“Metallica Never Sold Out,” Say Stupid Idiots

Nice scarf, Kirk.

Metallica is going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, an accomplishment that rates somewhere between getting a full snack card punched at Baskin Robbins and getting into clown college. They deserve it, for sure; without them, metal would be less popular and we never would have gotten the probably-rocking Guitar Hero game bearing their songs and likenesses. I can support that, and I’m sure most people don’t have a problem with it.

However, Metallica also did something that no one seems to care about: They sold the fuck out. I don’t mean when they cut their hair, or when they stopped writing solos in favor of nu-metal guitar riffs, or even when they made that Guitar Hero game. All of that stuff, while regrettable, has to be expected when a band gets older. When you’re 35 you don’t have the same drive and force of will you do when you’re 21, unless you’re Ted Leo; for Metallica, it might have been easier to start making music for bratty teenagers and dads than it was to continue to be creative.

But back when Napster was big, Metallica sued their fans for downloading their music; that’s why and when they sold out. In 2009, it’s not really worth it to bring it up on its own; it was a dick move, but lots of bands do dick things. Billy Corgan just came out in favor of TicketMaster and LiveNation merging and creating an apocalyptic beast of surcharges and convenience fees. Prince won’t let his music be posted on Youtube, because, I don’t know, I guess he doesn’t want people to listen to his music. This becomes an issue now because the Hall is trying to whitewash those incidents, with awesome quotes like this, from a Yahoo article on the band’s inclusion:

“They are the gold standard for contemporary metal,” said Hall curator Howard Kramer. “Despite their fame, they’ve never made an effort to cash in. People believe in them. That’s why they’re still there.”

Well, that’s awesome. They never made an attempt to cash in; never sold their songs for commercials, never made videogames bearing their name, never made music videos after saying they wouldn’t, never filed lawsuits against the people who gave them what every band should play for: Love. If you are making music and you are not making it for the people or someone then what are you doing it for? A paycheck? Women? Metallica spit in the face of the notion that you should support the people who support you; never, they scowled. They needed the five cents of royalties gotten from each CD that was never purchased but instead swapped online, creating not sales but a sense of caring. If you’re creative or try to be creative, you know the value of having someone who cares about your work, but Metallica didn’t seem to care that much.

The downloading music angle is bullshit, I think. Bands barely see any money from their record sales, if they’re on a major label; read  Steve Albini’s famous essay on how the money is divvied up, if you don’t believe me. Any band, if worth hearing to someone, will be supported by their label; if not their label, then some label. There was never any risk of Metallica getting dropped if they didn’t meet a sales threshold, and if they somehow were dropped, someone would have picked them up again. They didn’t need a label to make music, especially by that point. But they went for the corporate means, losing years and years of good will built up on “ethics” and “dedication,” words I can’t take seriously applied to a band being inducted into an organization that refuses to acknowledge Iggy Pop’s contributions to music.

Fart. Well, okay. I’ll listen to my copy of …And Justice For All but I won’t forget that along the way, these guys stopped caring as much about the right reasons for wanting to make art. If you’re blase you’ll say that these records never counted as art in the first place, but I believe in some of that music. Lots of people believe in it as well. I wish the band could believe in their fans, and that the media wouldn’t forget about that bullshit transgression.

Also, congratulations to Run-DMC for making it and freaking out racists everywhere. “Rap music! In my Rock and Roll Hallf of Fame!? Why, I never!”