The “sell-out”: that moment when an artist of some merit decides to take large sums of money for his or her work and continues to produce it for said money.

What is it about “selling out” in this manner that saddens all of us fans of an artist? Especially those of us that are often referred to as “snobs,” “elitist,” “hipsters” or “scenesters.” Music is life for these people and when their artists forsake them for the almighty dollar, it is not surprising they renounce those artists.

I mention this because recently, while watching cartoons, I saw a commercial for “Kidz Bop: Volume 7.” For those lucky few unaware of the sensation Kidz Bop, pay close attention. Imagine an album with the year’s top pop hits sung by children for children. If you can handle that, then you have imagined Kidz Bop.

As a consumer of music and general pop culture, I was pleased to see a group of mutant former parasites not yet out of the “cootie” stage singing songs about love, drugs, sex and parties. However, this is not my point.

In this commercial, the angelic voices of these post-infant-but-pre-humans were singing “Float On” by Modest Mouse. For those that do not know, Modest Mouse have been the darlings of the indie rock world for more than 10 years. They have been hiding under the mainstream radar making music for the “hipsters” with very little popular recognition (some recognition coming from the MTV program “Sifl and Olly” in the mid ’90s).

Does this constitute selling out for Modest Mouse? Certainly some of the more elite of the “elitists” would have been upset and left the Modest Mouse bandwagon when “Float On” became a staple of alternative rock radio, MTV, and eventually the lite-rock and easy listening radio stations. But for the rest of the “snobs,” Modest Mouse still may have been legitimate performers that just, finally, got their due.

However, now that a choir of hairless gibbering apes we call children have covered the song for the rest of their gibbering, candy-mouthed kin, we must assume MM has been lost to the mainstream.

One would think having a song covered in an album designed for people with no income, meaning the parents who probably know nothing about the music on Kidz Bop, would be the indie rock kiss of death and end all “scenester” credibility.

To Modest Mouse, I say good night, sleep well on your bed of money with the hauntingly lovely sounds of the youthfully ignorant stains of society that covered your song in your ears.

Views expressed in this weekly humor column do not necessarily reflect the Northern Star or its staff. Send questions or comments to BCameron@ northernstar.info.