10 Classic Rock Artists That NEVER Sold Out
9. Peter Gabriel
As Genesis started to get things rolling, Peter Gabriel's antics onstage seemed like the polar opposite of the mainstream. Wearing outlandish costumes like a fox's head and dressing like an STD, this was certainly not the kind of user-friendly rock and roll you would get from your typical band. Even though Genesis ended up going mainstream with Phil Collins behind the mic, Peter Gabriel is one of the few artists to have the mainstream come to him.
Across his first few self-titled records, Gabriel seemed to take risks at the drop of a hat, starting with the gentle touches on Solsbury Hill. That was just the tipping point though, with Gabriel eventually having a hand in everything from funk on Shock the Monkey to cold and calculated prog rock on Games Without Frontiers. Though his eventual non-self-titled album So gave him his first hits, there was still some more adventurous work at play.
Never one for writing a hit, Gabriel ended up taking on the realm of world music at his commercial peak, incorporating African players into his group on songs like In Your Eyes. As he continues to take on new artistic ventures like film scores and putting together the WOMAD festival, Gabriel is not really looking to please anyone's artistic intentions except his own.