As an artist I am always very intrigued by the notion of "selling out" and its various interpretations.
I usually hear the term used in a derogatory manner especially surrounding artists who achieve some sort of monetary success, but should it be?
An artist takes a turn in their artistic direction or is picked up on by a mainstream audience and suddenly there are cries of "Sell Out!"
Why?
Is an artist supposed to be perpetually stuck in a rut or go unnoticed in order to maintain some semblance of artistic integrity?
For whom?
For other artists who are possibly not as talented or artists more talented but not as good at promotion or have less business acumen or even luck?
Or a host of other reasons people become jealous and cry "Sell out?"
I feel that the arts community would be excited to see one of their own achieve success. Does it not bring some sort of justification to the arts communities as a whole?
I cannot think of many other career fields where this is the case. Imagine your buddy who is an accountant. They make a great investment by doing something a bit risky or get promoted for doing a great job and getting noticed by others; are there cries of "Sell Out!" within the corporate accounting community?
Or do they all just go for happy hour drinks after work to celebrate?
I think artists need to think about more happy hour celebrations for fellow artists in this same situation.
For most artists (this includes musicians, writers, painters... the whole lot) it is their chosen profession. Isn't the goal to get ahead?
To experiment?
To try to break new ground or personal limitations?
Change it up to keep from getting stagnant?
If you do that and get recognized and paid for it, isn't that supposed to be the point or at least kinda cool?
You can pay your rent and feed your family and help the community and all the good stuff.
What got me thinking about this is the current Bruce Springsteen tour coming up and the cost of the tickets and people complaining that it goes against who "The Boss" touts himself to be.
What is it these people think he is?
I mean, he's a musician and entertainer.
Like Madonna or Elton John or the other big ticket performers, right?
Bruce is not necessarily my favorite but I don't dislike him either.
In middle school and high school I had friends who were crazy about him.
I enjoy his music and think he is incredibly talented.
On June 18, 1985, I went to the local bar where we all used to hang out and noticed it was kind of empty. My buddy, Clayton came in and said everyone was headed to the Bruce show at the Olympic grounds, as was he and did I wanna go? I said sure and paid my DM40 ($15) at the kiosk in the train station for my ticket to the 'Born in the USA' tour. To this day it is still the best concert I have ever attended and I have been to A LOT of concerts.
Maybe it is because I was 19 and all my friends were there. Maybe it's because it was a great outdoor venue and the weather was great. Maybe it's because we were pretty close to the stage and had good drugs and great beer.
Mostly I remember it was a great show!
The band played for around 5 hours straight and took little breaks to tease the audience and spray us down with hoses to keep us rocking from daylight into the night! Such great performances by everyone in the band! Incredible was the only word to describe it!
So, Bruce has been doing this for damn near 50 years. If you don't count the early stuff and start around 1975 then it is still close to 40 years. And he does it well. Incredibly well.
Now, would you expect anyone who has been doing their job consistently for that number of years to still be making the same amount of money or charging the same rate for their skills as they had when they first started out?
That would be nuts.
Would you consider the increase selling out?
I sure hope not.
Remember, he IS called "The Boss" and that's the guy who usually makes the most in the company, right?
That's my 2 cents, kids. 😉
