Platinum Blondie

Like jazz and hip-hop, rock and roll started out as a populist type of music. The establishment hated it, but the people loved it so much no one could keep it down. Throughout the 50s and 60s, the most popular artists tended to make a lot of the best rock.

Then, as often happens, the music grows larger and more sophisticated, and some of it is loved by smaller and smaller niches. The Velvet Underground was one of the greatest rock bands of all, but had almost no commercial success. Unfortunately, this made some think that to sell well also meant to sell out.

Punk music was born out of a "do-it-yourself" ethos. That was part of its charm. But because little of it hit big in America, there became a feeling among some in the punk world that failing commercially was a badge of honor. How dumb.

Blondie was just inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Bully for them. Unfortunately, Blondie guitarist Chris Stein still has a bit of the feeling that widespread popularity is bad. He's quoted in the LA Times as saying "contrary to popular belief, we didn't have any mainstream success. I always considered us just a very successful cult band."

This is just silly. Blondie, in its heyday, had a gold album and three consecutive platinum albums. They also had four #1 hits, "Heart Of Glass," "Call Me," "The Tide Is High" and "Rapture." And that's just in America--if anything, they were more popular overseas.

Sorry, Chris, but if that isn't mainstream commerical success, there's no such thing.