10 Artists That Went Head-To-Head With The Music Industry And WON

10. The Clash Vs Colombia

Before being able to release €˜London Calling€™ €“ an album which would immediately become an all-time classic in the history of popular music €“ The Clash had a problem to negotiate with their record label. They€™d recorded too many songs, enough to fill a double-album, and Colombia wanted to sell it at an inflated price.

Ideally they wouldn€™t have released a double-album at all, since punk bands were supposed to leave that kind of stuff to Pink Floyd and prog rock bands. This was a problem for The Clash, who famously built a reputation being a punk band that stood up for ordinary people. It would be hypocritical to call out institutions profiteering if they were part of the problem themselves.

Colombia initially denied the band the opportunity to release the album in the format they wanted, but €“ like the renegades they are €“ they stood their ground and wore the record company down. Eventually the double album came out for the same price as a regular record, The Clash kept their street cred and sold 2m copies in just a few short weeks.

Most critics now consider London Calling one of the greatest albums of all time, so it€™s a good job they ignored what Colombia was saying.

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