History DoingItForTheArt / Music

* Music/{{Gotye}} considers himself less of a "musician" and more of a "tinkerer", someone who spends his time prioritizing experimenting with his musical craft over profiting off of it. When "Somebody That I Used To Know" became an international smash hit, he willingly opted against running ads on its music video (or any of his videos, for that matter) despite the song alone amassing over a billion views, as well as giving 50% of that song's royalties to the estate of Luiz Bonfá, the late Brazilian musician that he sampled for the song. He also didn't mind [[OneHitWonder not attempting a follow-up hit]], with his trajectory after taking off being mostly the same as before in coasting through smaller passion projects and other musical projects, including putting his "Gotye" moniker on hiatus as he returned to drumming for his local band, The Basics.

* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Music/CloseToTheEdge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Music/LarksTongueInAspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} Music/{{UK}} to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.

* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Music/CloseToTheEdge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Larks' Tongue in Aspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} Music/{{UK}} to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.

* Music/{{Underworld}} only got famous ''after'' they started doing it for the art. Their earlier work was mostly commercially-friendly pop reflecting what was popular at the time. Now they have a new sound every album, full of mostly incomprehensible lyrics (that probably aren't meant to be comprehensible), reading mostly like snapshots of the lyricists life couched in metaphors.

* Music/VanessaCarlton. Every song is a labor of love for her. Her main priority is being personally happy with her records regardless of industry trends. In particular, she left A&M Records over frustration from their interference and lack of support in regards to ''Harmonium'' and she isolated herself in the English countryside away from major label pressures to produce ''Rabbits on the Run''.

* Music/{{Rush}}'s third album, ''Caress of Steel'', left their continued existence in doubt with the relatively poor sales of their odd concept album, including a pair of [[EpicRocking multi-part]] epics, was pressured by their label into making a commercial, mainstream album that played it safe and ensured that they would stay afloat. Figuring that they may as well go out with style, they released 2112, half of which was dominated by the title 20 minute, 7-part epic song; the polar opposite of what their label demanded. When the prog-rock concept album managed to propel Rush to mainstream stardom, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. More than one [[EpicRocking huge song]] followed, with "Camera Eye" on ''Moving Pictures'' being their final inordinately long song.

* [[Music/TheDoors Doors]] singer Jim Morrison was said to be this. When he found out the rest of the band allowed car company Buick to use "Light My Fire" from ''Music/TheDoorsAlbum'' in a commercial, Morrison was furious and threatened to trash one of Buick's cars on television in protest if the commercial aired nationwide.

----
* Music/DarrenHayes collaborated with Robert Conley for a secret experimental album released under the pseudonym "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Smug_(album) We Are Smug]]". This album was created after he left Creator/ColumbiaRecords to become an independent artist, and sits between "The Tension and The Spark" (his last album with Columbia, where he started to play with electronica) and "This Delicate Thing We've Made", his first independent album that is itself an example of DoingItForTheArt. The album was originally released online for free for one day - 8 May 2009, his birthday - and is now available on Amazon and iTunes.

* This is, arguably, the entire reason Music/{{Gorillaz}} was conceived. The creators Jamie and Damon were sick of watching over-sensationalized, shallow performers on MTV, so they invented a fictional band as an experiment to break down the sarcomata.

* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Close to the Edge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Larks' Tongue in Aspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} {{Music/UK}} to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.
* In the mid-1940s, when the cast album of ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' became a hit, every major record company in America started to bid for the rights to record original cast albums of Broadway musicals. Under producer Goddard Lieberson, CBS not only recorded the musicals that were big hits or near-hits but also recreated on LP many musicals dating as far back as the 1920s. Ethan Mordden called ''Theatre/StreetScene'' "the first Absolutely Guaranteed Flop to get an album"; though its operatic score had to be heavily abridged to fit on twelve-inch 78's, such technological limitations no longer applied to ''Theatre/TheMostHappyFella'', whose expansive score was recorded with nearly all the dialogue on 3 [=LPs=]. ''Theatre/AnyoneCanWhistle'' had already ended its one-week Broadway run, but Lieberson nevertheless chose to record the original cast album, which helped give Creator/AngelaLansbury the opportunity to play her StarMakingRole in ''Mame''.

