Are Rage Against the Machine selling out by being signed?

I asked myself this when I first heard of them, and I still ask it to this day: are Rage Against the Machine (RATM) “selling out” simply by being signed to a record label? After all, their message is that of rebellion, and fighting the system. However, they do kind of… work for the system to a degree simply by being a signed band. Sure, they’ve been on BBC radio and gotten cut short for flipping off the camera and cursing, (just one example of this type of thing) but they’re still signed and make money every time someone buys and album or song of theirs. Their bassist even threw a fit at a music video awards show simply because they were beat out by Limp Bizkit. For a band that prides itself on fighting the system, they sure don’t seem to handle it well when the system doesn’t deliver for them. However, this is just an example, and cannot be used to define a band’s entire career.

Another way to look at this, however, is in the way that RATM wants to get their message across at any cost, and to do that they simply have to sign to a major label to get any attention from the public. The fact that they make money simply comes with the fact that they are signed, and the main point is that they are making people question authority and sticking it to the man. I have come to embrace this mindset when thinking about RATM, both because they are a great band, and because this theory makes just as much sense as the one mentioned above. The second viewpoint is my opinion, but you can make up your own mind.