This would have lost some support from their older fans. This combined with tracks like 'On Call' that show their clear drive to experiment with pop would shake the fans belief in the four Nashville-born lads. Nevertheless the band could sleep peacefully knowing the album debuted at number one in Britain and Ireland.

When 'Only by the Night' was released in Britain on September 19 2008 it debuted at no.1 but only remained there for a week. The album was a complete change from the ones prior to it. Caleb had been quoted as saying he had been writing some of the best songs in his life, but as far as Kings of Leons' original fanbase was concerned, they hadn't heard them. Masses of people from Rolling Stones to youtube fanatics had branded them sellouts for changing their image from corn-fed southern american hippies to run-of-mill indie bums. Despite all of this their album was still successful as ever, with 'Sex on fire' reaching no.1. This album showed that KOL had clearly aimed this album as a ballad, with hits that could get stuck in your head.

But what was the reason for this new approach? Well, more than likely, just like every other band that it happens to, e.g. Fallout Boy, Greenday, My Chemical Romance, the record company would have basically said that they would have been better off making their sound more global because they would attract a larger audience and told them to get a haircut and new threads, as well as giving them a shit load of money in the process. They also may have may have switched to a different record company at the advice of their manager i.e something like Universal. If their record company never told them to do this they would have only came to this conclusion themselves but it is always harsh when a band loses their early fan-base because of a new look and sound. But pressing on, out with the long hair and in with the straighteners for the boys for 2009. Not just that, it seemed that with the success of the album the boys were given the money back in topman vouchers as all you can see them in now are skinny jeans, shirts, thin ties and waist coats. Out with the old and in with the new just doesn't seem to register here. KOL had it all, a massive fanbase on every continent that truly appreciated them for their own style and then they had to spoil it. What do they have now though? A bunch of 'Sex on fire' boys just hanging about at festivals they might appear at? That's nothing really.

Other bands have faced this great challenge in the past but resisted, these have included 'Nirvana' and 'Radiohead'. Kurt Cobain said in interviews that they (Nirvana) would like to have signed to a major label because of the advertising and distribution but it was just never going to happen, plus they were already signed up to 'sub-pop' at the time, a more independant record label. Also, Kurt could never contemplate having his music used by corporations so when the pressure finally got to him he shot himself. Radiohead are an excellent example of a band that people should look up to. In October 2007 they released 'In Raibows', a downloadable album from their website that their fans could pay any price they wished depending on how good they thought the album was. Prices generally ranged from £0.01 to £10.00 but no higher. This is just an example of how great Radiohead are with their fans and how much they care about their image. This has been key in both bands success and establishing their fanbase, if only more bands were able to resist the temptation of more money from men in shiny suits with white teeth and contracts. Damn you, you ruin our music!

Cheers

Turner