* Music/{{OK Go}} is rather well known for this, with their humble Website/YouTube roots and quirky but awesome music videos. In their "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w This Too Shall Pass]]" music video, they had what is arguably one of the longest running and most complex [[RubeGoldbergDevice Rube Goldberg machine]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome EVER]]. They also flat out refuse to work with sponsors that attempt to exert creative control, which is why the aforementioned music video is sponsored by ''State Farm''.

* Music/VanessaCarlton. Her music has a lot of classical influences, thanks to her mother's piano lessons and her father's love for 1970s rock. Every song is a labor of love for her.

** Remember Music/TheWhiteStripes' video for "Fell in Love with a Girl"? Michel Gondry actually filmed the band members, then converted the footage to pixels all before using stop-motion LEGO to create the thing.

* Art-pop duo Music/PepeDeluxe delayed the completion of their album ''Music/QueenOfTheWave'', because one song, "In the Cave", was composed specifically to be performed on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stalacpipe_Organ the Great Stalacpipe Organ]], which was undergoing extensive repairs at the time. They waited six years for the organ to become playable again; the song they played on it was two minutes long.

* Music/TaylorSwift:
** A [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-reinvention-of-taylor-swift-116925/ Rolling Stones article]] revealed that the official announcement to switch from country to pop from ''1989'' onward was against her label's wishes. They wanted her to continuously pander to country radio but she decided that isn't true with the direction she wants to go with her music anymore.
** ''[[Music/Folklore2020 folklore]]'' was announced ''16 hours'' before its official release without any promotional beside her announcement on social media. Also notable is that the album came out less than a year after her last album ''Lover''. Not even Swift's ''label'' knew about the album until hours before its release. The album was written when her 2020 tour was postponed because of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic.

** A [[https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-reinvention-of-taylor-swift-116925/ Rolling Stones article]] revealed that the official announcement to switch from country to pop from ''1989'' onward is against her label's wish. They want her to continuously pandering to country radio but she decided that isn't true with the direction she wants to go with her music anymore.

** ''[[Music/Folklore2020 folklore]]'' was announced ''16 hours'' before its official release without any promotional beside her announcement on social media. Also notable is that the album came out less than a year after her last album ''Lover''. Not even Swift's ''label'' knew about the album until hours before its release. The album was written when her 2020 tour was postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

* Music/CharlesIves was a successful insurance executive, so in his musical pursuits in his spare time, he composed to please only himself, not patrons or critics. As a result, his music was wildly original. "Iconoclastic" is the standard adjective used to describe Ives. Many of his most famous works were not performed until decades after they were composed.

* Within the punk community, Ian [=MacKaye=] and his band, Music/{{Fugazi}}, became practically legends for this. During the 90s, when AlternativeRock was exploding into the mainstream, they refused many a contract from major labels, preferring to stay on their own indie label, Dischord, and thus retain their creative freedom. Some of the labels even offered to buy Dischord, but that was never an option, either. That's not all: you might expect a band that makes it a point of ethics to only play shows for $5 to go broke quickly, but because their shows sold so well and they toured so rigorously (especially in the early 90s), Music/{{Fugazi}} was one of the few indie bands of the era to be consistently profitable, meaning they managed to be both commercially and artistically viable, and they did it all their own way.

* Popular IDM techno duo Music/{{Autechre}} pride themselves on this trope. They're talented enough to create successful mainstream sounding albums, and at first, that's what they were doing. However, the group has always been about studying and experimenting with the art of sound and noise, resulting in some pretty noise heavy albums that sound like garble to anyone not familiar with their way of creating tracks. For example: Listen to their earlier tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKZAxvNEfc Montreal]]. And then compare that to their later tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1RrVa_axRY Gartz Garf]] In fact, the group is on record saying that they prefer their later albums instead of their earlier mainstream sounding ones.

