"Sell out" vs Natural artistic direction

It depends. It may very well be.

Genesis seemed more sell-out-ish than Yes, in my opinion.

However, selling out in itself is a sort of natural artistic direction.


Edited by Philéas - January 07 2008 at 11:12

As much as I love Genesis, I think they sold out in the 80's. I've listened to Tony Banks trying to explain that all the Genesis trademarks are still there, on tracks like 'No reply at all' and his arguments dont really stand up. He just sounds like a politician trying to wriggle out of tight spot. The fact is, they wanted bigger audiences, and in order to achieve this they had to write more commercial music; music that was radio friendly, could be sung along to, and danced to. I actually enjoy a lot of their 80's music, but I dont think it's accurate to describe it as a natural artistic progression. They made some great pop, but with the exception of a few tracks, thats all it really was.

It's different with Yes. 90125 was a defining 80's album, and I feel they sold out a lot less than Genesis did in making that record. It helped them a great deal, working with Trevor Horn. 90125 is quite a groundbreaking album IMO. Much of the music is quite heavy (Hold On, City of Love etc) but given an 'Art of Noise' treatment. Even as a metal fan at the time, I loved this album and thought it was very fresh and even 'arty' sounding. I'd not really heard anything else in the 80's quite like it. It's the album that put me on to Yes. Rick Wakemen also thought it a great album, and has said he would have loved to have been part of it.

Do you consider 80's works of Genesis, Yes, etc. as a "sell out", or just as a natural artistic change?