12 Hard Rock Bands Who Succeeded By Never Selling Out
Rage Against The Machine are still in it for the right reasons...
When you first form a band, nobody really cares about what will happen further down the line. Once you jam with your buddies for the first time, all of you are united by the pure love of making music. After you get famous though, it's easier to listen to the paycheck rather than your muse.
You may think that you control your craft, but the conversation shifts once you get people in suits with royalty checks involved. It may be fun to expand your creative vision, but most of the time these suits are looking for someone who they can market a certain way. Your average band might end up taking the advice of these groups, but that usually means their music being much more soft and much less interesting. Not with these artists though...
In a business that has had its fair share of artistic casualties, these bands have been able to hold on to their credibility without alienating their fans. Some of these groups have even gone out of their way to outwardly oppose these money-hungry execs of the music business while still stretching themselves into grander musical territory. The legacies of these acts prove that when it comes to music, it's better to go with your gut than with the amount of money in front of you.
12. The Ramones
When the Ramones first burst onto the New York club scene, change was in the air. After years of getting bogged down by prog rock and heavy metal, these four street rats from Manhattan took rock and roll back to its roots with three chord jams that would go on to kickstart the punk rock movement.
So that means these guys were left with big rock star mansions like all the other classic rock bands right? Nah...that's not really their bag. Instead of moving into some ritzy territory and writing more lofty tracks, the Ramones always stuck to their guns when it came to writing rock songs that were short and to-the-point.
Contrary to what many people believe, the actual sound of the band did change considerably over the years, with the band dipping their toes into everything from hard rock to pop to even heavy metal on some of their later works. Sure they may have songs that are still played on the radio to this day, but the band used the rest of their career to build upon their momentum with any genre that suited them.
Even if you're sick and tired of "Blitzkrieg Bop," the Ramones earned the distinction of getting heaps of praise from fans and deserving of every bit of it.