Bob Dylan Sell Out Analysis

The writer of the Open Letter, Irwin Silber, has clearly noticed the change in Bob Dylan 's performance and music over the years he 's listened to his content; however, the writer seems more disappointed that Bob Dylan doesn 't solely perform his earlier music and doesn 't bring up much of an argument or valid point that Dylan is a sellout. I personally don 't believe Bob Dylan was selling out, he was just growing as an artist and most likely wanted to appeal to a broader audience rather than the narrow scope of folk music fans. Keep in mind that Bob Dylan grew up not only listening to Woody Guthrie, but he also listened to artists like Elvis and Little Richard, and was definitely inspired by their work as well, and his later performances seemed to be more influenced by those artists rather than just Guthrie. What it means to "sell out" is where someone sacrifices their personal values and their true talent in order to become more popular and acquire more money. While Dylan 's transformation did increase his fame, it was a subtle transformation nevertheless, and he did not completely change as an artist in order to just become famous; he was simply growing.

Another rock band I consider to have sold

I do not believe that pop musicians have an obligation or responsibility to their audience, because only producing material for an audience that only enjoys that type of music is rather unfair to others, especially if that music artist wants to adapt. This is why I appreciate bands like the Gorillaz who produce songs of all genres (over 20!) in order to appeal to everyone. The artist is allowed to produce whatever they desire, and if the fans don 't like the newer content they 're free to listen to the content they did enjoy, because it 'll still be there and always will be there. If an artist didn 't grow like Bob Dylan did and only stuck to one type of music forever they 'd fade into obscurity at an incredibly fast rate because the fans would grow tired of