“Yo Flav, you think we’re gonna sell out?”
“I know if we do, we’ll get the hell out!”

— Public Enemy, “Caught, Can We Get A Witness?”

Since the first time it aired, I wondered like hell what Chuck D’s reaction was to “Flavor of Love.” Mine included the words “what,” “the” and “fuck.” In that order, with a question mark thrown in. And an exclamation mark. Because there’s no doubt that the moment the first show aired, Flavor Flav became a sellout.

As an almost lifelong fan of Public Enemy, that came as a total shock. For Chuck D, the voice and conscience of PE, who knows what that was like, but I would have loved to have seen it.

We’ve talked a bit in Vague Panther’s “Commercial Madness” series about what constitutes a sellout, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub got that question racing around my head again this week with an excellent article about bands selling out. Hartlaub uses AC/DC’s shows this week in Oakland as a hook to argue that AC/DC has always stayed true to what they do, and have never – in his eyes – sold out. He also puts Tom Waits, Steve Earle and NOFX on his “nice list,” while pinning Flav, Ozzy Osbourne and Mötley Crüe as impure.

But, what really constitute a sellout these days? Commercials? Does it depend on what commercial? A radio hit? Inclusion in a movie?

Let’s start the discussion by acknowledging that the rules have changed. Even in the last two to four years, music has become a commodity for advertisers and more musicians have made their songs available because, well, they want to get paid. Check out some of the artists from “Commercial Madness”: Devotchka, Cat Power, Saul Williams, RJD2, Ryan Adams, Jose Gonzalez. Anyone going to accuse them of selling out? Check out the brands their music has been used to shill for: AT&T, Cingular, Sony, Microsoft, Nike, Ford. Not exactly the indie-friendly, conscience-free crowd you’d expect, right?

But, it doesn’t matter one bit. Nobody thinks of these bands as sellouts because they aren’t. I hate Nike and have never purchased a Nike product in my life due to their abhorrent child labor practices, but I don’t begrudge Saul Williams – a man known for his strong moral stances – for making a buck off Phil Night and the gang. Not one bit. Everyone has to eat, even musicians, and if selling their music for a harmless piece of cultural errata – even a Taco Bell ad or an Outback Steakhouse spot – so be it.

Selling out is irrelevant nowadays, as long as the artist doesn’t cross his core values and devolve into some shameless huckster or exploitative stereotype – like Flavor Flav – fans shouldn’t care one bit. (Unless you’re The Fixx and you were complicit in that rage-inducing “Saved By Zero” ad. Fuck you, The Fixx you murderous, sellout scumbags, I hope you know that money is eternally cursed.)

If your favorite band makes exciting music that you love, but also sounds good layered over a Lincoln commercial, awesome. NOFX is one of my favorite bands, and has been for a long time, and they are puritans – they don’t allow their music on radio, MTV or commercials. I also love Ween and M.I.A. and they both did Honda commercials.

While I agree with Hartlaub’s thesis that bands can sell out, and some play it a lot cleaner than others, the general notion that any deviation from purity, how the band was at the beginning, or that changing to sell records is sacrilege is just totally bogus. Does the band make good music? Then listen to it. That should pretty much be a fan’s only concern.