Bands that radically changed their sound/style

[hbelkins]

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).

Their first three albums were great. I bought the first one sound unheard (that's a play on "sight unseen") based on their reputation as one of the leaders of NWOBHM (New wave of British heavy metal). "Hysteria" was a huge hit, but I didn't really care for it, and lost interest in them.

[andrepoiy]

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).

Could say the same about AC/DC hahahahaha

[triplemultiplex]

The subject of this thread is the story behind "Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry.

"Hey white boy, when you gonna play some funky music?"

[amroad17]

Exile changed from a soft rock/adult contemporary sound in the 1970's to a country sound in the early to mid 1980's.

[roadman65]

The Stones dabbled in some funk and disco with stuff like "Miss You".

Miss You was one of their worst songs.  IMHO, of course.

Then Undercover of the Night did a new sound close to Funk.

Bruce Springsteen’s Dancin In The Dark changed his sound from the traditional E Street Sound to more disco ish.  Springsteen even ditched his guitar as in the later music videos (Especially Dancin in the Dark) as   you seen him on stage holding a Mike but no jammin his guitars.

[jp the roadgeek]

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).

Could say the same about AC/DC hahahahaha

As well as The Ramones and The Spin Doctors

[Takumi]

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).

Could say the same about AC/DC hahahahaha

As well as The Ramones and The Spin Doctors

You mean the Spin Doctors had more than two songs?

[1995hoo]

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'm the weirdo who rather enjoys Their Satanic Majesties Request.

[JayhawkCO]

Sugar Ray used to be a hardcore punk band.  Then "Fly" was popular so they changed their sound completely with songs like "Every Morning".  Interestingly, they were the band that one of the kids followed in the Billy Crystal and Robin Williams movie "Fathers' Day".

Chris

[roadman65]

The Eagles changed their sound when Joe Walsh entered the band.

Clapton did twice. Once in the eighties and then again in the nineties. However he went back both times to his roots including two great Blues albums: From The Cradle and Me and Mr. Johnson.

In 1997 though EC experimented with Funk and R & B with Pilgrim as his last album of his  nineties detour.

[Mr_Northside]

I'm the weirdo who rather enjoys Their Satanic Majesties Request.

I'd say I really enjoy a handful of the tracks on it.   And "She's a Rainbow" is legit one of my favorite Stones songs in general.

[roadman65]

Simon and Garfunkel did in the end. Their top songs were Easy Listening  and charted there and also played on Elevator Music Stations over Rock Stations.

[KeithE4Phx]

Simon and Garfunkel did in the end. Their top songs were Easy Listening  and charted there and also played on Elevator Music Stations over Rock Stations.

That was more of a change in radio formats than Simon & Garfunkel's music.  By the time S&G split in 1971, it was the beginning of the end for Ancient Modulation rock stations, and commercial FM rockers were more into heavier and more "progressive" (jazz/classical-based) rock than what S&G were playing.  This was before FM Top 40 became more popular in the mid '70s, of course. 

From what I remember, college stations were more into the singer-songwriter/acoustic/folk-rock music that was more like S&G's style than commercial rock.  The proper name for that style was "Stuck in the '60s." 

[roadman65]

Oh right. Bridge Over Troubled Water and the El Condor song on rock radio?  They were more mellow than later Chicago was.

[KeithE4Phx]

Oh right. Bridge Over Troubled Water and the El Condor song on rock radio?  They were more mellow than later Chicago was.

Both songs got a lot of airplay on FM rockers in 1970.  But El Condor Pasa didn't stand the test of time, once the "free form" FM rockers bit the dust by 1975.  Bridge Over Troubled Water did, but only because it was a huge hit, not just an album track.

[Ned Weasel]

I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned Beck yet.  His early music is way different from his more recent music.  Frankly, I prefer the humor in his earlier music and find it to be more interesting in general, but YMMV.

[achilles765]

The Stones dabbled in some funk and disco with stuff like "Miss You".

Miss You was one of their worst songs.  IMHO, of course.

Then Undercover of the Night did a new sound close to Funk.

