2. Kiss
To take the term literally, a sell-out is someone willing to disregard any notion of artistic fulfillment to focus entirely on making money. If that's the only criteria, then there's absolutely no question as to who the ultimate sell-out is. That's Gene "Please Buy My Kiss Lunchbox" Simmons. There's not a single item in your home that can't be found at a store with the KISS logo on it. There was a point in time when Kiss, the band, only existed to move Kiss merchandising. It wasn't always that way, of course. Emerging from the sleazy New York rock scene that also birthed the New York Dolls and The Stooges, Kiss began as an overtly satanic bunch of hard-partying, sex-obsessed rock and rollers. Their initial couple of albums were rough around the edges and just tougher-sounding than the gimmicks that they would later become known for. 1976 is when the cartoonish imagery first began to overshadow the actual music, and the cover art for the Destroyer album practically screamed "We're going to have our own comic book someday!" The songs became more polished, and they started writing cheesy ballads like the piano-twinkling "Beth." And then came the metric tons of merchandising. Pretty soon the band was more famous for their animated hijinks alongside Scooby Doo than for "Strutter."