Rock and roll and the puzzling stigma of 'sellout' success

Rock and roll has a problem. Few bands are known outside of the genre, and even fewer are getting any airplay outside of rock and roll radio stations.

For some people, it seems as if rock and roll has just died out, although that is far from the truth. Modern hard rock bands like Bad Omens, Memphis Mayfire, and Black Top Mojo are terrific, with great lyrics and sound. But how many people know these bands or have ever listened to them?

Over the decades, rock bands that have changed their original sound to be a bit more commercial or have crossed over into the pop music scene seem to suffer a stigma that somehow selling records is a crime against humanity.

Metalica and Nickelback are two bands that received backlash for selling records

During the 1980s, Metallica was known as a heavy metal band, producing hard rock hits like "Master of Puppets" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." They played harder and faster than the popular heavy metal bands of the decade, such as Motley Crue, Ratt, Cinderella, Dokken, Poison, and others. And there were no ballads.

In fact, Metallica didn't even have a music video until 1989, when "One" was released, and both song and video were incredible. They just solidified the band as the best in the heavy metal genre.

Then, in 1991, Metallica released their self-titled album, known as the "black album" due to its all-black cover. That record has been an incredible success. It has spent 760 weeks overall on the Billboard 200, the fourth most in music history.

"Enter Sandman" was the first single released from the "black" album. It became their first top 10 hit on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. Two more big hits followed it. "Unforgiven" also peaked at number 10, and "Nothing Else Matters" reached 11 on the charts. Both of these last two songs could be categorized as (gulp!) ballads!

Old school fans were up in arms, feeling the band sold out to sell records. Whatever they did, it worked. That album has sold more than 17 million records. I personally know people who won't listen to any Metallica music unless it originated in the eighties.

In 2021, Phillip Trapp summed up this phenomenon in Loudwire by saying, "It's a timeworn tale. Metallica and plenty of other rock and metal acts have faced accusations of 'selling out' once they hit a new threshold of fame. Entire fandoms can seem to morph as a fast-rocketing act's old-school listeners drop off to make way for new ones."

The question is - why is it considered selling out if a band is able to reach more people by selling more records and producing music more people want to listen to? Since 1991, Metallica has had 43 songs it the rock charts, 28 top ten hits on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, and 14 number one songs.

In the 200s, Nickelback had enormous success producing rock music people wanted to listen to. They hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart with "How You Remind Me" and went on to have six top 10 hits and 19 that hit the Hot 100. On the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, they had eight number-one songs, 20 top 10 hits, and 31 songs to make that chart.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, the band received tremendous backlash because it was a popular rock band that crossed over to the pop music world. Despite the fact that the band has 50 million in album sales and six Grammy nominations, it's been a hated band for nearly two decades.

Creed and Coldplay are two other bands that have suffered from this stigma. There are others. Where did this attitude come from?

In my opinion, this has derived from the eighties. Those big bands like Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Poison, Quiet Riot, Warrant, as well as some others mentioned earlier, were all labeled as heavy metal at the the time. Over the years, those bands have been separated as "hair bands" instead of heavy metal.

Heavy metal and hard rock fans have always wanted to separate themselves from and put themselves above fans of bands that enjoyed commercial success and record sales. This is short-sighted and, frankly, difficult to understand.

The whole purpose of music is to make people feel something. If catchy tunes and ballads help acccomplish that, then what's the problem? Just because these bands are rock bands, it doesn't mean they can't be enjoyed on a wider basis. Rock and roll has isolated itself to a niche by pushing away mainstream audiences, and this is a ridiculous stance.

More music news and analysis: