10 Bands Destroyed By "Selling Out"

The history of Jefferson Airplane is so complicated that it could have been dreamed up by J.R.R Tolkien himself. For simplicity’s sake, all we need to know here is that the band, formed in 1965, had more members than the National Trust, eventually decided that they couldn’t stand the sight of each other, then became something called Jefferson Starship for 10 years, and then, following yet more unrest, dropped the Jefferson and decided they were now just Starship.

Despite having more name changes that Cheryl Tunt from Archer, however, the most shocking thing about their evolution, or devolution depending on your perspective, was just how readily they abandoned their principles.

This was a band borne from hippy counter-culture, rallying against the oppressions of “the man” and civil rights injustices in the tumultuous cauldron that 1960s America. As soon as their aircraft went intergalactic though, their ambitions and their outlook seemed to change considerably. Gone were the disaffected outcasts of yesteryear, replaced by a band who released ‘We Built This City’ into the public sphere. Enough bloody said.