Has Your Favorite Band Sold-Out?

With the recent glut of quality musical acts becoming corporate shills, I have often found myself wondering at what point they jeopardize their artistic integrity for a quick buck. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between self-promotion and simple greed. For some artists, inclusion in a major corporate advertising campaign exposes a much wider audience to their previously unknown music (see Feist and her Ipod Nano ads); while others are clearly cashing in on the already established value of an older song (see any advertisement with a classic rock song).

Most of the time, I don't have a problem with this phenomenon. In the age of file-sharing, the music industry will need new sources of revenue, and advertising presents a significant opportunity. Local musician, Kevin Barnes from Of Montreal, famously sold the rights to one of his songs to Outback Steakhouse; they then rewrote the song into one of the more annoying jingles that I can remember. In an interview with Pitchfork, Barnes responded to critics of his move:

"Most people realize that indie bands don't make any money, so when something like that happens, it's not like all of a sudden the band is a sellout...that's the thing that seemed kind of funny...it doesn't matter what the band did all the way up to that point-- you sell one song to a commercial and all of a sudden you're a sellout."

Although I think Barnes is right, there must be some point where a good artist becomes a 'sell out'. Thanks to Bill Wyman from the Washington Post, we can now figure out exactly when this occurs. He has developed the Moby Quotient, named after the artist who once sold every song on his album 'Play' to marketing people of all stripes. In this exercise, a high Moby Quotient equals selling-out. From the article:

"If you are an artist who traffics in -- or has trafficked in -- your outsider status; if you were a punk or a rebel or a beast whose rude yawp emerged from the underground and you are now hawking your anthems of defiance as ear candy to further the sales of a crummy telecom company, a new line of SUVs or the marvelous things General Electric is doing, well then, sir or madam artiste, expect your Moby Quotient to be somewhat higher."

So based on this definition, what musical act is the biggest sell-out of all time? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.