Name: The Black Keys on the Idea of Selling Out
Uploaded: 2022-05-10T17:45:07.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Black Keys on the Idea of Selling Out' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-10. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Black Keys on the Idea of Selling Out' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-05-10. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- I mean, making bad decisions based on what other people
think, you think what other people think you should do,
I think it's pretty common.
- Super common.
- I mean, when we started the band,
there was definitely decisions that we were making
based on what we thought other people thought we should do.
- Right.
- At one point we got offered, you know,
to put a song in a mayonnaise commercial in the UK.
We were, keep in mind, like we might have had
a couple hundred dollars in our bank account.
We were destitute and we didn't like have,
you know, there was no other like lifeline.
It was like, this is our livelihood.
And we were convinced fully by someone who was working
with us as a manager that if we took that money
and we had a song in our, in that commercial
that we would be branded as sellouts
and that we would never, no longer have a career.
- Jesus Christ.
- So we didn't.
And then we've, we eventually learned to like.
- It was like we were brainwashed.
- We were brainwashed.
- You know, cause we were making records by ourselves
in our basement, like on absolutely no budget.
- Well, this guy, this guy lived in like a multimillion dollar house
in like a big major city.
And he was the one telling us what, you know,
I was just like, aye aye aye.
But yeah, you know.
- Is that, is that a real dilemma?
Like for when an artist gets an offer to sell a song
for something like hot dogs, but it's a shitload of money.
- What is the, what is the thought process that happens?
- It seems like it was, it was a thing when we started.
It doesn't matter at all anymore.
It doesn't seem like it.
- So no one cares anymore when it happens?
- I don't think so.
- They shouldn't care when it happens.
It's not, it doesn't ruin the original song.
- Unless you have.
I think certain songs were ruined by commercials.
Like.
- Oh, they like made a parody of it?
- I heard it through the grapevine I think was.
- Oh, that's, that's a rough one.
- There's a problem there.
Although I still, I love the song still, but.
- Yeah.
- But I, you know, I think.
- That's true though.
You do now have to think about the grapes dancing around.
- Yeah.
- I don't think about the grapes, man.
- Good for you.
Thank you.
I'm glad you're there.
- Well, I don't really either.
I think as long as you're, as long as you're
uncomfortable with it.
But yeah, we were definitely convinced multiple times.
One thing we were told not to do was,
it was a Kate Moss jewelry commercial.
We were told not, it was like Kate Moss,
like dancing around scantily clad.
And we were told that once again,
like we'd be a sellout for doing that.
And we didn't,
or he had,
our manager had passed on it without asking us.
And I was like, what the fuck?
Dude.
- I've done a total 180 after you brought up the grapes.
No, I agree.
Yeah, it can fuck up a song, I guess.
I didn't think it could.
I didn't think like selling it to a commercial could.
And then I thought about the grapes.
I'm like, yeah.
- I think it's,
it's not so much the commercial as much as that,
that commercial was omnipresent.
It was overexposure.
You know, hearing a song,
hearing a song enough will make it a hit song.
I think like,
I'm convinced you could put any song,
pipe it through every Walgreens,
and it's going to become a hit.
- How about that really big cock song?
- Absolutely.
- You can see people dancing to the aisle.
- Yeah.
- Do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
- You could, definitely in France,
or somewhere where they don't speak English.
That, you know, like a big,
oh, don't hear that cock song.
- Well, what makes a hit today?
Because of the fact that radio is not the big driver anymore,
what is the biggest driver of record sales,
or of streams of like, how do people find out about stuff now most?
- I mean, there's this kind of punk garage rock musician
who goes by the name King Kong on the barbecue show.
He actually has the second most TikTok song right now,
which is amazing.
- Wow.
- So I don't know if that,
but I don't know.
I don't think any of those like analytics work anymore
to determine what's happening.
I don't think anybody really knows what's going on.
- How does someone, but how does like,
say if you're an artist, you're talented,
how did, how the fuck does it get out there?
- That's what we've, we've wondered.
I don't know, but you know,
what's interesting to me is how many musicians are selling,
like they're publishing.
It's like, if we're told,
we're always told like, oh yeah, record sales are,
no one's buying records,
but then you see like these people selling their publishing
for like 150 million, 500 million.
Bruce Springsteen just sold everything
for half a billion dollars.
Um, yeah.
- He wants a submarine.
- He wants that submarine.
- He wants that submarine money.
- There's a lot of inflation.
He's not getting shit now.
- He's gonna be up there dressed like Toneta,
just dancing on his fucking giant yacht.
Half a billion dollars is a crazy amount of money,
but I guess, you know,
what is Bruce Springsteen like in his sixties somewhere, right?
- I don't know.
My friend said he's the only working class hero
who wants to be known as the boss.
- That's a good point.
- Yeah, that's a good point.