It's really funny. Almost every article that I have read about Bob Dylan selling the rights to his entire music catalog avoids the term 'sell out'. One article insists that Dylan did not, in fact, sell out. But seriously, what do you call it? Singer-songwriter arises in the 1960s, singing songs against the war, vilifying corporations, doing his best to tear down "the system". Fast forward sixty years, and now here he is, selling his music to one of the biggest corporations on the face of the earth! And what will become of the music? It will be edited, sliced and diced into commercial jingles, samples in somebody else's' music, whatever makes money.
After all, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Money? Think about it.
Now, in my reading, I note that when Dylan went to the White House to accept his Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010, he refused to have his picture taken with President Obama. No reason was given, but it seems to me Dylan still had some principles at that time. One thing that impresses me about Dylan is that he doesn't seem to give a darn about what people think of him or what he does. I find that to be a useful frame of mind, especially in these "social media" dominated times, when people seem to enjoy yelling "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" at each other. over every little bit of behavior. I keep hoping we move beyond that kind of elementary school thinking.
