They say that you start to develop your musical taste separate from your parents tastes around the 3rd grade. I remember exactly when my first musical taste was created. I was in 3rd grade and I saw Michale Jackson on Friday Night Videos and I was hooked. When my family was in Denver for some reason, I asked my mom if we could go to the music store to buy the Michael Jackson Thriller cassette.

Cassettes were a new technology then, over the old fangled 8-Tracks and records. I remember playing the song Beat It, over and over again, but on cassettes it was a little harder than now. First, I had to annoy my parents by playing the song out loud at the campsite, because headphones weren’t a thing then. Then, in order to play it over and over, I would have to hit play on the cassette player, listen to the song, and then rewind to bring it back to the beginning of the cassette. Luckily it was the first song on the album, because if your song was in the middle, you were rewinding and gambling on when the song started. Almost like a gambler throwing dice and hoping for a six. Point is, listening music was a bigger chore than it is now.

Now you can type a few words in Spotify or YouTube and listen to almost anything. Listening to a song over and over again is as simple as finding the repeat button. In the 80’s, the era we call the Pre-Shazamstoric era, I would hear a song but didn’t know who sang it or the title of the song. Back then, my Shazam was listening to the radio, and hoping and praying that the DJ would play and identify the artist and title after. If not, the only other option was recording it and asking a friend if they knew and afterwards so the artist and name of the song. Sometimes they wouldn’t, so I would have to record the song and hope a friend of mine knew the song.

I don’t know if this was why concert started to become popular in the 80’s, but even though most concerts sold out, I never really went to them growing up. There were probably a dozen reasons why I never went to them, but some of the reasons might be that I wasn’t popular, because I didn’t have any money, because I hated being on phones, because I’m claustrophobic, because I was always anxious, because we never really got good artists in our town, because I usually only liked one or two songs an artist did, and also because reasons.

All I know is that selling a concert out was a good thing for the artists. Selling out was a bad thing if you wanted to go to a concert.

The thing that I don’t understand is why “selling out” is such a bad thing. People talk about artists and bands that “sell out” their core values, integrity and authenticity for money being a bad thing. When searching for examples of people that sold out on the internet it suggested Nicolas Cage. They said he was a good actor, but took too many movie roles, such as low-budget and direct-to-video roles. Okaaaay? Shoulder shrug emoji.

Another example is Samuel L. Jackson who is a respected actor known for gritty roles like Pulp Fiction and Die Hard with a Vengeance, but who is now doing commercials for Capital One. Wow, how dare he accept doing commercials to make some extra money and capitalize on his fame. That’s deplorable.

So some people like to get money when they can, and some people change the way they do music or change the type of roles they get in their acting careers. I think I will insult them by calling them something that is good for a concert. Got it.

All I know is if someone came to me and offered me a million dollars to buy this blog, my only question would be where do I sign? If Samuel L. Jackson wants to profit on his fame by doing a bunch of stupid Capitol One commercials, he can do it. I don’t think about him any differently about his performance in the Avengers because he does some commercials. And I don’t hate J-Lo any less for pretending that she is humble because she is “Jenny From the Block”. I hate her for being a terrible person and a multi-faceted non talented person that is still somehow famous, and not just because of her corporate endorsements.

If I was a bitter influencer and someone offered me a “sweet” brand deal, like 20 grand for an Ice Cream deal, I would take it, regardless of the fact that I’m bitter endorsing sweet. You can call me a sell out all you want, I’m getting so I can finally afford to my son’s football season.

It’s funny to me that most of the people that call other’s sell-outs would sell out too. It’s the lamest insult if you ask me. If an artist wants to change their style of music, just to make a couple more million, good for them. You might say they’ve changed and they aren’t the authentic person they were when they started out. It’s called change people. No one is the same when they first started out. If I still looked like a baby, and was still drinking formula but was 52 years old, you would think I was a little creepy.

Besides, I sell out every day. I only go to work for the paycheck. I don’t do it to be “fulfilled” or to get a “sense of accomplishment”, I do it for that cold, hard, direct deposit. I do it so I can walk around with 401K’s in my pocket. I only do it so I can show off my full tank of gas on Snapchat. I only work so I can flex my “paid in full” energy bills on Instagram. I only do it so I can do a Tik Tok showing off my lavish shopping trips to Target, where I get the exclusive Good & Gather gallon of milk. Call me a sell out all you want, but just know that it just rolls off my back like Good & Gather off a duck’s back.

Besides when I’m selling out, that means that not everyone got tickets to the fun show.

While you are contemplating ways you can sell out, go ahead and view some of the Bitterest Friday Giftures you’ve ever seen…

They say you develop your musical taste…

The first time I made a musical decision…

I immediately went out and got the Thriller cassette….

Listening to cassettes was a bit of a process…

The difficulty of being able to play music back then…

Although many people started to call artists sell outs…

Just so they could be more…

They apologize for wanting…

Well, go ahead and insult me by calling me a sell out…

I’m not here…

And I’m not here…

I’m here to rain down my…

I only do this job…

I like to flex my paid in full electric bill…

Call me a sell out…

ARRRGGGGHHHHH

Bitter Sell Out Ben