Moments ago The Chainsmokers threw some red meat out on their twitter and the hungry carnivores came out of the shadows to feed on their juicy defense of “selling out.” If you are just joining the conversation, here is a brief synopsis of recent events that are leading up the rant.
On May 15th The Chainsmokers appeared on FOX’s American Idol, which you can watch here. The performance stirred up the ever present criticism that DJ’s are mere ‘button pushers.’ Certainly, it would appear as much considering the video shows the duo pressing play and then leaving the decks to run around and take selfies with the crowd. Most viewers don’t realize that the skill of DJing comes in mixing tracks and track selection, neither of which were required for the brief performance. 
A few days later, on May 18th, comedian Andy Samberg and SNL Digital Shorts punked the entire EDM industry with a video that showed a David Guetta / Avicii hybrid DJ playing to an overly entertained crowd while DJ Davincii does everything but mix music (you can check out the short here). How is this related to The Chainsmokers on American Idol? In the span of three days, mainstream television viewers witnessed two high profile instances of DJs looking like glorified iPods.
With these two events fresh on the internet’s mind, The Chainsmokers received the blunt end of the criticism with many people claiming that the American Idol appearance marked the DJ’s selling out. They defended these claims by pointing out that in an often financially unrewarding industry, getting paid provides them with the ability to make more music:
It’s so crazy watching other ppl attack artists claiming they sold out. Do you even know what that means to sell out
@TheChainsmokers NAH MAN NAH ITS ALL ABOUT STAYING UNDERGROUND (and therefore collecting welfare or working a miserable job)
— Jungle BASED Niglio (@VictorNiglio) May 20, 2014
Does anyone realize how hard it is to make a dollar in music let alone a living off of it
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
@sophia333gata77 There’s a lot of people making money off the artists, but the artists get a big chunk, don’t wory ; )
— Laidback Luke (@LaidbackLuke) May 20, 2014
Ppl should chill and not tear down artists who on some level have found that type of financial success.
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
There is most certainly a fine line but ppl need to relax. Quality music is quality music if money changes you then move on to someone else
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
But don’t criticize someone for wanted a better life and maybe getting it. Or doing what they feel is best for themselves and career or fam
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
And being a smart businessman in a capitalistic society that thrives on social Darwinism
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
Is that guy not entitled to do what’s best for him. ESP if he sold you a car that drives well and got you where it needs to go
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
Not saying there aren’t exceptions to the rule but the dance music peanut gallery needs to slow their role
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
And be proud of the artists that are achieving more for their genre and industry.
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
It’s so easy to look and the negative that no one eve bothers to think of the positive anymore… It’s easier just to throw stones
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
And this rant isn’t about us. We are comfortable and know what we are about lots of good music, fireball and yoga pants BUT there is
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
Always this black swan vibe that descends upon dance music producers that finds success.
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
Take a page from bob and don’t worry be happy and sit back and enjoy the show
— The Chainsmokers (@TheChainsmokers) May 20, 2014
The thread of tweets was then met with responses from some familiar faces:
can we take all the hate for selfie/the chainsmokers and more appropriately direct it towards flo-rida/photobomb, thanks
— Jungle BASED Niglio (@VictorNiglio) May 20, 2014
“sell-out” as the kids say, then. do it. Terrible news doe, money doesn’t buy talent, even if it’s on discount at the moment.
— deadmau5 (@deadmau5) May 20, 2014
uuuuurgh i’m trying so hard not to respond to these @thechainsmokers tweets but i honestly just fucking have to
— 【＝◈︿◈＝】ｐｏｒｔｅｒ (@porterrobinson) May 20, 2014
you cannot make every sell-out-y, devoid-of-integrity decision just for the money and then claim you’re being mistreated.
— 【＝◈︿◈＝】ｐｏｒｔｅｒ (@porterrobinson) May 20, 2014
if you only care about “making it”, if you take every shitty commerical opportunity, this is what you end up doing: https://t.co/o0rzb5OutD
— 【＝◈︿◈＝】ｐｏｒｔｅｒ (@porterrobinson) May 20, 2014
Who do you think has the better argument? Is there any shame in getting paid or as a counter culture should EDM avoid mainstream success?
Everyone is misunderstanding The Chainsmoker’s…they are 2 guys trying to make a living off producing/djing. I followed them before selfie and all their indie house remixes are amazing and nowhere near mainstream music. EVERY artist has that song that really boosts their fan base. Chainsmokers had about 30k followers on soundcloud and now they have 163k. How much did deadmau5 blow up when he released ghosts’n’stuff? is he a sell out for making a popular song? no. How about Porter Robinson releasing Language? Zedd with clarity and his recent singles? They all have amazing talents it’s just that sometimes you need an extra fan boost or cashflow to progress it. Doesn’t mean they are bad producers…
It’s truly sad to see how the Chainsmokers just showed all those viewers that DJ’s only press the play button. If you’re a DJ and you get invited to play a song on live TV, either don’t do it or find some launchpads and go ham; just don’t give all DJ’s a bad rep by pressing a button then taking selfies. It’s terrible to watch.
