Sellout Hall Of Fame: Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German) 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791)



Wolfgang's father was an experienced, successful composer and teacher of music and taught Wolfgang to play and read music from birth (think Tiger Wood's dad, TigerDad). Around the age of five, Wolfie started showing advanced musical talent and abilities and thus became his father's pet project as he would transcribe the musical pieces Wolfgang played and eventually gave up composing all together to make his son's career his and their family's livelihood.


Mozart's family made several European journeys in which he performed as a child prodigy. These began with an exhibition at the court of Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich which was a hot spot for the jamz of the day, and at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague which was always popping off with hot young musical talent. The "kid genius tour" took Mozart and his family across Europe including the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, and London.


As Mozart aged and went through adolescence in the spotlight as a musical star, he became increasingly "petulant and hard to work with" as he grew disdainful of his notoriety and steady gig at the Vienna Imperial club. So lil' Wolf G. Amma-deez-nuts quit his job and started floating around from city to city womanizing. He once claimed if he "had to marry all his conquests he would have more than 200 wives" creating the celebrity lifestyle most #SELLOUTs would imitate later in history (David Lee Roth, Wilt Chamberlin, etc.). He participated in lewd acts of rebellion against his fame and the influence of his father, who was continuously up his ass about writing new concerts and hassling him about work ethic blah blah blah. His father repeatedly tried to get him jobs at various courts to no avail because of Mozart's increasingly scandalous reputation.



Mozart was a real genius and may be the true originator of "Steal like an artist". He was well known in his own time for being particularly "inspired" by many of the famous composers of the day and appropriating and mixing in other's pieces and sections of their concerts into his. He made his first concerts by sampling paving the way for Puff Daddy and an entire generation of music. In addition to using older tunes in his contemporary pieces, he went next level of selling writing it into his sheet music, which was then distributed and sold under his name, including works of his father. He continues to receive credit for his father's and other composer's work to this day. Bravo.



Due to his huge success as a star of the famed Vienna Imperial court, Mozart made wads of cash that supported his family in those early years. However, during his raucous teen years he dwindled all his money and savings and became increasingly less popular and tolerable by the paying court gigs. Also during this time he wasted away even more of his fortune on gambling and by his early death at 35 had left his wife with considerable debts to many unsavory characters in Munich and abroad. To pay the debts she sold all of his sheet music to one of the first German publishing companies and Kaaaa-ching! This institution, the first publishing company ever, distributed his work across the world not only covering his post-humous debts but making his wife rich, but also his name more famous than any previous composer, and most after.

Truly a pioneer in selling out and one of the most recognized #SELLOUT artists.

Steve Wasterval