8 Artists Whose Music Actually Got Better After They "Sold Out"

3. R.E.M.

As guitarist Peter Buck describes their major label debut, Green was an experimental album that featured "major key rock songs" for the first time, largely due to instructions from Michael Stipe "not to write any more R.E.M-type songs." The result is incredibly haphazard, but so remarkably satisfying.

Following their move to the big-time, they also released Automatic For the People, which is universally considered, at the very least, a top 3 album in the band's extensive discography. The only album that could stand as an objectively better album is their official debut, 1983's Murmur, though we all know how easy it is for bands to capture lightning in a bottle with their first go-round, since they have, hypothetically, an almost unlimited amount of time to write and record it.

But from that album to 1988's Green, it's hard to find an album that surpasses their major label introduction.

2. Modest Mouse

There is perhaps no better example of a band that came up with a firm grasp on the DIY ethos of indie rock and never unclenched, even while gaining a huge amount of exposure quite suddenly. Modest Mouse never really sold out, even though fans couldn't stomach the idea of "Float On" becoming a song that everybody knew. Because not everybody was supposed to know about Modest Mouse.

But that was the reality presented to fans once they heard Modest Mouse was crossing over to a major record label. And though it's hard to argue that the band did indeed become world famous for the angular licks of "Float On" a few years later, there was a brief spell where Modest Mouse was still a hidden gem tucked away on a major label.

That period is represented with the best album of their unique career, The Moon & Antarctica, a sterling example of how to retain your indie cred in the face of convention.

1. The Beatles

"What?? How dare you!!" "You're a complete and utter imbecile!" "I hope John Lennon comes back to haunt you and torments you by playing the Two Virgins album on loop!" Those are just a few of the comments I expect to get from readers by the time I've finished explaining how The Beatles were one of the first bands to sell out.

Despite what your parents might tell you, The Beatles didn't arrive fully-formed as the mop-topped foursome who played cheesy pop songs and drove all the repressed girls crazy with their snazzy suits and odes to holding hands. That version of The Beatles wouldn't exist until manager Brian Epstein got his hands on the group. Prior to their courtship with Epstein, the Fab Four were stereotypical greasers, rocking jeans and leather jackets. They spent their nights playing in German strip clubs and, no joke, stapling condoms to the wall and setting them ablaze because...that's a sure way to get women to hold their hands?

But under Epstein's tutelage, the boys underwent a drastic makeover, performing with a "gee shucks" attitude and synchronizing their appearances and onstage movements. Then came the classic, early Beatles tunes. Then came worldwide exposure. Then came the massive discography that is one of the most celebrated in the history of pop music.

So just know that pretty much every song you've ever heard from the Beatles came after they'd already sold out.