(t5!) Heroes Of The Zeroes Singles: #13: Modest Mouse - Float On (2004)

Calling an artist a sellout has been a fashionable activity in music appreciation (or, I guess, unappreciation) in past years. Typically, there were three scenarios that would trigger such a scathing accusation. One, when artists accept outside money for their work, when they license their work for commercial purposes, they are sellouts. Second, when artists are accused of changing their sound or style in order to pander to a least common denominator, they are sellouts. Third, when you’re an indie/alternative/DIY artist and you accumulate sudden commercial success, when radio air is being populated by their song, when records start dropping and venues start to, literally, sell out, they are motherfucking sellouts.

Money: they’ve christened it as the root of all evil. But can it really change the quality of someone’s art? When a track is used to background a commercial, it’s still the same song; it’s just being heard by a greater number of ears. And this belief that the more people it reaches, the less connection it has with each individual listener; it’s all bullshit, isn’t it? When a young whippersnapper picks up a guitar for the very first time, what does he dream of? Balancing a nine-to-five job with a tour that hits dodgy university bars? A loyal following of overenthusiastic adolescents intoxicated about vinyl-only B-sides? The Hood Internet using your track as a mash-up with the latest ringtone rapper? A three-and-a-half star rating in some blog no one really reads?

I like to believe that when the members of Modest Mouse were kids, they were dreaming of what Coldplay and The Killers have: filled stadiums, awards that you accept on a stage shown on network television, groupies, songs on heavy rotation, and money. Why would that be a bad thing? I don’t imagine them sitting around reflecting on the times when they released their critically acclaimed earlier albums, “The Lonesome Crowded West and “Building Nothing Out Of Something”, thinking “hmmm…this ‘being anonymous to anyone but a bunch of pimple-faced kids who regard us as indie darlings’ thing…this is sorta terrific!” If you were Modest Mouse, you’d be fantasizing about greener pastures too.

Even after signing to the majors in 2000 and releasing the college station favorite, The Moon & Antartica, they remained fairly unknown to the common folk. So, in 2004, they seemingly sold their souls to the devil for a monster hit, and the devil gave them the exhilarating monster, “Float On”. Out of nowhere, they gathered the mess of howling vocals and scrabbling guitars and unkempt rhythms and focused it into something approaching pop music. They’ve created a sound that required to be heard by millions, whether it be on mainstream rock stations, “One Tree Hill” episodes, video game stages, or ESPN montages. They mustered a disco stomping single that, due to its unmitigated ability to enliven souls, demands to be celebrated by millions. Even the main message, “And we’ll all float on ok”, sung amidst arpeggiating guitar lines and cascading strings, nails you in the head with positive affirmation. Of course, the underground people, the listeners who are much better at listening than you are, have cried “sellouts!” to Modest Mouse. But they refuse to see that the world is a lot happier because “Float On” came into fruition.

This sellout name-calling, it’s all bullshit. Fortunately, whether it is because the Internet has made it easier for everyone to be heard, calling artists sell-outs died down as we progress towards the end of the decade. But a culture in which the term “selling out” even existed indicates that for whatever reason, fans and critics encourage artists not to reach for the stars, live an goalless music career. I confess that I’ve never heard of Modest Mouse before “Float On”. I have friends imposing that I listen to their older stuff because they’re so much better. Honestly, as otherworldly as their past discography is, to my ears they don’t compare to this blissful platinum hit. Selling out in the sense of getting airplay, selling records, and getting your music out there, though is an integral part of pop and rock & roll culture, even in the zeroes. It’s so integral that bands like Modest Mouse will do things, like release an extraordinarily cheerful pop song, for this to happen.