Bands that radically changed their sound/style

Started by hbelkins, July 19, 2021, 11:03:58 AM

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hbelkins

Just as the title says -- bands that made major changes to their sound or style. Seems to me in the cases of bands I like(d), that drastic change came in the form of adding keyboards.

Rush, most definitely. Possibly the most obvious example. Look at the progression from "A Farewell to Kings" to "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire."

Iron Maiden added keys somewhere around "Seventh Son..."

Judas Priest. I hated the "Turbo" album.

ZZ Top -- the lat 80's stuff ("Afterburner" and "Eliminator" was heavy on synths.)

Triumph's latter albums in the 80s were thick on the keys.

Van Halen, from a few experimental things on "Fair Warning" and "Diver Down" to most of "1984."

Queen famously had a "no synthesizers" notation on their liner notes up until "The Game," in which they acknowledged using a synth for the first time. Their stuff after that was laden with synths.

Then there's Chicago. The band was already changing direction (noticeable between their fifth and sixth albums) but after Terry Kath's death, the change to Warner/Full Moon from Columbia, David Foster as producer, bringing in a lot of outside writers, and the addition of Bill Champlin all added up. People who only knew the band from "Hard To Say I'm Sorry" or "Look Away" or even "If You Leave Me Now" had no idea the same band cut "Poem 58" or "Sing A Mean Tune Kid," much less "25 or 6 to 4."


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Takumi

There's a Midwest indie rock band called Now, Now. Their first album was guitar-heavy, while their second one was synthpop.

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(I'm sure someone was expecting me to say the Smashing Pumpkins, but Billy Corgan has always been an enigma. There were several Adore-like songs on previous albums, but they were just contrasted with the heavier songs.)
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

TheStranger

The Doobie Brothers were noticeably rootsier in sound before Michael McDonald essentially replaced Tom Johnston as the lead vocalist.

The Who pre-Tommy was more in the vein of a genre Pete Townshend himself named, "power pop" - with a sound somewhere between garage rock and standard (if supercharged) British Invasion fare.  Though there were signs of this in earlier songs (Tattoo), from Tommy up to the end of the Keith Moon era was much more focused on a combination of album-length rock opera plots, more layered production, and more serious lyrics.  (It helped that Roger Daltrey's voice went from boyish to a little more grown up in the late 1960s)

Fleetwood Mac started out as a blues group, slowly evolved into more of a pop-rock outfit when Bob Welch joined the group, then of course is most known for the highly arranged, lyrically confessional Buckingham/Nicks era.

The Isley Brothers went from a vocal-oriented group in their first decade, to an innovative funk/rock band starting around 1968-1969 and continuing to 1983.

Steely Dan from 1972-1974 had a grittier rock-oriented sound when they were more of a performing group (i.e. My Old School, Do it Again, Bodhisattva) in the time that Jeff Baxter/Jim Hodder/Denny Dias were all regular members, then became focused on studio-perfect jazz/rock songs from 1975-1980, most exemplified by the Aja album.  (Baxter himself was part of when the Doobie Brothers' shifted into smoother jazz-influenced music once Michael McDonald joined that group - McDonald had been a Steely Dan backup vocalist)

David Bowie's entire career, pardon the pun, was one of drastic...changes.  Kinda wild to think that his projects introduced people as varied as Luther Vandross, David Sanborn, and Stevie Ray Vaughan to public consciousness. 

Mandy Moore started out doing bubblegum pop but after a covers album in the mid-2000s, has mostly recorded 70s-influenced adult contemporary/singer-songwriter music.

The Korean pop group Wonder Girls started out doing ultra-modern synthesized dance pop music during their peak era, then radically reinvented themselves as an actual band (with instruments) with a more nihilistic lyrical approach for their final two albums.  Korean soloist Park Ji Yoon went from happy pop music in the late 90s, to adult-oriented pop/R&B ca. 2000-2003, to an increasingly spare singer-songwriter vibe with chamber music tendencies from 2009-present.

