Menu
Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994â2007)
Top of the pile
84
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
92/100Critics
75/100Scholars
Author:
Dan Ozzi
Publisher:
Dey Street Books
Date:
October 26, 2021
A history of punk, emo and hardcore's growing pains during the commercial boom of the early 1990s and mid-aughts, following 11 bandsâincluding Green Day, Jimmy Eat World, The Donnas and Jawbreakerâas they "sell out" and find mainstream success or break beneath the pressure.
What The Reviewers Say
Ozzi is the perfect choice to tackle the challenge of making a cohesive narrative out of a story that travels from mosh pits to executive boardroom meetings to sweaty tour bus spats without ever losing its rhythm.
Ozzi’s reporting is strong, balanced and well told. There are no (well, very few) clear-cut good guys and bad guys. If the band-by-band structure sometimes limits the ability to look at the bigger picture, it still represents a worthy successor to its obvious inspiration, Michael Azerrad’s 2001 examination of the ’80s indie underground, Our Band Could Be Your Life. The additional challenges facing the Donnas and the Distillers, bands made up of or fronted by women, remain bracing, and the inherent difficulties of maintaining a group’s focus as its circumstances change are timeless..
... those looking for inside baseball on punk, emo, and hardcore’s most (in)famous acts will find plenty to dive into within Sellout.
What makes Sellout so engrossing is that it profiles both the artists and the suits—the label heads and their A&R reps. Ozzi not only provides a rigorously researched look at how labels targeted bands and fought to sign them; he also amasses an impressive number of firsthand accounts of major-label talent scouts acting like major league sleazeballs.
