An old topic

Originally written Sunday December 18, 2005 this was a rant on the pros/cons of selling out with a reference to my good friend Jose, who was a heavy inspiration for this rant. We had many discussions on the topic and this is my views on the matter.

Today I heard people complaining that Howard Stern is leaving "Free" Radio and is heading to pay satellite. I hear the usual words of sell out and such and they may be right but ask yourself;

1. Should you care?

2. Would you do the same?

Now before I continue this Discussion/Rant let me say that this is not just the case of Howard, but everyone else who has taken his path over the years. The basic scenario where a celebrity has gained a fan base and when he/she reaches past their peak they take a different direction or gimmick to expand their fan base in the pursuit of money.  So to answer the first question, personally I don't give two s***s about a celebrity selling out and for that matter as long as the material is worth it I would still support them. Now most of you who know me are already saying, "Joseph you are usually ranting about sellouts and such in a negative way. What happened to the disgruntled punk we thought we knew? Has he conformed to the corporate machine?" Well I do rant about sellouts negativity when they suck. Take Metallica for example; they were a decent band at one point. Then they decided to change to expand their fan base, and sucked. They did the anti-napster thing to gain publicity, which made things worse (We thank our fans by suing them for listening to us for free, even though it was possible before internet.). Then they changed themselves again to try to appeal to the Shittle (S****y metal) crowd by releasing crap like St Anger and sucked even worse.  If you need a positive look of sellout then look at Johnny Rotten. He started with the Sex Pistols and has a huge fan base in the punk genre, but he dropped out and formed Public Image Ltd (Look it up). Now even though most of the punk fan hates public image, the art f*g fan base loves it and Johnny grabs more cash from both fronts. What's the difference between him and metallica you ask? It's simple, Johnny sold out to try different things with his music, Metallica changed to please everyone and failed, or that's the way I've seen it.  Now look at Howard Stern, I think he sucks on the radio but I know a lot of people who loves the guy. And seeing the preview of his premiere on Satellite radio it seems that his material hasn't changed much. It's because he is doing what he likes and decided to get paid more for it that makes it reasonable. Who knows, he might become more liberated in his speech and we would have a more uncensored Stern. Now to answer the second question, I would sell out if offered a reasonably amount of huge cash, power, and the like. First off I'm not a celebrity of any kind so nobody would notice. Second, becoming a celebrity of any kind technically would be selling out in some form or fashion, so why not go for broke. However if I was told to change my ways to please the mainstream zombies then I would just take my Shillelagh and smite said corporate represenitive and then proceed to stick the knobby end up his trendy a*s. Then I would take the money and run to Puerto Rico where I would take the guise of Jose A. Carrion Jr. I may have to cut my hair and gain twenty or so extra pounds but playing the part would be easy (For those who don't know, Jose is my illegitimate brother who currently resides in that small island and hates every moment of it.) To finally close I will part with these words. Do what you want, F**k what people think, they are zombies anyhow.