Miles Davis, the jazz great, had roots in cool jazz but eventually went into hard bop and then jazz fusion (culminating in albums like In A Silent Way and Bitches' Brew).  When he returned from his late-70s retirement, he tried to stay contemporary with 1980s music trends, while still in the jazz idiom.


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TheHighwayMan3561

#3
Genesis. Their early days were as a progressive rock band in the vein of Yes or King Crimson. After Peter Gabriel and subsequently Steve Hackett moved on, they began to drift in a poppier direction as a three-piece led by Phil Collins, and then when Collins cashed in on his solo career doing straight pop, it led Genesis to follow with him. Actually, this indirectly led to Peter Cetera quitting Chicago as he wanted a similar arrangement as Collins where he had a solo career in addition to the band's new pop stardom, but the band wasn't willing to allow this, so he left for his solo career. 

Yes. Following Jon Anderson and Rick Waksman departing after their awful Tormato album, they were replaced with Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn of the Buggles. They did one album and then dissolved due to lackluster reviews. The story begins a couple years later when Chris Squire and Alan White teamed up with Trevor Rabin. They brought in another former Yes member, original keyboardist Tony Kaye. They recorded some songs as a new band called Cinema, but Rabin decided he didn't want to be both lead vocalist and guitarist. That led to Jon Anderson rejoining, and Owner of a Lonely Heart was born. By their next album, Anderson and Rabin had clashed as Anderson wanted to revert to more "traditional"  Yes while Rabin wanted to keep the 90125 mojo going.
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triplemultiplex

The Beastie Boys started as a punk rock group before they got into hip-hop.  Tho that was before they cut any records.
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kphoger

REM has made it a point to constantly change "their sound".
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Takumi

Quote from: triplemultiplex on July 20, 2021, 04:32:53 PM
The Beastie Boys started as a punk rock group before they got into hip-hop.  Tho that was before they cut any records.
They eventually released some of their old punk material and I think they made the occasional song after they hit it big.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

KeithE4Phx

The Beatles evolved from a bar band with a recording contract and a few original songs amongst the covers to developing music of many different genres.  This, of course, was as Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison evolved as songwriters.

The Rolling Stones failed twice when they tried to change their sound.  They tried psychedellia in 1967-68 and the results were so-so.  Ex-Byrd Gram Parsons muscled his way into Keith Richards' life (and drug habit), and as a result they tried some country rock in the early '70s, notably on Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street.  It sounded pretty bad, and even Mick Jagger put the efforts down.  But their best work was always doing blues-based rock & roll, and that's what they'll always be known for.
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kevinb1994

Quote from: KeithE4Phx on July 20, 2021, 06:23:58 PM
The Beatles evolved from a bar band with a recording contract and a few original songs amongst the covers to developing music of many different genres.  This, of course, was as Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison evolved as songwriters.

The Rolling Stones failed twice when they tried to change their sound.  They tried psychedellia in 1967-68 and the results were so-so.  Ex-Byrd Gram Parsons muscled his way into Keith Richards' life (and drug habit), and as a result they tried some country rock in the early '70s, notably on Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street.  It sounded pretty bad, and even Mick Jagger put the efforts down.  But their best work was always doing blues-based rock & roll, and that's what they'll always be known for.
I dig the effort, especially for the early-70s sound they had going.

Mapmikey

Kool and the Gang started out doing instrumental jazz but noticed pop soul paid the bills. Then after JT became their singer they turned into the smooth sound they had throughout the 80s

Pointer Sisters started out doing Bebop before moving to more contemporary sounds.