* Mago de Oz' leader Txus Di Fellatio had a contract to play for the Real Madrid but at the last moment he declined and formed the mentioned band, and he's a drummer not because he likes the drums (he hates them) but because he can't play anything else nor sing and his two options where to be a drummer or no not make a band.

* Music/{{BTS}}. A close look to their work and interviews they've done shows that, rather than sales, their main priority is their music and the messages they can convey through it (with topics like the school system, social inequality, mental health, etc.). They go the extra mile so that their entire work at large constitutes a [[ComingOfAgeStory narrative of personal growth]] drawing from their own experiences, be it through {{Sequel Song}}s, Sequel {{Concept Album}}s or a fictional story told through an entire continuity of music videos (the ''Music/{{BU}}''), all content that is often planned months, even ''years'' in advance. While they do acknowledge about charts, they tend to talk about them more as a means to achieve a bigger influence to makes themselves heard, making a point of having at least one song with social commentary per album.

* Music/FrankZappa made music for his own amusement, but managed to have a successful career because he was so hardworking and labels supported him. He was neither a rock star or an avant-garde jazz composer, he was just himself.

* Music/{{OK Go}} is rather well known for this, with their humble Website/YouTube roots and quirky but awesome music videos. In their "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w This Too Shall Pass]]" music video, they had what is arguable one of the longest running and most complex [[RubeGoldbergDevice Rube Goldberg machine]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome EVER]]. They also flat out refuse to work with sponsors that attempt to exert creative control, which is why the aforementioned music video is sponsored by ''State Farm''.

* Mago de Oz' leader Txus Di Fellatio had a contract to play for the Real Madrid but at the last moment he declined and formed the mentioned band, and he's a drumer not because he likes the drums (he hates them) but because he can't play anything else nor sing and his two options where to be a drumer or no not make a band.

* Music/{{Rush}}'s third album, ''Caress of Steel'', left their continued existence in doubt with the relatively poor sales of their odd concept album, including a pair of [[EpicRocking multi-part]] epics, was pressured by their label into making a commercial, mainstream album that played it safe and ensured that they would stay afloat. Figuring that they may as well go out with style, they released 2112, half of which was dominated by the title 20 minute, 7-part epic song; the polar opposite of what their label demanded. When the prog rock concept album managed to propel Rush to mainstream stardom, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. More than one [[EpicRocking huge song]] followed, with "Camera Eye" on ''Moving Pictures'' being their final inordinately long song.

* In the mid-1940s, when the cast album of ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' became a hit, every major record company in America started to bid for the rights to record original cast albums of Broadway musicals. Under producer Goddard Lieberson, CBS not only recorded the musicals that were big hits or near-hits, but also recreated on LP many musicals dating as far back as the 1920s. Ethan Mordden called ''Theatre/StreetScene'' "the first Absolutely Guaranteed Flop to get an album"; though its operatic score had to be heavily abridged to fit on twelve-inch 78's, such technological limitations no longer applied to ''Theatre/TheMostHappyFella'', whose expansive score was recorded with nearly all the dialogue on 3 [=LPs=]. ''Theatre/AnyoneCanWhistle'' had already ended its one-week Broadway run, but Lieberson nevertheless chose to record the original cast album, which helped give Creator/AngelaLansbury the opportunity to play her StarMakingRole in ''Mame''.
* Popular IDM techno duo Music/{{Autechre}} pride themselves on this trope. They're talented enough to create successful mainstream sounding albums, and at first, that's what they were doing. However, the group has always been about studying and experimenting with the art of sound and noise, resulting in some pretty noise heavy albums that sound like garble to anyone not familiar with their way of creating tracks. For example: Listen to their earlier tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKZAxvNEfc Montreal]]. And then compare that to their later tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1RrVa_axRY Gartz Garf]] In fact, the groups is on record saying that they prefer their later albums instead of their earlier mainstream sounding ones.
* Progressive jazz rock band Music/TheReignOfKindo. [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rrGBz0jiQog/maxresdefault.jpg Read for yourself.]]

