Used to I couldn't understand why bands sold out. Why was Eddie Van Halen playing some soft, flaccid song like "When It's Love" when his audience wanted to hear another one like "Hang `em High"? Why was Aerosmith singing Diane Warren ballads when what we wanted was another "Rats in the Cellar"? Many years later I came to understand their perspective perfectly.

First, what defined "selling out"? Selling out, in my mind, meant when a band watered down their sound and added strings and keyboards to appeal to short-haired jocks and their girlfriends who just wanted to dance. It meant altering your style to appeal to people who weren't really music fans, much less your hardcore fans. It was akin to when one of your friends blew you off to go hang out with the "cool people." Bands who did it were usually rewarded with ever-diminishing sales after their new friends ditched them and the old gang didn't welcome them back.

Then in the Internet age I discovered the Web site of the Recording Industry Association of America and its list of the top-selling albums of all time. Suddenly I understood why bands sold out!

Let's look at the quintessential sell outs of all time: Def Leppard and Metallica.

Anyone who's ever heard Def Leppard's second album High 'n' Dry will tell you it was the best thing they ever did. If they had stuck with that sound, how big would they be now? Maybe as big as their former British metal contemporaries, Iron Maiden? The worst thing Leppard ever did, on the other hand, was the poppy Hysteria. Surely the band could hear that those songs stunk, right?

Now let's look at the RIAA chart. Since its debut in 1982, High 'n' Dry has sold two million albums. Not bad. But Hysteria has sold 12 million! So if I'm in Def Leppard and you tell me High 'n' Dry was my greatest album, I'm going to wonder what you're talking about, when Hysteria has outsold it six times over, despite High 'n' Dry even having a five-year head start. If it was so great, why hasn't anyone bought it?

And should Def Leppard regret that they didn't stay in the British metal underground like Iron Maiden? Well if you look at the top-selling artists in the United States of all time, Def Leppard is number 45, ahead of even Bon Jovi and Willie Nelson. Iron Maiden...isn't even on the list! So no, I doubt Def Leppard regrets recording a few songs the girls liked. It probably also got their knobs slobbed a few times.

Metallica fans will tell you that one of their earlier records, like Ride the Lightning, was their best material and The Black Album was a big sell out. The Black Album follow-up, Load, was nothing short of a disgrace. Now Lars Ulrich whips out the RIAA chart. Ride the Lightning has sold five million albums since 1982. The Black Album has sold 14 million records since 1990. So Lars says, "You mean instead of recording one record and doing one tour and selling 14 million copies, I should do three albums and three tours, with the attendant costs thereof, to sell the same number of records?" And again, Ride the Lightning has sold nine million fewer albums despite a eight year head start! And how many fans who kick The Black Album now got into Metallica BECAUSE of The Black Album? Oh, and Load has also sold five million copies, so in real numbers the despised Load is just as good as the revered Ride the Lightning!

Another fact that I'm sure gets whispered in a band's ears as they come within reach of Elvis-like sales is that they may as well make as much money as they can while they can. Music is fashion. You may be the talk of the high school halls today but you may be in the bin with Vanilla Ice and Twisted Sister tomorrow. Pad that retirement account now!

The fact is these guys are trying to make a living, and ceased being pure artistes the moment the played outside of their basements. I was watching Van Halen's Live Without a Net DVD awhile back and considered that Eddie Van Halen was 32 when that was made. At 19, when he wrote the classic Van Halen songs, he was sitting on the edge of his bed at his parent's house, playing bars for $50 a night and hoping it would all work out. There was nothing on the line, so he could just have fun. At 32 he had a TV star wife, a house with a recording studio in the back yard, car payments, and numerous employees who depended on his success to eat. That kind of pressure is bound to affect your writing. So you go make friends with Steve Lukather and learn how to write Toto-ish adult contemporary fluff so you can maintain the machine you've created. Then your fans can call you a sell out while they punch clocks and do boring jobs all week while you at least get to play guitar for a living.

And that's my theory of why bands sell out.