It's about being loyal and showing artistic integrity and rejecting the values of mainstream society and whatnot. The punk community defines success in a weird, amorphous way. That's 'the dream' but that's also where it gets complicated. Because, from Green Day to Against Me!, major labels have given the eleven bands discussed in Sellout the same exact things: money and the logistical support to achieve a greater popularity. I mean, that's what interested me enough about the book to writer a long review here. It's a book about what it means to be successful and how our basic idea of it isn't meant for everyone. Sellout is a book about the modern history of punk rock, but it's also not. By doing that, Dan Ozzi highlights a more difficult and contemporary question: what is success? There are success stories like Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance, but also tales of failure and heartbreak like Jawbreaker and The Distillers.

Starting with Green Day in 1994, Ozzi tries to understand what happens to such an ethically and culturally rigid music when it gets embraced and streamlined by the very system it despises. In Sellout, Dan Ozzi explores what happened to punk rock in the midst of Nirvana's breakout success. But what happens when modern society thinks you're cool and potentially profitable? That's what Dan Ozzi tries to figure out in his book Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo and Hardcore. It also gave them a sense of purpose in the rejection of modern society and its values. Punk rock most definitely didn't save my life. That means I know a lot about the history and the music without feeling emotionally indebted to the genre.

Sellout book dan ozzi