Ariel Rechtshaid Quotes

In the music industry, we value large success. I realized that while I would like that, that it's not what my writing is about. And if I start making it about that, it becomes impure.

I'm not saying I wasn't flawed or amateurish. But you can never say I did anything to appease the music business.

I'm just not interested in selling out to get on the charts and make people happy.

I don't want to sell my soul to Hollywood - to just make run-of-the-mill stuff.

The music industry can make you feel like a prostitute.

To say that an artist sells out means that an artist is making a conscious choice to compromise his music, to to weaken his music for the sake of commercial gain.

Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals.

If you want to capitulate to what commercial needs are, you can always be commercially valuable, but I'm not interested in being that.

I love Michael Bay movies. I don't think I'd be selling out if I did one. I happen to like his movies. I think selling out is doing something you don't believe in, and you're doing it for a selfish purpose.

I suppose we'll make money off our album and our singles and stuff, but, like, they were made as we wanted them, exactly with what we had to say, and done exactly how we wanted them, right? And, like, we didn't put them out to make money. We put them out because we wanted to do them, do you know what I mean?

Obviously, I would like to play to bigger audiences and have a bit more success, but not if I have to commercialize.

I don't see Hollywood as the big enemy, because this is where the money is, and not all of the companies are doing studio movies. I'm not tempted to sell out. If I'm going to become well known, I want it to be for something I'm proud of.

The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace.

Of course, you're not making records in a vacuum. I'm not making them for myself. It would be nice if I could get more people to hear them. But if I have to sell my soul to the devil to do it, I won't.

I've never believed in cheapening music by going according to what some people think is public taste.

When no one's buying your records, it's easy to justify selling a song. But once you start selling records, you can't really justify having two songs in Cadillac commercials. It looks greedy. And it is greedy. This whole music thing should be about music.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

Any band that is out there chasing it is doing more destruction to music then someone who is out there playing what they truly feel.

I didn't want to be told what to do. I don't want to water down my music to fit into their formats. I know what rock and roll is to me, but everything's turning into one big commercial.

The artists in country music who stopped having hits are the ones who were led into something that wasn't them.

I won't make a movie for money ever again.

Capitalists work hard to produce what consumers want. Artists who work too hard to produce what consumers want are often accused of selling out. Thus, even the languages of capitalism and art conflict: a firm that has 'sold out' has succeeded, but an artist that has 'sold out' has failed.

At the same time, I definitely want to expand my fan base but not at the expense of prostituting my music or heart.

If you were to hold me to a standard of, 'What are you doing, singing about a scratch-off ticket at your level of success?' then my music's gonna be ridiculous.

Dealing with those personalities and the people who run this music thing has been most challenging. It's hard to really communicate things to people who run a business yet forget the nature of the business. They only look at the bottom line and the financial return, you know, they forget what it is they're packaging. It's art.