nikhil

ok, here's the deal from the very beginning

dinosaurs came into existance. the most dangerous among them was tyrannosaurous rex. then came the ica age and the light bulb was invented. then came the sex pistols and they were signed onto the label EMI. now people got pissed off cuz rotten said "****" on national tv so people said "what the **** EMI ?!" so emi dropped them

then came indie music, who along with punks discarded corporate labels (now known as the big 4, EMI, sony bmg, warner (reprise) and universal) BECAUSE

1] corporate labels always want things done yesterday and tend to make the sound of the band pop-isque cuz they wanna sell more albums and the albums that sell are pop albums (for example guns n roses)

2] corporate labels also tend to take control of the musical direction of the band. i.e. they're always saying "shorten up the hook", "sing it like this", "don't scream" and "hey, billie joe, where's my god-damn coffee? i asked for it 5 minutes ago" and stuff so basically, the music that you hear from a corporate band isn't actually the kinda music that they make, its something that the corps wanna sell you, so they can make money and suck your blood when you die

Independent labels still mainly provide support in the business aspects of music, similar to the way a major label might, though on a much smaller and less demanding scale. The downside of independent labels, is the fact they often lack the finances to compete with corporate labels in terms of promotion and initial financial support a major might provide an artist with.

so, green day could've signed onto another label without selling out to reprise like they did. the band is special no doubt, but there's a reason why punks like the first two genius albums (off an independant label) than nimrod and the other pop horse **** they produced later on