I was thinking recently about the controversy over "indie" bands moving to major labels. The reason this came up was with the news that Death Cab For Cutie signed with Atlantic for their major label debut, Plans. (Although Rilo Kiley left long-time label Saddle Creek to record More Adventurous) I used to be the kind of person who loathed such a change, citing money as the only motive.
It seems that there are as many "good" examples of major label changes meaning better music, as there are the opposite. The best two examples of this would be Modest Mouse and Elliott Smith. The former signed with a major label to release The Moon & Antartica, which arguably turned out to be one of their best records. They went on to record Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which prompted an appearance on the O.C. and a Grammy nomination. People can gripe all they'd like about the band's decision to sign with Sony, but did it compromise their talent? It's unlikely. Then there's Elliott Smith; he signed with Dreamworks and had a very strong major label debut with X.O. but found that his label was dissapointed with Figure 8. But getting back to Death Cab For Cutie, since I just finished listening to their latest record. Is it better than Transatlanticism? I don't believe so, but it's still a strong, solid effort. If the bands are happy with their decision, then I say "bring it on"! Listening to Rilo Kiley's The Execution Of All Things, I can hear that it's a lot better than their most recent effort, but More Adventurous is by no means "bad". These are all just projections and opininons, of course. I don't know where or why I changed my mind on this topic, but I did. I'm slightly biased with Death Cab For Cutie, since I think that everything Ben Gibbard does turns to gold, but as far as I can tell, it's worked out just fine for him. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would be his third record label change, having started with Barsuk and releasing The Postal Service record on Sub Pop.)
I know that some day all of my useless knowledge will be good for something. Any other "good" examples of bands switching to major labels?
NP: Rilo Kiley- Paint's Peeling
2 comments:
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was going to be put out on a major label... haha yeah, that's all I can think of!
The whole changing to a major label thing isn't really all that annoying to me. It's good to see bands I like making more money and getting more fans, because they deserve both. And finally getting more public recognition for being a great band must be a nice feeling.
It is annoying to have a lot more people at shows, though. And ticket prices go up too. So there's a downside, but it's only really apparent to fans of the band, not the band themselves.
Plus!
Like with XO, artists have a bigger budget to make the record as full or sparse as they want it to be. And on Elliott's Dreamworks releases, this was most definitely a good thing.
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