* Music/{{BTS}}. A close look to their work and interviews they've done shows that, rather than sales, their main priority is their music and the messages they can convey through it (with topics like the school system, social inequality, mental health, etc.). They go the extra mile so that their entire work at large constitutes a [[ComingOfAgeStory narrative of personal growth]] drawing from their own experiences, be it through {{Sequel Song}}s, Sequel {{Concept Album}}s, or a fictional story told through an entire continuity of music videos (the ''Music/{{BU}}''), all content that is often planned months, even ''years'' in advance. While they do acknowledge about charts, they tend to talk about them more as a means to achieve a bigger influence to makes themselves heard, making a point of having at least one song with social commentary per album.

** There's also a lot of songs they've made for free, including original songs ("DDAENG", "4 o'clock", among others), covers, remixes/rearrangements of their work, and 3 solo mixtapes (''RM'', ''Agust D'', ''Hope World''), all released through their official Soundcloud page.

* Music/{{BTS}}. Looking beyond their boyband status, you can tell that, rather than sales, their main priority is their music and the message they can convey through it. They go the extra mile so that their work at large constructs an entire narrative of personal growth drawing from their own experiences (with topics like the school system, society and mental health), be it through {{Sequel Song}}s, Sequel {{Concept Album}}s, or a fictional story told through an entire continuity of music videos (the ''Music/{{BU}}''), all content that is often planned months, even ''years'' in advance.
** There's also a lot of songs they've made for free, including original songs ("DDAENG", "4 o'clock", among others), covers, rearrangements, and 3 critically acclaimed solo mixtapes, all shared through their official Soundcloud page.

* DarrenHayes collaborated with Robert Conley for a secret experimental album released under the pseudonym "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Smug_(album) We Are Smug]]". This album was created after he left Creator/ColumbiaRecords to become an independent artist, and sits between "The Tension and The Spark" (his last album with Columbia, where he started to play with electronica) and "This Delicate Thing We've Made", his first independent album that is itself an example of DoingItForTheArt. The album was originally released online for free for one day - 8 May 2009, his birthday - and is now available on Amazon and iTunes.

* DarrenHayes collaborated with Robert Conley for a secret experimental album released under the pseudonym "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Smug_(album) We Are Smug]]". This album was created after leaving Columbia Music and being an independent artist, and sits between "The Tension and The Spark" (his last album with Columbia, where he started to play with electronica) and "This Delicate Thing We've Made", his first independent album that is itself an example of DoingItForTheArt. The album was originally released online for free for one day - 8 May 2009, his birthday - and is now available on Amazon and iTunes.

* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Close to the Edge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Larks' Tongue in Aspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} UK to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.

* Popular IDM techno duo ''Music/{{Autechre}}'' pride themselves on this trope. They're talented enough to create successful mainstream sounding albums, and at first, that's what they were doing. However, the group has always been about studying and experimenting with the art of sound and noise, resulting in some pretty noise heavy albums that sound like garble to anyone not familiar with their way of creating tracks. For example: Listen to their earlier tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKZAxvNEfc Montreal]]. And then compare that to their later tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1RrVa_axRY Gartz Garf]] In fact, the groups is on record saying that they prefer their later albums instead of their earlier mainstream sounding ones.

* Robert Fripp. He's dissolved his group, Music/KingCrimson, on multiple occasions just as they were about to make it big, only to bring it back with an entirely new sound. Fripp has frequently stated that aiming for success would be bad for the music.

