Bruce Springsteen, who has said his sales collaboration with Wal-Mart was a 'mistake'.

When it was announced in December that Bruce Springsteen would be releasing his Greatest Hits album exclusively in the US through Wal-Mart stores, a great many of his fans were perplexed. Springsteen is revered throughout large sections of America as a true working-class hero, a bus driver’s son from New Jersey who writes and sings of blue-collar characters and their struggles in life, along with serious social issues such as economic depression, racism and 9/11. He is politically active as well, coming out strongly in support of Barack Obama during the US election and criticizing previous Republican governments, not least when Ronald Reagan used his hit Born in the USA during Reagan’s successful 1984 election campaign. He also refused to allow Chrysler to use the song (which was an attack on the treatment of Vietnam War veterans often wrongly interpreted as a patriotic tribute to Uncle Sam) in an advert, despite apparently being offered as much as $12million to appear in it. Springsteen has shown throughout his distinguished career that he is a man of principles, so why the apparent willingness to co-operate with one of the most powerful, and most vilified, corporations in the US?

Wal-Mart’s appalling record is well-documented. While its owners are among the richest few in America, its treatment of its poorly-paid staff attracts much criticism. It forbids the formation of unions, training managers how to snuff out any sign of worker solidarity at the first sign, and pays lower wages than other operators in the industry. It offers limited healthcare coverage to its vast legions of drone employees, and has been attacked for moving its manufacturing to China and leaving many out of work, annihilating smaller businesses, damaging the environment, breaking child-labor laws, employing illegal immigrants, and banning the sale of contraceptives in small communities where availability is already low. Its list of shameful practices goes on and on and can be viewed on the website www.walmartwatch.com, set up in 2005 in order to document and report the actions of the corporation. Now, it just so happens that a large number of those allegedly hurt by Wal-Mart are the very people who supposedly represent Springsteen’s huge fan base: the 1.3 million Wal-Mart employees in the US, and those who live in communities damaged by its arrival, as smaller stores rapidly close down, unable to compete with the behemoth. Understandably, a number of The Boss’s fans are unhappy about the partnership.

Springsteen has belatedly acknowledged the storm created by the deal, and recently expressed his regret over the situation. “It was a mistake,” he said, “we were in the middle of doing a lot of things… we didn’t vet it the way we normally do”. He went on to say that ‘”given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about a little longer, we’d have done something different”. That may be so, but how much really needs to be thought about? Wal-Mart’s reputation precedes it in liberal circles, and surely he and his advisors (rock stars must have them) would have been aware of this, so why do it? It’s possible that the CD’s discount price of $10 was a factor, giving a little something back to the fans, but if he were truly compelled to help out those who put him where he is today, he could have made his music available for free on the internet. Radiohead were able to do it, despite not having achieved the mammoth record sales of Springsteen.

The whole episode seems to have damaged Springsteen’s image amongst his hardcore fans, and has led to accusations that he has ‘sold out’, perhaps the worst charge that can be leveled at a recording artist (unless your name’s R Kelly). Selling out manifests itself in two main forms: when a musical act compromises its sound in order to attract a wider spectrum of listeners, usually by becoming more ‘radio-friendly’, or when said act enters into promotional agreements with corporations. It’s a strange business and horrifying for long-term fans who either witness their once-heroes morph into soulless pop peddlers, or have to face the awful realization that rather than a ‘singer’ or a ‘band’, they are now listening to a ‘brand’. This is when a lot of the original fans will get off the bus and find something else fresh and new that captures the essence of what they seek. But what possesses a successful artist to risk destroying their musical credibility and alienating fans by conforming musically or jumping into bed with a corporate monster?

Sadly enough, the answer is almost always money. Even for those who have already made fortunes, the lure of more cash ensures they abandon their principles and grasp it with both hands, ditching their true supporters while no doubt delighting their record companies. Whether or not this was the motivation behind Springsteen’s Wal-Mart deal is unclear, yet, if it was, it wouldn’t have been the first time this has happened and it certainly won’t be the last. The list of those who have sold out is depressingly long.

Most of the guilty inhabit the worlds of rock and hip hop, the two staples of MTV and American youth and, therefore, the most lucrative musical markets (pop doesn’t count as most pop acts are cynical money-making operations in the first place). A new band or rapper will make a name for themselves on the gigging scene, exciting people and garnering acclaim and respect, before being sucked into the whole corporate machine once word gets out and the big record companies come sniffing. At this stage it is difficult to fault the actions of the artist: they are usually young, hardworking and struggling musicians who find they are suddenly being offered the keys to unlocking their dreams of fame and adulation. But once they taste the riches of success, they forget about what inspired them to pick up microphones or guitars to begin with and become part of the industry.

A number of ‘alternative’ US rock acts have followed this sorry pattern. Bands like Green Day, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Foo Fighters have gone from stunning frenzied audiences in shows of pulsating energy, to releasing dull balladry or ‘emo’ in unscrupulous attempts to get as much airtime as possible in order to maximize profits from record sales and merchandising and charge extortionate amounts for concert tickets, which can quadruple in price now they are a ‘mega-act’. If you want to see the Chili Peppers these days, you’re looking at well over $100 a ticket, $5 a bottle of water, and you get to enjoy the show, in association with Virgin or O2, with screaming teenage girls just promoted from the Backstreet Boys. The wrench for the original fans is that these groups come from a genre which is traditionally anti-establishment and advocates rebellion, yet they go entirely against the ethos of the bands that inspired them.

