"Sold Out" or "Sell Out"?

I have often heard people comment on this or that person or group "selling out". In this sense meaning they aren't as "cool" as they were (generally because they are now successful) or they are doing something different than before. This may be another contrivance to make us feel better about our lack of creativity or, seen another way, a division to keep people distracted from an underlying tension. I will hold that it is due to a clash of fundamental values that the parties hold. The very nature of capitalism demands that items are produced for profit; this holds true even for artists. Artists have a desire to create and display or distribute their art. This means that anyone with a message they want to transmit has to "sell" it to do so; as do those who simply wish to live and create art. The artist will feel a "cheapening" of their art, with cause, as there is a grain of truth to people thinking art is not meant to be sold. Yet there is nothing in that which says we should vilify the artist for doing so. It is natural to want to create and, once created, to share that creation with others. It is also natural to want to survive and prosper; but to do so in a capitalist culture, one must have capital. So here we have another instance of "blaming the victim", where artists are disparaged for doing what is natural inside a system that is not.

See previous blog, on artists v. entertainers of 20July06, for more.