Research Seminar: popular music, commercialism and selling out

Is the concept of ‘selling out’ still relevant for popular music culture and what does the case of popular music tell us about the reach and power of commercialism?

Popular music history is punctuated by cases of musicians selling out or compromising their values for financial gain.

Use of the selling out concept within popular music culture connects to longstanding tensions between art and capitalism, yet recent claims that selling out no longer exists suggest that commerce has triumphed.

This talk by Professor Bethany Klein looks at the role of selling out for popular music culture and how selling out debates have evolved.

What can we learn from the case of popular music about the values at stake when the boundary between culture and commerce is denied?