Bee Gees definitely changed their style to ride the disco wave then changed again when disco crashed and burned.

zachary_amaryllis

ministry started out as techno... and ended up.. like, angry.
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index

It doesn't totally fit the bill and it isn't something that people don't know, but, bringing it up just for the thread. After Ian Curtis at Joy Division died, the remaining members of the band put it all into New Order and their music took on a markedly different tone, especially with their most popular works.
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Takumi

Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on July 20, 2021, 07:41:58 PM
ministry started out as techno... and ended up.. like, angry.
I wouldn't call old Ministry techno. (Mostly because using "techno"  as a blanket term for all electronic music is a common mistake in the US, but also because they were more synth pop than anything else.)
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

kurumi

Ambrosia changed from prog (Life Beyond LA) to love ballads (You're the biggest part of me)
Heart changed from 1970s guitar-oriented rock (Barracuda) to 1980s arena pop (What about Love, 1986)
Yes changed from 1970s prog to 1980s pop (Love will Find a Way, 1987)
Genesis changed from 1970s prog to 1980s pop (We can't Dance, ~1985)
Rush, ditto (Power Windows, 1985. Keyboards had really moved in starting with Signals, but Power Windows was the one I regret buying)
The Tubes changed from 1970s art prog/punk (Mondo Bondage) to 1980s more straightforward rock (Talk to you later)
Jefferson Airplane (legit 60s rock) to Jefferson Starship (1970s art-rock) to Starship (2 songs that make many "worst ever" lists)
Sinead O'Connor, from Lion and the Cobra (excellent) to "Nothing compares 2 U" (oh well)

The Beatles really bucked the trend IMO as they moved on from early commercial success and got more adventurous. Most bands seem to go the other way.

AC/DC on the other hand found something that worked and didn't mess with it. That's why, back when I was listening to rock on the radio, you'd hear an AC/DC song about once an hour.
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andrepoiy

KISS adopted a glam-metal sound in the 80s when Glam was hot.

I believe some Glam metal bands changed their sound when Grunge started to become popular, but obviously, those albums didn't sell that well. I believe Poison is an example.

Bon Jovi went pop rock, especially with "It's My Life"

Aerosmith gradually went a bit more poppy too when they hired Desmond Child to write their hit songs.



Takumi

Quote from: index on July 20, 2021, 07:43:30 PM
It doesn't totally fit the bill and it isn't something that people don't know, but, bringing it up just for the thread. After Ian Curtis at Joy Division died, the remaining members of the band put it all into New Order and their music took on a markedly different tone, especially with their most popular works.
Eh...later Joy Division and early New Order were pretty similar stylistically, so there's an overlap, but around 1983 they definitely went more pop-oriented than they likely would have as Joy Division. That said, it definitely paid off as they're one of the most influential groups of all time.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

thspfc


hbelkins

Quote from: kevinb1994 on July 20, 2021, 07:33:59 PM
Quote from: KeithE4Phx on July 20, 2021, 06:23:58 PM
The Beatles evolved from a bar band with a recording contract and a few original songs amongst the covers to developing music of many different genres.  This, of course, was as Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison evolved as songwriters.

The Rolling Stones failed twice when they tried to change their sound.  They tried psychedellia in 1967-68 and the results were so-so.  Ex-Byrd Gram Parsons muscled his way into Keith Richards' life (and drug habit), and as a result they tried some country rock in the early '70s, notably on Sticky Fingers and Exile On Main Street.  It sounded pretty bad, and even Mick Jagger put the efforts down.  But their best work was always doing blues-based rock & roll, and that's what they'll always be known for.
I dig the effort, especially for the early-70s sound they had going.

Oddly enough, those are two of my favorite Stones albums.

Quote from: andrepoiy on July 20, 2021, 09:12:00 PM
KISS adopted a glam-metal sound in the 80s when Glam was hot.

I believe some Glam metal bands changed their sound when Grunge started to become popular, but obviously, those albums didn't sell that well. I believe Poison is an example.

Bon Jovi went pop rock, especially with "It's My Life"

Aerosmith gradually went a bit more poppy too when they hired Desmond Child to write their hit songs.




Kiss actually had a grunge album ("Carnival of Souls") recorded with that lineup (Stanley/Simmons/Kulick/Singer) and ready to go before the MTV Unplugged reunion led to "Psycho Circus" and that tour.