* Music/BillyJoel described his 1983 covers album of the artists he grew up listening to, ''An Innocent Man'', as a "singer's album".* DarrenHayes collaborated with Robert Conley for a secret experimental album released under the pseudonym "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_Smug_(album) We Are Smug]]". This album was created after leaving Columbia Music and being an independent artist, and sits between "The Tension and The Spark" (his last album with Columbia, where he started to play with electronica) and "This Delicate Thing We've Made", his first independent album that is itself an example of DoingItForTheArt. The album was originally released online for free for one day - 8 May 2009, his birthday - and is now available on Amazon and iTunes.
* Music/FrankZappa made music for his own amusement, but managed to have a successful career because he was so hardworking and labels supported him. He was neither a rock star or an avant-garde jazz composer, he was just himself.
* Within the punk community, Ian [=MacKaye=] and his band, Music/{{Fugazi}}, became practically legends for this. During the 90s, when AlternativeRock was exploding into the mainstream, they refused many a contract from major labels, preferring to stay on their own indie label, Dischord, and thus retain their creative freedom. Some of the labels even offered to buy Dischord, but that was never an option, either. That's not all: you might expect a band that makes it a point of ethics to only play shows for $5 to go broke quickly, but because their shows sold so well and they toured so rigorously (especially in the early 90s), Music/{{Fugazi}} was one of the few indie bands of the era to be consistently profitable, meaning they managed to be both commercially and artistically viable, and they did it all their own way.
* Obscure bands, especially in extreme metal circles. A piece by a tech metal band has a groove, riff or time signature change once every 10 seconds or so. They also have songs that last about 8 minutes. And they don't make much money, as they have fans numbering in the thousands. Outside of Music/CannibalCorpse, Music/TheBlackDahliaMurder, Music/MorbidAngel, Music/{{Nile}}, Music/{{Whitechapel}}, and a select few others, extreme bands don't make anywhere near enough to provide anything resembling a decent living to members who rely on them as their sole source of income, and even those rare few musicians who do make a decent living from them are not loaded by any means.
* Music/OKGo is rather well known for this, with their humble Website/YouTube roots and quirky but awesome music videos. In their "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w This Too Shall Pass]]" music video, they had what is arguable one of the longest running and most complex [[RubeGoldbergDevice Rube Goldberg machine]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome EVER]]. They also flat out refuse to work with sponsors that attempt to exert creative control, which is why the aforementioned music video is sponsored by ''State Farm''.
* This is, arguably, the entire reason Music/{{Gorillaz}} was conceived. The creators Jamie and Damon were sick of watching over-sensationalized, shallow performers on MTV, so they invented a fictional band as an experiment to break down the sarcomata.
* Music/LadyGaga. ''Losing'' money while breaking sales records, selling her third album for 99¢, [[{{Determinator}} performing to the point of fainting on stage and nearly breaking her hip at age 27]]- some may call her shallow, overproduced, etc, but you certainly can't call her lazy.
* Jack Conte, working by himself or in Music/{{Pomplamoose}}, is clearly devoted to the art of the videosong. While he is recording himself singing or playing, he simultaneously runs a video camera and makes videos entirely made of studio footage.
* Mago de Oz' leader Txus Di Fellatio had a contract to play for the Real Madrid but at the last moment he declined and formed the mentioned band, and he's a drummer not because he likes the drums (he hates them) but because he can't play anything else, nor sing; his two options were to be a drummer or not make a band.
* Music/VanessaCarlton. Her music has a lot of classical influences, thanks to her mother's piano lessons and her father's love for 1970s rock. Every song is a labor of love for her.
* Back before Music/TheyMightBeGiants were, indeed, giants of the alternative rock world, they had the ''Dial-a-Song'' program, whereby you could just phone John Flansburgh's answering machine and hear a song that they'd recorded for fun.
--> [[IsThisThingOn I don't understand how he's makin' any money off these. I mean, the guy's a nut, right?]]
** It lasted well into their popularity and the new millennium, still at their local Brooklyn number. "Always busy, always broken" and "Free when you call from work" were its slogans.
* Whilst music videos are generally made for publicity, several music video directors (such as Creator/SpikeJonze and Creator/MichelGondry) see it as a medium without the narrative restrictions of film. And sometimes, doing it for the art works in favor of promotion.
** Remember Music/TheWhiteStripes' video for "Fell in Love with a Girl"? Michel Gondry actually filmed the band members, then converted the footage to pixels all before using stop-motion LEGO to create the thing.
* Music/{{Rush}}'s third album, ''Caress of Steel'', left their continued existence in doubt with the relatively poor sales of their odd concept album, including a pair of [[EpicRocking multi-part]] epics, was pressured by their label into making a commercial, mainstream album that played it safe and ensured that they would stay afloat. Figuring that they may as well go out with style, they released ''Music/TwentyOneTwelve'', half of which was dominated by the title 20 minute, 7-part epic song; the polar opposite of what their label demanded. When the prog rock concept album managed to propel Rush to mainstream stardom, they were allowed to do whatever they wanted. More than one [[EpicRocking huge song]] followed, with "Camera Eye" on ''Music/MovingPictures'' being their final song over 10 minutes long.
