“Selling Out”, Organizational Socialization and the Music Industry
The more popular an artist becomes in the music industry, the more they face being accused of becoming a “sell out”. But are artists who possess diversity amongst others working in a system built against them?
To answer this question, we first have to understand the idea of “buying in” and “selling out” to an organization. This concept is framed by three guidelines for consideration when you feel you may be “selling out” to an organization.
The First, Blank and Slipp (2000) stated that if your values are in direct violation or contradiction with the organization, and you choose to discredit your own values for the sake of the organization, you may be in danger of “selling out”. This meaning that one may turn away from or ignore their own values because they fear that if they don’t, it could hurt their role within the organization.
This is one of the more common themes we see with artists across the music industry. A great example of discarding one’s own values for the sake of the organization/career comes from the band Yellowcard. Most well-known for their song “Ocean Avenue”, the band filed a lawsuit in October 2019 claiming that Juice Wrld (a popular rapper) had stolen a chord progression from their song “Holly Wood Died”. The situation went up in flames after they initially refused to drop the lawsuit following the rapper’s tragic death in 2020. Later, after insistent backlash, Yellowcard dropped the lawsuit claiming that they had felt “pressured” by their label to continue on with the lawsuit. For a moment in time, Yellowcard felt it was still sufficient to sue Juice Wrld’s mother, which the public presumed was for the nearly $15 millon gain. Though they did not stick with their initial intuition to continue the lawsuit, their career will forever be clouded with the fact they ever had an idea to do so. While it may not have been their idea to begin with, they now have to live with the consequences of putting the organizations values above their own.
Second, they stated that if you are aware of your own skills and talents, and perform a function or accept a position that is beneath those skills or talents, you could be in danger of “selling out”. This meaning that if you choose to sell yourself short and disregard what you know to be true of yourself for the sake of your organization, you are “selling out” for them.
I believe this to be the most pertinent example of “selling out” in the music industry. Often times, we see artists that initially join the industry with claims to offer something “different”. As time moves on, these artists can sometimes stop doing what they feel is new or different and begin producing music that they know is going to make the most money. They start pandering to the masses and lose the charm they began their career with. An interesting example of this comes from The 1975’s front man, Matty Healy, and his reaction to the progression of Imagine Dragons over the years.
“If you’re like the biggest alternative band in America radio-play wise, and you’re saying nothing in your music — if you’re just saying words ‘radioactive whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa,’ you know what I mean — It’s just like, what’s the point,” said Healy in an interview with Chicago’s 101 WKQX.
Healy’s disgruntled comment comes from his lack of empathy towards bands that begin to lose their original following after changing their career path. It can show that some artists creat something only for the intention of selling it. But these accusations don’t stop with Imagine Dragons, many artists such as Taylor Swift, Snoop Dogg and even The Beatles have faced accusations along the same lines.
Finally, Blank and Slipp stated that if you accept, without question, the culture of an organization that flaunts it’s discrimination against your culture, you could be in danger of “selling out”. This meaning that if you continue to work for or with an organization that goes directly against what you say you stand for, you are “selling out”.
An interesting example of this was when the family of Tom Petty sued Donald Trump for his use of Petty’s music at campaign rallies. The family sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Trump campaign after it blasted the song “I Won’t Back Down” at the president’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The family said that the use of the song in Trump’s “campaign of hate” was in no way authorized. While the family could have made Trump pay a royalty for using the music, they chose to stand up for what they themselves and the late Tom Petty believed in.
Overall, it can be assumed that the music industry is lacking when it comes to diversified organizational socialization. Many artists over the years that faced these “sell out” accusations felt pressured by the organization they worked under or the industry itself. But unfortunately, it is hard to break into the industry without giving up some of the things they originally set out to do. Maybe it is not the artists but the industry that has some work to do.
