Anyone who knows me even relatively well can tell you, I am an alternative music junkie.

I can barely tolerate the music that is played on most music stations, and I hold personal vendettas against Lady GaGa and Katy Perry for reasons I cannot rationally explain.

Up until a few years ago, my favorite band was The Spill Canvas, a band that I drove approximately six hours north to watch in Duluth, Minn. My roommate knows all of this about me, and so when he heard that The Spill Canvas was coming to The Hub on April 21, he asked me if I had gotten my tickets yet.

I caught him off guard by replying that I wasn’t planning on going because I knew they would be playing the music from their two most recent EPs. For those of you that don’t follow music very closely, EP stands for extended play and consists of a compilation of “more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full-length LP album” (Official Chart Company, UK).

Regardless of my previous attachment to the band, I had minimal interest in paying $15 to listen to a band that outwardly looked the same but almost sounded like a different band altogether. My roommate agreed, but our subsequent conversation made me wonder: what exactly constitutes selling out?

According to the www.UrbanDictionary.com, selling out involves compromising one’s artistic vision or values for the sake of profit or fame. Whenever the topic of selling out arises in conversation, there is one band that is immediately mentioned nearly every time: Fall Out Boy.

Fall Out Boy started as a punk band in Wilmette, Ill., and eventually became a mainstay on the top of the American Billboard Charts. The controversy, stemming from outraged fans, centered around the combination of two key elements: the band’s signing with a major label (Island Records) and a drastic change in the band’s overall sound.

The change in sound constituted a shift in musical emphasis from a “punk feel” of powerful electric guitar riffs to high-ranging vocals and lighter quality usually associated with pop music. Devoted fans felt alienated because it seemed as though the band had changed its sound in order to appeal to a wider audience, thereby attracting a big-name record company and frequent radio play, which in turn meant more money.

Fall Out Boy is not the first, nor will it be the last, band accused of selling out. In fact, selling out has become the new buzzword for any change in sound for a band. Whenever fans lose interest in a band, it is almost always associated with a change in it’s sound, which is attributed to the band’s inevitable decision to “sell out.” The problem with this liberal usage of the phrase is that it can unfairly demean bands that decide to go in a different musical direction, regardless of their motivation to do so. Just as humans constantly undergo changes, bands too are inevitably going to evolve. This is especially true of bands that have remained in existence for a number of years. Bands are under constant scrutiny by their fans and must walk a fine line by remaining loyal to the sound that gained them a following without falling into the trap of relying upon the same musical formula for lack of new ideas (e.g. Taylor Swift). A band’s decision to musically experiment is not necessarily an indicator of selling out.

On the other hand, there are some bands that despicably seem to write songs for the sole purpose of making money and radio play. Nickelback has mastered the art of writing songs that seem specifically crafted to gain the most radio play. In the last five years, Nickelback has had a traditional rock song and a pop song reach the Billboard Charts. These songs are not classified by the band as such, but if you look carefully, it becomes obvious that each of the last three Nickelback albums have contained songs that catered specifically to either the rock or pop demographic. For example, the band’s most recent album, Dark Horse, had the raunchy and rocking “Something In Your Mouth,” along with the cliche-ridden “If Today Was Your Last Day.” This theme of polar opposites in regards to song content has remained consistent for several years. If you are looking for one of the few bands that epitomizes selling out, Nickelback has set an impressive standard of comparison.