what i want to know is who doesn't get a pass?

Man, everyone that big gets a pass. Led Zeppelin got a pass for Rock N Roll being used for that Cadillac commercial, and the Stones for Jumpin Jack Flash in that Corvette commercial... Sly and the Family Stone's Everyday People for Toyota. U2 for having a limited edition ipod.

Most artists get a pass, cause most consumers don't really care. I'm guessing most of the people here don't really care one way or the other.

Name a band/artist of note, throw a rock, and you'll find both the reverent, and the detractors.

also this album is wretched.

thread FAIL. i was hoping someone was going to be like "man, this is good."

I would say the reasons are different, that the Stones, LZ, Sly or U2 are doing it for cash, pure and simple and like you said, consumers don't really care. I don't, but as I said earlier, the only point I find a bit annoying is that Dylan has these reverent worshipers who would suggest that he's above it all and his reasons for selling songs to commercials or converting to Scientology or whatever strange and unpredictable things that have yet to be revealed, are done for clever or sly philosophical reasons with an underlying purpose and not cash or publicity. He's still an intact artist and not a sellout hack.

Y'all are burnouts or highsters.

At least five Dylan songs in the last ten years have kept me alive.

Two words. Neil. Young.

Ain't singin' for Pepsi
Ain't singin' for Coke
I don't sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note's for you.

I'm glad someone mentioned him here.

and tom waits
and tom petty
and possibly bruce springsteen

We do this argument ever so often.

But as soon as you decide you're going to sell your music at all, you have sold out to commercialism on some level. Period. Does it make a difference really that your song plays on a radio during the break between commercials or if it plays on tv during the actual commercial? Either way, the only way your song is reaching the masses is because somebody is selling something to someone. Neil Young didn't become Neil Young by word of mouth on the records he sold out of his trunk. He's just a little bit more full of shit than the next guy. And I'm a huge fan.

This doesn't bother me, and I've long separated the idea of the artist and everyone wants to live comfortably.

And realistically, Neil Young marketed his artistic integrity on the notion he doesn't sell out, but Dylan marketed his artistic integrity on the notion that he does sell out. He always has from day one. So when he hocks bras, he just doing what he does.

Explain.

rads hasn't posted yet.

He started in Folk, which was "serious college music" and as soon as he established himself as its star, he plugged in and started making "non-serious rock'n'roll" presumably for more stardom and more money or at least that's what Folk fans thought. His whole career has built on the notion that he has no allegiance to anyone other than his own selfish desires, which of course makes him a real artist.

This album is just a bad idea.