10 Bands Destroyed By "Selling Out"

What’s the difference between Manchester United and the Black Eyed Peas? One got a whole lot worse when Fergie left, the other got a whole lot worse when Fergie joined. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but it’s hard to deny that in terms of selling out, few have done it quite as completely or unashamedly as Will.i.am and the lads.

Originally an old school hip hop trio with a socially conscious streak, BEP released two albums around the turn of the millennium that are almost unrecognisable compared to their later work. Did they set the world alight back then? No, of course not. But did they have integrity and an arsenal of funky fresh rhymes to bob your head and tap your toes to? Heck yeah, they did.

Initially, things weren’t even that bad when Fergie joined. ‘Where Is The Love?’? Great tune, mate. ‘Let’s Get It Started’? Bit of a bop in all honesty. But gradually, like coastal erosion or the quiet resentment that infiltrates a once-doting marriage, things began to change.

The group went from mainstream and relatively credible, if a little lightweight, to dressing like they were the bridge crew in an am-dram recreation of Star Trek: The Next Generation and making music that they might well have found on an outlying moon orbiting a planet on the edge of a galaxy of crap. That might sound mean, but listen to ‘Boom Boom Pow’, or that one song where Will.i.am just keeps saying ‘dirty bit’ and I defy you to disagree with me.