Bruce Springsteen's Dancin In The Dark changed his sound from the traditional E Street Sound to more disco ish.  Springsteen even ditched his guitar as in the later music videos (Especially Dancin in the Dark) as   you seen him on stage holding a Mike but no jammin his guitars.

I would argue that "Nebraska" was the bigger change from his usual sound

[achilles765]

I have to just throw out there that before any of these other artists changed and reinvented their sounds and images and all... there was one man who did it first and has consistently changed things up every few years (usually every three albums):
I am referring to my absolute favorite artist in any medium--the man whose music has had the biggest impact on my life..someone so transcendent he has a Nobel prize for literature:  yes. Bob Dylan
First there was the folk singer Dylan from 1961 with his self titled debut and running through 1964 with Another Side of... then he famously went electric and pissed off a lot of people.  He made three "electric frenetic" albums with some of the most impressive lyrics in rock history..,.then had a motorcycle crash and recorded a bunch of random crap with his friends in a big pink house... followed by 3 albums that were a celebration of family life... or straight up country music.  Then he took some time off before coming back with a dark tinged album with The Band, then an emotional therapy session about his crumbling marriage.  The next year he donned face paint and gathered a traveling minstrel show and hired a violist off the street and wrote songs with a playwright.. lots of travelogues and two songs about killers... he took a year off, then returned with saxophones and backing singers.  Then he shocked people even more than when he went electric when he became a hardcore evangelical christian...with his Gospel trilogy.  But that wouldn't last long either-- 1983 saw him record with Mark Knopfler's very distinctive guitar playing and a reggae rhythm session... and a lot of songs that leaned heavily into his native Judaism.  Then he tried disco-fish... then had some real clunkers... and then Oh Mercy... but then Under The Red Sky.  Then he just put out folk song covers and disappeared until 1997 when he came out with the incredibly dark and moody Time Out Of Mind... the 2000s saw him lean heavily into blues and some old folk influences. He released a very odd Christmas album. then  2012 saw the release of one of my favorites: the dark and violent Tempest... which was followed by three albums of Sinatra covers and old standards...including a fracking triple album... and last year the surprise "Rough and rowdy ways" which included the 17 minute "Murder Most Foul"
The man is 80 and doesn't seem to be interested in stopping either.  Love him or hate his voice or find him pretentious...but one does have to give him credit for always evolving and changing--and doing whatever the hell he felt like at the time... even if it was a huge disaster like Self Portrait.

[JayhawkCO]

I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned Beck yet.  His early music is way different from his more recent music.  Frankly, I prefer the humor in his earlier music and find it to be more interesting in general, but YMMV.

Beck is on my list for most underrated musicians ever.  I liked Odelay just fine but my favorite album is Midnite Vultures.

Chris

[Ned Weasel]

Beck is on my list for most underrated musicians ever.  I liked Odelay just fine but my favorite album is Midnite Vultures.

Chris

I'm torn between Mellow Gold and Mutations for my favorite Beck album.

[Flint1979]

When I think of something like this I think of The Beatles going from Love Me Do to Tomorrow Never Knows.

[kphoger]

I don't think anyone in this thread has mentioned Beck yet.  His early music is way different from his more recent music.  Frankly, I prefer the humor in his earlier music and find it to be more interesting in general, but YMMV.

Odelay is the only album I'm familiar with.  (I'm also listening to it right now.)

[kphoger]

Bob Dylan

Then he shocked people even more than when he went electric ...

Yeah, that seriously put some of his fans off.  Kind of like when the Eagles went a little bit country.

[Life in Paradise]

I'll bring in Queen.  Not for their singing, their harmony and Freddie Mercury's voice never changed, but their instrumentation.  Their earlier 70s music was all guitar with no synth (and they were proud of it).  Then the 80s came and they changed with it (example Radio GaGa).

[hbelkins]

I'll bring in Queen.  Not for their singing, their harmony and Freddie Mercury's voice never changed, but their instrumentation.  Their earlier 70s music was all guitar with no synth (and they were proud of it).  Then the 80s came and they changed with it (example Radio GaGa).

Their albums used to always note "no synthesizers." Then, when they finally used one, it was noted. Can't remember the exact verbiage, or which album, but it may have been "The Game" and it said something like, "For the first time, a synthesizer was used in the making of this album."