Book Review: Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007) by Dan Ozzi

 

Sellout: The Major-Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994–2007) by Dan Ozzi

416 pages, Hardcover 

October 26, 2021 by Mariner Books

Forgive me I am going to babble about myself and my journey to this book...

Science Fiction and horror are my longest-running passions. As a child, John Carpenter and Issac Asimov were my heroes not rock stars outside of maybe Weird Al. I wanted to be doing what I do now (11 books in print so far) as far back as dictating stories to my mother before I could really type or write myself. They were terrible but I tried. The one thing that disrupted my path was punk and hardcore. The first time I heard punk was at summer camp, the song was Nazi Punks Fuck off by the Dead Kennedys, but when I heard the misfits it was over.

In my small college town With Authority, seeing my first shows, in a basement or a warehouse it was over. Being that close to the raw power or punk rock, ruined all other music for me.  By 16 years old I was singing for my first hardcore band, and it took over my life until I discovered Vegan activism, It would be a few years before I learned to balance all that with the passions for genre.

As the author of Punk Rock Ghost Story, a novel about a haunted punk tour van, that came with a fake punk record ( from1982) we recorded and documentary  (Watch it here) I was always interested in the history of this stuff. As we get further and further from the origins of punk there is an argument for just listening to it but I think the history is important. 

As a person in the scene, who realized he was not talented or gifted at the music thing I moved on, but I had friends who were in bands that signed to majors. It is one of the reasons I never felt that star struck at meeting my favorite authors. This is alot of preamble to say I understood what was going on in this book. I accidentally read it just after Jim Ruland's Corporate rock sucks. These two books make great companions.

I admit I have not heard of Dan Ozzi before but one aspect of the book is almost everytime I thought "this would be a good time to compare to Fugazi, or "he should mention AFI" he mostly went right there. That is a way to say he knew his shit.

History is a tricky thing, the first thing a historian needs to decide is this a story that needs telling. In the case of Sellout, it is fascinating for sure. Music has changed, this weird time is so surreal. Before Nirvana, the idea that punk bands would be getting major label deals and becoming huge rockstars was a joke. I Once saw Green Day in a warehouse in Bloomington Indiana when the cover charge was $3 and the door brought in $35. The show was so empty, the promoter was a big Green Day fan begged us to stay.

So this book telling the process of how they became one of the biggest bands in the world was fascinating. How Jawbreaker went from darlings to hated, the history of San Diego punk rocker Blink 182, was interesting to me.

So why do I think Sellout is important?  The process of a punk band going from basements to major labels is an interesting journey. One thing that also happened is the band's received blowback, the reality behind these situations. when bands like Green Day got death threats, and Against Me! were getting smoked bombed just for playing shows, there is a need for a historian to talk to both sides and get to a narrative that resembles what happened.

When all these bands are going on 25th-anniversary tours for albums seems like the time. None of these bands were favorites of mine but I did enjoy this book. Even if it means admitting that Punk rock is old even to big thick hardcover history books.  It is easy with punk rock to think you needed to be there. The thing is this history is important to younger generation. The haters need to understand that it wasn't all easy street for the bands, many of who couldn't take it. The band need to understand how the fans felt. Dan Ozzi did a pretty solid job. Big Thumbs up.