* While the results of her efforts are universally regarded as awful, there's no doubt Music/JanTerri qualifies for this trope. She had no budget (or talent) but goddammit, she made those videos anyway.
* Music/TheKLF didn't want anyone to think that their commercial success was a compromise of their ideals, so after ''The White Room'' album was released they announced their retirement from music (by terrorising the Brit Awards with a machinegun full of blanks) and then went on to erase all the material for their unreleased ''Black Room'' and remove their entire back catalogue from sale. Then, just to make sure their message was crystal clear, [[MoneyToBurn they burned a million pounds]].
* Music/CharlesIves was a successful insurance executive, so in his musical pursuits in his spare time, he composed to please only himself, not patrons or critics. As a result, his music was wildly original. "Iconoclastic" is the standard adjective used to describe Ives. Many of his most famous works were not performed until decades after they were composed.
* Robert Fripp. He's dissolved his group, Music/KingCrimson, on multiple occasions just as they were about to make it big, only to bring it back with an entirely new sound. Fripp has frequently stated that aiming for success would be bad for the music.
* Art-pop duo Music/PepeDeluxe delayed the completion of their album ''Music/QueenOfTheWave'', because one song, "In the Cave", was composed specifically to be performed on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stalacpipe_Organ the Great Stalacpipe Organ]], which was undergoing extensive repairs at the time. They waited six years for the organ to become playable again; the song they played on it was two minutes long.
* Music/TheDoors singer Jim Morrison was said to be this. When he found out the rest of the band allowed car company Buick to use "Light My Fire" from ''Music/TheDoorsAlbum'' in a commercial, Morrison was furious and threatened to trash one of Buick's cars on television in protest if the commercial aired nationwide.
* Music/{{Buckethead}} seems to be doing this. His music has never been mainstream, although he did once get more fame being temporarily in Music/GunsNRoses. None of his albums are widely popular, however, and he's more well known as an underground musician. He also seems to compose whatever he likes, without regard to fan demand or getting more sales and a wider audience.
* Emileigh Rohn, the woman behind ''Chiasm''. Despite being busy as a molecular biologist, she still tries to find time to compose and release an album, even if it takes her years.
* Any [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Brony]] music counts as this. Many artists like So Great And Powerful, Music/TheLivingTombstone, [[http://soundcloud.com/grottomatic Grottomatic]], Sherclop Ponies, and Wooden Toaster let people download their songs for free.
* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Close to the Edge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Larks' Tongues in Aspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} UK to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.
* In the mid-1940s, when the cast album of ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'' became a hit, every major record company in America started to bid for the rights to record original cast albums of Broadway musicals. Under producer Goddard Lieberson, CBS not only recorded the musicals that were big hits or near-hits, but also recreated on LP many musicals dating as far back as the 1920s. Ethan Mordden called ''Theatre/StreetScene'' "the first Absolutely Guaranteed Flop to get an album"; though its operatic score had to be heavily abridged to fit on twelve-inch 78's, such technological limitations no longer applied to ''Theatre/TheMostHappyFella'', whose expansive score was recorded with nearly all the dialogue on 3 [=LPs=]. ''Theatre/AnyoneCanWhistle'' had already ended its one-week Broadway run, but Lieberson nevertheless chose to record the original cast album, which helped give Creator/AngelaLansbury the opportunity to play her StarMakingRole in ''Mame''.
* Popular IDM techno duo ''Music/{{Autechre}}'' pride themselves on this trope. They're talented enough to create successful mainstream sounding albums, and at first, that's what they were doing. However, the group has always been about studying and experimenting with the art of sound and noise, resulting in some pretty noise heavy albums that sound like garble to anyone not familiar with their way of creating tracks. For example: Listen to their earlier tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKZAxvNEfc Montreal]]. And then compare that to their later tracks like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1RrVa_axRY Gartz Garf]] In fact, the groups is on record saying that they prefer their later albums instead of their earlier mainstream sounding ones.
* Progressive jazz rock band Music/TheReignOfKindo. [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rrGBz0jiQog/maxresdefault.jpg Read for yourself.]]
* {{Trance}} musicians pride themselves on this, knowing well how dedicated their fans are to their material. In fact, many of the scene's biggest names have had very long, illustrious and very busy careers and they've all stated their biggest drive is their passion for the genre. Music/ArminVanBuuren is noted for having won the title of "Number 1 DJ in the World" for a record number of five times and has admitted he could retire early after a career that's gone on since the nineties but has stated he feels like he's only just begun to scratch the surface.

