Art & Creativity Quote by Michael Hutchence

In one clean sentence, Hutchence plants a flag against the great pop-music fear: that success automatically means selling out. By insisting there is an "integrity to INXS", he is doing more than defending his band; he's defending the idea that a group can be polished, catchy, and commercially massive without being hollow. The phrasing is telling. He doesn't claim INXS is perfect, radical, or even misunderstood. He claims it's "worthwhile" - a modest word that sounds almost like a private standard rather than a marketing slogan.

The subtext is late-80s/early-90s rock culture, where authenticity had become a currency and suspicion was the default. INXS were sleek, danceable, stylish, and global. That kind of sheen invites accusations: too calculated, too produced, too eager to please. Hutchence answers by relocating integrity from biography (how the band behaves, what they wear, who they know) to the work itself: "in the music". It's a quiet rebuke to gatekeepers who treat credibility as a vibe check.

It also reads like a performer trying to make meaning out of the machine around him. When you're living inside arenas, television, and tabloid attention, "integrity" becomes less a badge than a survival strategy. Hutchence frames it as something inherent, almost audible, suggesting that if listeners lean in, they'll hear a band aiming for more than a hit - not above pleasure, but committed to craft.