Aerosmith was never quite the same after that brief period that Joe Perry and Brad Whitford left and then came back. I never really cared for "Done With Mirrors," "Permament Vacation" was a bit too poppy for me, but "Pump" was OK. I haven't really been able to tolerate much of their studio stuff after that.


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Concrete Bob

North Carolina's own Corrosion of Conformity started as a hard-leaning Punk band in the late 1980s/early 1990s,and evolved into a very heavy metal based band, with underlying Southern Rock influences by the early 2000s. 

English band Sweet began as a pop band in the late 1960s/early 1970s and evolved into a straight up hard rock band by the mid 1970s. Some of tracks leaned Metal, others bent into Progressive territory (e.g. "Love is Like Oxygen.")

Journey started out as a Progressive/Jazz/Metal band in the guise of a cross between Led Zeppelin and Mahavishnu Orchestra for their first three releases and evolved into a Pop-Rock-Ballad-Guitar band after their fifth release in the late 1970s.  Commercially, it was a success.  Their commercial album tracks were "burnt to a crisp" by our local AOR station(s) in the early-mid 1980s.  Wasn't my cup of tea, but that doesn't matter.

After leaving Genesis, Peter Gabriel put out four solid Art Rock albums that infused a whole lot of sub-genres between 1977 and 1982.  His subsequent releases relied on Pop, Techno an Worldbeat. I bought Gabriel's 1986"So", but nothing since. 

Most of the comments in this thread are pretty spot on.  I have every Chicago release through VII and every Fleetwood Mac Release through Rumours.  Each of those bands had drifted into the Pop realm, they had lost their appeal to their original support base.  Even though each of those bands engrained a whole new new group of followers and wound up with more commercial success, their earliest releases are the ones who sparked my interests in their bands initially. 





TheHighwayMan3561

The Stones dabbled in some funk and disco with stuff like "Miss You". For that matter, the Dead too with "Shakedown Street".
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KeithE4Phx

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on July 21, 2021, 12:23:12 AM
The Stones dabbled in some funk and disco with stuff like "Miss You".

Miss You was one of their worst songs.  IMHO, of course.
"Oh, so you hate your job? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called "EVERYBODY!" They meet at the bar." -- Drew Carey

kevinb1994

Quote from: KeithE4Phx on July 21, 2021, 12:51:58 AM
Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on July 21, 2021, 12:23:12 AM
The Stones dabbled in some funk and disco with stuff like "Miss You".

Miss You was one of their worst songs.  IMHO, of course.
Aw, come on...they tried.

Rothman

I'd go with "Emotional Rescue" as their worst popular song.  I don't know how they got through those lyrics and nonsense without breaking up laughing.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

hbelkins

Quote from: Concrete Bob on July 20, 2021, 10:41:23 PM
Most of the comments in this thread are pretty spot on.  I have every Chicago release through VII and every Fleetwood Mac Release through Rumours.  Each of those bands had drifted into the Pop realm, they had lost their appeal to their original support base.  Even though each of those bands engrained a whole new new group of followers and wound up with more commercial success, their earliest releases are the ones who sparked my interests in their bands initially.

Chicago VII is an absolutely great album, especially sides 1 and 2. They were wanting to do a jazzier-type album, but had found some success with a different style of song in "Just You 'n' Me" so they needed to do other tunes like that. So they went back to the double-album concept. Kath's solo on "Aire" is good, but the live versions of that song I've heard are absolutely killer. And he shredded the outro solo in "I've Been Searching So Long," which is as much of a stereotypical ballad as anything that came later.

Chicago VIII was actually a really good album with a variety of styles but no really big hits. The really radical Kath-era change came with X, which was very poppish.

XI had promise, but it sounded like a collection of solo tunes rather than a group outing.

The only Foster-era album I can tolerate is 16. I can't even get through the others without finding something else to listen to. The remake of "25 or 6 to 4" was awful.


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Rushmeister

Def Leppard?  Umm, no. 

It's like they keep recording the same song over and over, but giving it a new name each time.  I love it (their song, that is).
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