So if Adam will do something in whatever style he will be shamelessly selling out to some consumers? I'm sorry but I don't get that kind of criticism. In department of musical experiment Avicii is doing exactly the same thing that every other cerative artist is doing - he don't want to do the same thing over and over again, he want to expand the boundaries of his genre of music, and his own boundaries to. How that can be called "shameless sell out" is beyond me. And I don't even start disscussion about "Lay me down" which is shameless sell out to whom? Funk or disco lovers?
hmmm... let's just assume for a moment in some alternate universe genre C is the most profitable one in country R, which happens to be the largest music market in that world. Adam, who grew up in country U and is a popular artist in genre E decides to expand his horizons and produces a song in genre C, accompanied by an official video wrapped up in a huge country R flag...The music is mediocre but as long as country R's flag is waving and the country R's citizens are having their favorite drink and having their favorite food everyone is super happy....especially Adam
Yes, I would say Adam sold out....
Every artist who is signed to a major label is working to create a commercial product that will sell -- genre does not matter.
And even an artist playing a club, who plays a request is playing what people want to hear. Is that selling out? Where do you draw the line between an entertainer being engaged with their audience and someone selling out?
Did Mumford and Sons sell out because they do folk rock music that crosses over several radio formats? How is that different than Avicii fusing folk and EDM?
The nice thing is that in Country R -- which happens to be the largest music market in the world -- we have unregulated commercial radio with no government mandated Country R content and thousands of radio stations. Plus, we have all kinds of streaming media and satellite.
***
Dan Tyminski, the singer, is a bluegrass singer/songwriter, and since bluegrass is based on Scots-Irish-Welsh folk traditions from Appalachia mixed with African-American music (mostly jazz elements), it sounds like traditional American Country music because it has a common root in European folk music.
The music video for "Hey Brother" is about two brother growing up and one dying in the Vietnam War. Not exactly sure how that fits into this flag-waving concept to appeal to Country fans. The video intersperses two points in time -- when the boys are growing up in the 1950's and the funeral circa 1970.
"The mini movie follows two brothers as they grow up in idyllic middle America catching fireflies and going camping together. When the scene flashes forward, the older brother is sent to war, from which he does not return. The younger brother is then seen carrying a folded American flag to his brother’s grave as he receives a military funeral."
So sure, there is an American Flag or two in there as they transpose the waving flag from 4th of July and the Fireworks with the folded military funeral flag and the 21 guns of a military funeral.
**
How is "Hey Brother" pandering to Country fans? The song is not even being played by US Country stations. Here are the top 10 song on Country format stations....
2 1 Up this week JERROD NIEMANN Drink To That All Night 7539 7392 147 61.232
3 2 Up this week BRANTLEY GILBERT Bottoms Up 7319 6801 518 58.968
4 3 Up this week ERIC CHURCH Give Me Back My Hometown 6570 6281 289 53.865
7 4 Up this week FLORIDA-GEORGIA LINE This Is How We Roll f/L. Bryan 6168 5697 471 50.523
6 5 Up this week RASCAL FLATTS Rewind 6217 5809 408 50.5
5 6 Up this week THOMAS RHETT Get Me Some Of That 6151 5875 276 51.539
1 7 RANDY HOUSER Goodnight Kiss 5600 7560 -1960 46.909
9 8 Up this week BRETT ELDREDGE Beat Of The Music 5688 5376 312 45.88
10 9 Up this week MIRANDA LAMBERT Automatic 5415 5110 305 44.858
11 10 Up this week LUKE BRYAN Play It Again 5067 4824 243 43.882
>> The #1 song has an audience of 61.2 million. Which is equal to about #5 on Top 40/CHR Radio format stations.
>> Nothing electron on that list.
Finally to genre -- "Hey Brother" is not country, it is "folktronic" with house EDM production. It has been around since the late 90's and Avicii is the first artist who managed to get it on Mainstream US Top 40 Radio. Prior to TRUE, it was a style done my some very talented indie artists or was relegated to Dance. Goldfrapp "A&E" (short for "Accident and Emergency") in 2008 is an example.
No, pure EDM fans are not fans of folktronic. And IMHO Avicii took a huge risk in moving from EDM to the vocal fusion he explored on TRUE. I am a fan of TRUE and think that it, Reflector (Arcade Fire), Lorde's "Pure Heroine", Imagine Dragons, and a few other artists are exploding the genre barriers and creating some great music.
). I finally understood my DD, who is a huge EDM fan but dislikes AVICII... IMO HB is a totally shameless sell out to the US country music consumer, with a boring faux patriotic video....musically it is atrocious... and I could not find any reference to the singer on the official VEVO, so I still don't know who was singing... was it Tim himself? 
