Be yourself… in perpetuity

By David
January 18th, 2008

In the early 80’s, Neil Young was swayed to move to the newly formed Geffen Records for a reported $1 million an album and something which artists often value more… “creative freedom”. A couple records later, Geffen sued Neil Young for not making “Neil Young” albums. Sure, there was an electronic album and a rockabilly album in the mix, but that’s where the muse took him.

But it begs the question… do you sue Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey if they suddenly want to make dramatic films? Initiate legal action against John Grisham if he writes an erotic novel about dyslexic left-handed midgets? Take Shaq to court if he keeps missing free throws?

I’m sure there are protective clauses in contracts to deal with every situation such as these (dwarf clauses?), but it makes you wonder… how obligated are artists to remain consistently “themselves”?

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Matt said:

Hmmm….sounds like a conundrum. Artists need to create – which involves change, uncertainty and danger that the masses won’t lap it up. The entertainment industry needs to make money – so if an artist is making money off one album…one sound, they think “hey, let’s do that again”. Sad thing is sometimes the masses do lap it up..again and again and again. But eventually, the crowd gets wise. Meanwhile, the entertainment industry made money, but the artist, well, he turned into something else and he’ll struggle for a long time to figure out WTF happened to that thing inside him that used to burn, but no longer does. That thing that used to get him out of bed and make him feel alive. As for Neil, I think it’s still burning….long may you run Neil!