The making money part is rhetorical. Of course people need to make a living. The question as asked comes down to whether an artist wants to follow the formula and sell CDs full of music that all sounds the same or go his/her own way.

"Selling out" is just a term people assign based on their own value system. I mean, if it takes writing "formula" songs to get on the radio, and writing like that is selling out, so be it.

I just wonder if anybody else is of the same opinion I am that these singers anymore are interchangeable because they all sound the same and the songs are fairly generic.