An irony in this is that Foo Fighters’ cheesy frontman Dave Grohl was in Nirvana, the band that unwittingly brought alternative guitar music into the US mainstream, yet continually bit the hand that fed them with their angry stance against all forms of commercial rock. This was nicely captured in the slogan ‘flower-kissing, kitty-petting, corporate rock whores’ which was barbed bile aimed at late eighties stadium giants such as Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses, who had embraced the dollar sign through their hugely popular mixture of cock-rock and gooey balladry.

Nirvana’s breakthrough album, Nevermind, was itself a very commercial album, yet the group remained staunchly opposed to adapting their sound to gain even more widespread appeal. Their follow-up record, In Utero, strode away from the pop-punk of Nevermind with an altogether rawer, less accessible sound. It was this sort of stance that encapsulated Nirvana’s appeal and ensured they were the biggest band in the world. Although they were the biggest, they didn’t want to be. They refused to compromise their principles and heralded in a cultural shift which is still in evidence today. Then Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head, probably one of the least commercial things someone in his position could do. How the world of popular music could do with another act of that level of attitude and spirit. All that exists today is business. Even a seemingly exciting and ‘cool’ band like the White Stripes does a Coke advert.

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Then there’s the big, brash world of mainstream hip hop and its unswerving loyalty to capitalism, money, and all things bling. Nowadays you’re not a major player in rap music until you have the CDs, the DVDs, the film roles, the clothing range, and maybe even the video game. Think of a reasonably well-known American rapper and it’s almost certain he’ll have had a part in a film somewhere, usually as some gun-toting maverick or gang member, or maybe as a spaced-out stoner dude (obviously the world needs films about these kinds of characters, but when are we going to see DMX or Xhibit playing the role of an AIDS patient?).

Take Ice Cube as a prime example. One of the original members of Gangsta rap pioneers NWA, behind such albums as Straight Outta Compton, Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, and Kill at Will, who sang about gang violence and the LA riots, he can be seen these days starring in Are We There Yet, a family ‘comedy’, in which Ice drives two kids who annoy him over America in order to impress their divorced mum. Or in its sequel Are We Done Yet?, in which Ice tries to renovate a house with the same two kids who annoy him. OK, so he was quite good in Boyz N The Hood and Three Kings, but does he really need the money? And how does he imagine NWA fans from the eighties feel watching him prance around in substandard Hollywood rubbish? Again, it seems as if the foundations of success, the true fans, have been forgotten. Others, such as Black Eyed Peas, have gone from highly accomplished earlier albums to releasing some of the most god-awful sticky shit pop music heard this side of the millennium. Keepin’ it real? Keepin’ it false, fake and fraudulent more like. It’s a long way from hip hop’s origins as a form of creative expression in disadvantaged Afro-American communities in New York.

And it’s not just the MTV generation of musicians who do it. The golden oldies are often more than happy to jump on the gravy train as well. Bob Dylan released a live album exclusively through Starbucks, and appeared in adverts for Victoria’s Secret. Fans cried ‘sell out’, but it was nothing new to Bob. He was accused of selling out back in the sixties when he went electric for the first time. Other fans argued that it was exactly these kinds of actions that made Dylan great: his determination to do the unexpected and not give a damn what anyone thought.

How about a ticket to see the Rolling Stones in concert? That’ll be $200 please (Mick Jagger’s estimated wealth: $300 million). There’s also the issue of tickets to see established ‘legends’ perform being completely sold out in a matter of hours or even minutes, only to reappear for sale on ticketing agencies websites shortly after with massive mark-ups. It seems that there is little protection in place to ensure that the fans, sorry, customers, get a fair deal.

To be fair, the Stones seem to have retained the attitude and the music that made them so huge in the sixties. But what is the answer if your favorite act departs from the direction or the spirit that resonated within you in the first place? Well, unfortunately, they’re unlikely to reclaim their former identity and there’s really only one option: ditch them, in the same way that they’ve been only too happy to ditch you and leave them to the suckers who will happily and stupidly swallow anything that’s served up in front of them. Go down to a club or bar, or get on youtube, and find yourself something new and innovative to reawaken the desire and love that drew you towards good music in the first place. The world is full of incredibly talented acts that are yet to break through, and who are still maintaining their artistic integrity and purity. These guys are infinitely more worthy of your time and money than those who seek to bleed the fans dry of all they can. And just pray that they won’t also eventually be corrupted, contaminated, and infected by the corporate machine.

There is one tale that ought to be heeded by the sell-outs and their minions. According to musical folklore, the legendary Delta-Blues musician Robert Johnson was just a poor man and an average guitarist when he encountered the Devil at a crossroads in Memphis sometime in the 1920s. The Devil tuned Johnson’s guitar and returned it to him, whereby Johnson found he had total mastery of the instrument. The price was his soul. It’s a story that reverberates particularly strongly in today’s musical age, when so many others have fallen under the evil spell of big business and rampant commercialism. Johnson was dead at the age of 27, poisoned after dancing too closely to the wrong woman at a dance in 1938, his musical genius lost forever. Yet, despite his untimely death, Johnson’s legend has increased over the years. It is unlikely to be the case for the countless others who sold their souls to the Devil.

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