Do you care to be more specific?
Sorry. Wouldn’t be prudent. I must leave you in mystery.
It sure didn’t help that they brushed aside comments of them selling out ( changing their sound for a more mainstream appeal ). One of them said something like “Yeah we sold out…our shows sold out xyz stadium, abc arena…” and so forth. Pretty much an admission that changing their sound in deference to commercial success was a good decision, and one they were proud of…which pretty much confirms the original concerns of the erstwhile fans.
Gabriel leaving affected the band, no doubt, but they remained a prog powerhouse. The beginning of Genesis’ descent into pop schmaltz began in earnest after the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett two albums after Gabriel left. Even then it wasn’t a sudden drop-off but it didn’t take long. Such a shame.
ETA: I hadn’t seen Shoeless’s post when I posted mine.
Pink Floyd definitely dumbed down their act to produce Dark Side of the Moon. Still, it seemed to work for them.
Boz Scaggs when he switched to cornball lounge lizard disco and released Silk Degrees.
Going back a ways: Nat King Cole was a talented and fairly successful jazz pianist who never really engaged in vocals until doing “Sweet Loraine”. Once he crossed over into pop and began singing, his career skyrocketed. He never gave up his jazz licks, but the money was in pop.
It would be easier to list acts that ***haven’t ***sold out. Tom Waits and Neil Young is about all I can think of.
The first act I thought of when I saw this thread was Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship.
Along similar lines, I’ll suggest Elvis but he never made it to the “senior” stage. Also, Colonel Tom had a lot to do with his final incarnation into an overweight Vegas act.
Robert Palmer had a wide range of early work before moving to power pop like “Addicted to Love”.
I’d nominate ‘Iron Maiden’. Other than just the slightest of hiccups here and there, they remained true from 1980 through today.
The Doors have never sold a song for commercial purposes. John Densmore has always refused, saying Jim wouldn’t approve.
As for sell outs, REO Speedwagon comes to mind. They went from a fairly decent rock band (Riding the Storm Out, Roll with the changes) to complete pop (Heard it From a Friend, Keep on Loving You).
I’m not going to google, but the same can be said for the J. Geils Band.
And AC/DC never deviated from their style.
But that’s not what the OP is talking about. They were able to sell their music for commercials because they were already highly successful commercially. They didn’t change their style in order to become more successful commercially.
Winner.
Let’s contemplate this. Mostly because I dislike the whole ‘sell out’ concept. It allows fans to place some sort of ethereal - and imagined - power over their musical heroes.
But it’s fiction. Bands and musicians do what they do because they hope to achieve something. In my time in bands - early 80s to late 90s - my interests went from getting laid to just having fun.
But it’s not fair to criticize bands for doing what they want. I think I recall Joe Strummer on why The Clash began integrating more complicated and non-punk stuff in their songs saying ‘Punk’s great, but if you can’t play you fade away and if you can’t you can’t play it forever because you get bored’.
If bands want to do other things - even something like cash big checks - who the hell are we to tell them they can’t? Priorities change, interests change.
My favorite band, Rush, went from huge side-long - when we have 'sides - epics to shorter, more driven songs. They lost interest in doing longer things and wanted to use the discipline of writing tighter songs. Hell, the hit single ‘New World Man’ started out a ‘project 3:59’ where they had some extra time on an album side, had finished recording the album and decided to attempt to write a catchy song that was less than 4 minutes long. It ended up being a sort of synth-poppy tune at 3:43. Is that somehow a sell out?
ETA: Just checked. New World Man - project 3:59 - ended up being their highest charting single ever at #21 on the US chart. For comparison Tom Sawyer topped out at #44.
The Black Eyed Peas have to be up there. From avant garde rap, without the success of De La Soul, to picking up Fergie and selling 75 million records is quite a change in their sound. Black Eyed Peas - Wikipedia
Or maybe I’m just influenced by their cover of, IIRC, Rolling Stone: “Sellin’ out? We’re selling out stadiums!”
Not sure why you quoted me. I have no problem with musicians going where they need to go, whether it’s for artistic reasons or just to pay the bills. I think this thread is supposed to be about musicians who did just that. I think calling it a sellout is inappropriate in most cases. Fans called Dylan a sellout for going electric, for cripes sake.
bunch of sellout…u2
Not only did Metallica radically change their style, but they also came out very heavily against piracy, after making their name initially mostly from bootlegs.