10 Hard Rock Bands That Totally Sold Out
Money trumps musical integrity sometimes...
It's always a great feeling when you discover a new band for the first time. While the biggest bands in the world may be killing the Spotify playlists, the beauty of these acts is that they feel like their own separate entity than the more corporate creations on top. Then the money comes trickling in...
There are countless bands that have been labelled sell-outs from the moment they arrived in the public consciousness. Regardless of what the musical quality is, there's always that breed of fan who refuses to acknowledge their former favorite band for what they see as a cheap cash grab. But is selling out really a bad word? Well...yes and no.
When a band decides to make a turn towards more commercial music, the criticism of their intentions comes down to whether the music that they make is up to the same standard they set for themselves before they got famous. Sometimes it works out for the better, and sometimes it's a look towards darker days for these acts.
Let's take a look at some of the biggest pariahs of the hard rock scene and see if their "sell-out" period is a massive home run or the death knell in their discography.
10. Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is one of the royal leaders of hard rock and heavy metal. His live shows have gone down in legend as some of the most raucous onstage performances ever created, and his albums of horror-themed rock has given him the official title of the King of Shock Rock.
Though Cooper always had a bit of melodic passages intertwined throughout his records, his music took on a different tinge once he went out on his own. Initially having a home run right out of the gate with Welcome to my Nightmare, the next few albums saw Alice flirting with more pop oriented styles. There were definitely some highlights like the album From the Inside dealing with his time in an insane asylum, but other forays like attempts at disco music left fans itching for Alice to rock again. I mean, there's a song on an Alice featuring lyrics written by one of Elton John's collaborators for God's sake.
Over the years, Alice has continued to pursue the heavier trends of the time, from industrial to hard rock to heavy metal territory. The material he's making today is a far cry from the off-kilter weirdness of his early years, but Cooper has regained his touch for knocking out a good hook at least a few times on each recent release.