Why do DJ's "sell out" ? Are the purists right ?

I’ll take Tiestos word for it when he said he was tired of what he’d been doing, and wanted to try something new. As a bedroom producer, I don’t want to make tracks no one likes. I want to make tracks that I like, and that other people like too. I don’t think that mentality changes much. I can see getting tired of the same old stuff. Almost every musician (whether they “sell out” or not) has an album or 2 that their fans hate.

We have to seperate/define two important but totally different elements/aspects here. There is change, evolution and there is “sell out”.

An artist can change his style, work, genre etc that doesnt necessarily mean he is a “sell out”. Setting hardcore purists aside who will complain about ANY change an artist will go through, sometimes the audience is right that their favourite artist is “selling out”.

As an artist (IF I have the right to call myself that, because really I believe its a term only another person can use for you) I am against anything that will prevent my artistic expression – that could mean audience expectations (therefore I ll change If I want to) or money (that means I wont be changing in the hopes of getting more money-gaining more audience). I ll play-write what I want to and I’ll let the listener decide – I accept the fact that this may end up having me only a handful of listeners but I’ll be happy in the thoughts that my own personal expression finds a true, no-gimmicks listener who listens to ME not what marketing and advertisements told him to (note: I also have accepted the fact that music is never going to be my main income).

The sure thing with my method is that no matter how MUCH I ‘ll change I will never be accused of being a “sell-out”. Get me? 😉

One last thought: I have generally seen the general approach to DJing in this very blog is that they MUST be “pleasant” to the listeners, therefore they must at some point take under consideration what the listeners want to hear. While I agree with this idea I do not agree that this is a general definition for “artist”. Primarily “art” is about expression so in my opinion, an artist should be free to express himself, externalise his inner world regardless of what the audience, listener, spectator will think. I can already hear voices shouting “…but, but then you ll starve to death.” Wellllll, frankly speaking, do you know how MANY artists in human history starved to death only to be famous after their death? By expressing the real “you” there is always the chance you will find a “hole” in the market and all the “like-you” on the planet will end up being your fans 😉

I think that “sell out” is a weird term anyway – I mean it’s really just when fans feel they can’t call that thing theirs anymore, you know? really I mean as an artist you just have to do you, you have to grow and who’s to say the artists don’t want to try a new sound they heard and loved – at some point we’ve all changed our tastes right? … if people don’t like it well thats just a risk you have to decide you want to take or not and risk is really what it’s all about. I mean you could be AC/DC and stick with the same formula all the time, I mean they are brilliant at it why not? …… but, if you experiment and branch out Rolling Stones style you could be bigger than you were before (a few alienated fans not withstanding).

The Pet Shop Boys are a great example of how artists can maintain their fan following, but grow. You listen to their stuff from their first album to now, and they have always grown as artists, but never went too far away from their original sound. New Order is another example.

Right now the only thing killing those two bands are age.

^^^^ It’s ok, as you get older all that rubbish leaves your system!
As i kid i was passionate about it – heavy rock started getting played on BBC radio 1 on a friday night so i got in to the Electro thing that came in from the States in the early to mid 80’s till that went sour.
The second summer of love came around, and sure as eggs are eggs Radio 1 started playing EDM at Prime time with Oakenfold and such, with live broadcasts from “Eyebeezah” – Spare me, please…

So i found HedKandi…

Now music is just music, and i couldn’t care less if what i like is mainstream or not 😀

But if you listen to my Cloudcasts i’m sure you’ll notice it mainly ain’t mainstream.. 😉