10 Legendary Musicians Who Fought Against The Music Business

When Pete Townshend first joined the Who, the band was never supposed to be one of the biggest bands in the world. These guys were products of the Mod scene in England, and Pete was content to play with the band for a few weeks before going back to art school and focusing on his creative expression. Once he started to blend his art with music though, no amount of record label meddling was going to get in the way of him saying what he wanted to say.

Once Pete started to work out the project for Tommy, he seemed to have much more of a keen eye on where he wanted to take the Who, going for sounds that were a lot more ambitious that the average three minute single. Even if it may have been against the wishes of his record label, Pete always strove to tell the truth about what the music entailed, abiding by the same rules that he set in the lyrics of My Generation with concepts like Lifehouse, where fans are encouraged to find their salvation through music and not have to worry about the dystopian suits that were trying to make you go along with the program.

Even in interviews, Pete seemed to have a firm grip on the kind of message that he wanted to deliver, knowing he only had a limited time to make an artistic statement before the band eventually turned into a cabaret act. For all of the grand visions behind records like Quadrophenia, The Who were the prime example of sticking to your ideals, and became one of the few classic rock bands that even punks could approve of.