My two cents: if you are going to play a pre-recorded set or song, just PLAY the set/song, don’t whip out the cdjs and pretend as though you are actually mixing. DJs constantly try to fool their audience in to thinking they are doing more than they really are. This makes their fans who are somewhat knowledgable of DJing feel betrayed. You will hear people say “he phoned that one in” or something like that. In short just be honest, if you aren’t actually mixing, just plug the laptop/ipod in and press play. This is not to say there aren’t tons of DJs who spend years perfecting the art and mix free, unique and emotionally powerful sets.
They said you need to make money to continue to make the music. FALSE…. I make music. I know tons of producers who make the music….we are all unknown, superb talented, and broke. You don’t need to keep buying new equipment…also, to another point…. Selling out isn’t always about money. How about representing some respect by actually performing the song instead of hitting play and running around gimmicks… Adam Sandburg hit the nail on the head.
I’ve been a part of rave seen since the early 90’s.we help r dj’s be as successful as possible.but that was in the vinyl days.no matter how popular it was always kept under ground.I think im gana do a show on change from 90’s ravers to today.it seems ppl can say plur but don’t follow it.I would hate to c it all go main stream.Facebook/talk shit tv show.
They deserve every penny they get. Selfie might have been the thing that got them to their media “peak” but lets not forget how good their other productions and remixes are. i hate “selfie” its like a white girls theme song but i will always support the duo for their other creative tracks.
At least they didn’t act asif they were mixing and shit like that. They just pressed play and had fun. Some DJ’s with hit songs come on TV shows and then act asif they’re very busy behind the turntables yet meanwhile you only hear their hit song playing. No effects whatsoever. I like that they didn’t go down that road.
The Chainsmokers are a fine example of what happens when a genre hits the mainstream. The bar gets lower and lower until EDM gets left behind. I wonder if the old fans of these sellouts will still accept them then.
The artist is not in control whether the song is “big” or not. It’s nothing more than Trial an Error. Telling artist that they are sell outs isn’t fair. If a deadmau5 song became #1 right now, he’d do the exact same thing, no matter what he says.
Some of the comments on here are so stupid…”they have no other good songs”? Are you serious? They’ve made so many quality progressive remixes as well as some decent original productions, just a quick look at their Soundcloud would show you that.
Selfie was made as a mickey-take (supposedly made in a few hours) that just happened to go big. I don’t even think it was produced with the intention of trying to make it blow up, just something that happened stemming from a bit of a laugh like the harlem shake. You can’t say someone sold out because a track they made for fun ended up being huge, that’s just ridiculous.
With regards to the American Idol, so what? You’d be stupid for not trying to capitalise on something as big as selfie, it’s pretty much free money that they can use to fund their future flow of creativity.
If you guys want to show people that djing isn’t just pushing buttons, why don’t you do something that isn’t just pushing buttons (launchpads & live remixes)? There’s a reason the general consensus is that djs are just button pushers, and that’s because of the sad fact that today most of them are (coming from a button pusher).
And deadmau5 can’t talk shit anyway, what was that massive ordeal about a few months back about him playing a Bon Jovi request at one of his shows for some money…
tl;dr – These guys are a talented couple of producers that just wanted to capitalise on the success of an originally tongue-in-cheek track, it’s not like they’ve gone all Guetta and Tiesto. Would you turn down your bonus at the end of the year? I wouldn’t. Neither did The Chainsmokers.
Dude they were invited so they could play only what song (selfie) that’s they didn’t get invited to do an hour set, calm down people. EDM going mainstream is not bad at all it just give more recognition to DJs. None of the DJs that headline the scene are sell outs, they just try to make profit off what they djing and obviously they get to what they are now for a reason, not just hitting “play” every set .At the end they are just two guys try to make a living of what they love doing, people judge too quick. PLUR on people, PLUR on….
When somebody has a dj play a single song there’s only so much they can do because there’s no way for them to recreate the song live. However, they looked like total idiots and fed into the idea that dj’s don’t do anything but press play. It’s almost completely about producing these days but even so they made Andy Sandberg look like he knew what he was doing.
Mixing is my favorite thing to do yet every dj/producer will explain that doesn’t do shit for you anymore. “You have to make your own tracks.” The true art of Electronic music (not EDM) is gone and cast aside.
American Idol? Are you serious? You can’t defend yourself against selling out if you appear on a TV show for selling out.
They’re just entertainers doing their job, entertaining the crowd. They’re also smart business men and deserve every cent they’ve earned with Selfie, it was basically planned to become Harlem Shake 2.0. You’re good as long as you do make real music besides the crap that brings you money imo, and they do make quality music
That track is garbage and aren’t they contradicting themselves by making a song that is a spoof on pop culture when they are the epitome of it??? They are the spoof
So pretty much what they are saying is that Avicci, Tiesto, and David Guetta are also sell outs? They all had their mainstream moments
If you get invited to play one song on TV. Take a bunch of remixes of it and make a mashup LIVE and toss in some scratching so you don’t look like a play button smasher for the rest of us.
None of this really matters because they have one song that’s popular and no actually good songs. So they’ll be gone soon
The worst thing about this shit is that when ‘Selfie’ was released, it was supposed to ridicule society obssesion with selfies. But then, Chainsmokers realized people didn’t get the point so THEY start using selfies as a publicity stunt. These guys just do what’s popular.
theres more tweets about it. good covering tho!!!