Examples of record companies pressuring creative choices?

Jane's Addiction "Ritual De Lo Habitual" censored album cover

too bad they stopped there

when oh when will these monsters stop defiling the creative process?

Bill Nelson got the usual "we don't hear a hit" line. He responded by writing this brilliant song:
http://youtu.be/WsUu7GjshSc

After hastily signing the Human League in 1978 it became apparent to Virgin Records that the band were not very profitable, with none of their releases under Fast Records making any impact on the charts. Virgin began putting pressure on the group to justify their large advance signing fee. Pressure was put on Ware, Oakey and Marsh to abandon their no traditional instruments rule and use conventional instruments in an attempt to be more commercial and sell more records.[1] Ware reluctantly agreed but insisted that any material recorded this way should be released under a pseudonym to ensure that it wasn't confused with the pure electronic sound of The Human League. "I Don't Depend on You" was the only product of this compromise with Virgin. It was recorded with the addition of session musicians and was released under the name The Men. The song also features the synth riff from debut single Being Boiled towards the end of the track. Afterwards the band were able to record tracks in their original style for Virgin.

Waif Me

lol Shakey stfu dude

'can we list specific examples of this supposedly widespread thing?'
'I DONT JNOW PROBABLY THERES LOTS OF THEM OR ALL OF THEM'

beach boys SMiLE / smiley smile : pressure to finish the former or can it and clump the scraps into the latter

beastie boys not being allowed to name licensed to ill whatever homophobic shit it was supposed to be called

Twelve Times Industry Monsters WRECKED the Creative Process. (I was floored by #7!)

there's an ilm thread about whether the Beastie Boys would have had a career if their record company had agreed to release the album under the original title:

If the Beastie Boys' had released "Don't Be A Faggot"...

didn't A Tribe Called Quest's record label prevent them from putting a homophobic track on The Low End Theory, and it was replaced with "Show Business"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyKcZb5LufE

Del the Funkee Homosapien's "I Wish My Brother George Was Here"

― Οὖτις, Friday, July 8, 2016 7:32 AM (9 hours ago)

wasn't this Ice Cube's choice of direction, not the pressure of a record company that would have had no expectation of this teenager with no previous releases?

anyway, Ice Cube OTM, this album towers over everything else Del ever did

it doesnt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut_the_Crap

― Οὖτις, Friday, July 8, 2016 7:41 AM (13 hours ago)

this also has nothing to do with record company pressure of any kind, and is the result of a band's musically untalented manager doing a very bad job of turning some extremely weak demos into full recordings, under a pseudonym deliberately intended to imply the band's singer had done them, after the entire lineup had left the band.

it doesnt.

okay, Clint Eastwood was pretty good, when he again wrote to the shape of someone else's idea and then got mad afterwards that it turned out well

Hadn't heard this before:

After auditions (during which the identity of the band remained a secret), the Clash selected two guitarists, Nick Sheppard and Greg White, with the latter taking the name Vince White due to Simonon's refusal to play in a band with someone named "Greg".

sic it isn't clear to me that RAG understands what a "record company" is or what it does, so I wasn't being too strict about distinguishing between various kinds of external pressures being brought to bear on artists ie producer vs. management vs. actual label representative (roles which are sometimes interrelated/conflated, as was the case with Ice Cube)

Ice Cube didn't own Elektra iirc but it's been a while

(which is to concur with everyone that the thread would be more fun if you actually narrated the anecdotes behind the examples you're shouting at cumulo-gilmour)

yes well RAG wants specific examples dontchaknow, doesn't seem to care that the vast majority of bands are an example

This seems a very odd thing to be getting so angry about

Jesus, guys. Thanks a lot for completey ruining A Tribe Called Quest forever for me.

yeah georgie porgie is one of the worst things

http://genius.com/A-tribe-called-quest-georgie-porgie-lyrics

They should've at least mentioned it somewhere in the Michael Rapaport doc.