* Art-pop duo [[Music/PepeDeluxe Pepe Deluxé]] delayed the completion of their album ''Music/QueenOfTheWave'', because one song, "In the Cave", was composed specifically to be performed on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stalacpipe_Organ the Great Stalacpipe Organ]], which was undergoing extensive repairs at the time. They waited six years for the organ to become playable again; the song they played on it was two minutes long.

* Music/{{OK Go}} is rather well known for this, with their humble Website/YouTube roots and quirky but awesome music videos. In their "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w This Too Shall Pass]]" music video, they had what is arguable one of the longest running and most complex [[RubeGoldbergDevice Rube Goldberg machine]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome EVER]]. They also flat out refuse to work with sponsors that attempt to exert creative control, which is why the aforementioned music video is sponsored by ''State Farm''.

* Mago de Oz' leader Txus Di Fellatio had a contract to play for the Real Madrid but at the last moment he declined and formed the mentioned band, and he's a drumer not because he likes the drums (he hates them) but because he can't play anything else nor sing and his two options where to be a drumer or no not make a band.

* Art-pop duo [[Music/PepeDeluxe Pepe Deluxé]] delayed the completion of their album ''Music/QueenOfTheWave'', because one song, "In the Cave", was composed specifically to be performed on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stalacpipe_Organ the Great Stalacpipe Organ]], which was undergoing extensive repairs at the time. They waited six years for the organ to become playable again; the song they played on it was two minutes long.

* British drummer Music/BillBruford has been known to leave or dismantle often very successful projects, including those connected with his solo career, if he feels the music has become creatively stagnant or uninspiring, unhealthy or from the get-go, felt a different career path would challenge him or inspire him, or the project has reached a peak and [[StrictlyFormula could only repeat its formula with diminishing returns]]. He caused a lot of controversy in 1972 by leaving Music/{{Yes}} (after a huge buyout of his contract) at the height of their artistic and commercial success, just after recording ''Close to the Edge'', to join Music/KingCrimson in time to record and tour behind ''Larks' Tongue in Aspic'', and his interests in jazz-influenced improvisation led him and Allan Holdsworth to leave the {{Supergroup}} UK to form jazz-fusion group Bruford, reputedly because the other members insisted Holdsworth and Bruford play their parts just like they did on the record.