Musicians that shifted radically in style/genre (for better or for worse)

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
Sub Sub became the Doves.
50 Foot Dolls became Duffy's songwriters.
Underworld used to open as a bad Heaven 17 for the Eurythmics, which is quite something to consider when you listen to Second Toughest in the Infants and Beaucoup Fish.
Arrrrguably Martin Doherty leaving earlyish Twilight Sad to found Chvrches.
Belinda Carlisle's journey from the Go-Go's to well... Belinda Carlisle. Also Fergal Sharkey in the Undertones compared to Fergal Sharkey solo.
 
  • Like
Reactions: UselessRubberKeyboard, Pee Cola, Dr. Sexbot and 1 other person
I can think of a couple of lolcowish musicians who did this due to mental issues. Like Audrey Assad was this poster child of trad Catholic revival in the 2010s. She made above average cute CCM pop for the wholesome youth Mass crowd. Sometime around covid (very sad, many such cases) she lost her entire fucking mind, shaved her head, left her husband and child, became a they-them and started making very dramatic but unoriginal electronic shit.

Before:
1735871598352.png

After:
1735871855486.png

Her trajectory is all too similar to Sinead O'Connor's now that I think about it. Both are women with genuine talents, especially an actually very good voice that people are eager to hear and which adapts well to different kinds of works. You could say the burn out is the inevitable result of being "used" by "the industry" but I suspect that women like this would end up cracking up even if they had lower stakes lifestyles.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Ron Jeremy Stan Account, Da Capo, UselessRubberKeyboard and 1 other person
Idiotron said:
1st one is Metallica.
Every decade, they seem to change their style and that really pisses off the old ass fans who still would like them to play the same shit they did 40 years ago.
Personally, I didn't even like the first 4 albums, they're fine on a technical level but stylistically, I like Load the most.
I'm not even a car person but Fuel is one of the best rock songs ever made.
That shit they did with Lou Reed though.... that's garbage, fuck that.
Click to expand...
So you're one of these youngsters who wants them to play the same shit from 30 years ago instead of 40
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Jarl Varg
Diablo Swing Orchestra(DSO) had a soprano singer, AnnLouice Lögdlund, and their style were this weird mixture of Metal, Swing, Erudite music and obviously the opera aspect of the vocalist. "Riot Opera" its how they refer to their style.


AnnLouice left the band after 3 albums to focus on her soprano career and got replaced with Kristin Evegård which gave the band a pop vibe with their new songs.


Its not bad, Kristin got a good voice I still enjoy their new songs, the swing and metal is still in there but its just not that glass shattering soprano voice accompanied by guitars and cellos. Still good though.

Edit* Same song, new vocals and original vocals:
 
Last edited:
  • Informative
Reactions: UselessRubberKeyboard
The 90s band "Sugar Ray" began as a punk/nu-metal band. They had one song on their second album, "Fly" as a kind of one-off pop song. That song ended up being a smash hit in the summer of 1997, and the band decided to embrace the softer pop-rock genre, releasing their follow-up album, "14:59" in '99 (a joke on the idea that their 15 minutes of fame were almost over). They did music for the Scooby-Doo live action film and released a few more albums. Later on, lead singer Mark McGrath went on to be an anchor on "Entertainment Tonight," a celebrity gossip show. They still tour sometimes to cash in on that 90s nostalgia.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Irene and 22 others, Ron Jeremy Stan Account, Marsh Rabbit and 1 other person
I mean sometimes it's necessary for artists to change. I heard Anthony Kleidis started as a rapper before going into singing. But at same time I feel like changing genres is just a weak way to make new music and seem fresh. The fucking red hot chilli peppers keep making songs about California and sex on psychedelics. They don't need to change genres just change the topic.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jarl Varg and messiah complex
Sneedium said:
The 90s band "Sugar Ray" began as a punk/nu-metal band. They had one song on their second album, "Fly" as a kind of one-off pop song. That song ended up being a smash hit in the summer of 1997, and the band decided to embrace the softer pop-rock genre, releasing their follow-up album, "14:59" in '99 (a joke on the idea that their 15 minutes of fame were almost over). They did music for the Scooby-Doo live action film and released a few more albums. Later on, lead singer Mark McGrath went on to be an anchor on "Entertainment Tonight," a celebrity gossip show. They still tour sometimes to cash in on that 90s nostalgia.
Click to expand...
"10 Seconds Down" was a good song. They went to mainstream shit after that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nameless One
Pendulum was formed by a couple of dudes who originally played in metal and hard rock bands, but they are best known for their '00s D&B stuff.


These days, they've gone back to their hard rock roots, though they haven't completely abandoned D&B.

 
  • Like
Reactions: UselessRubberKeyboard
Sticky Fingers shift from reggae aus indie to what they are making now. I don't know if it's better or worse because they are still making good music, but it's nothing like the bangerz they use to make.
 
I.B. Niggin said:
View attachment 6815256
View attachment 6815257
Click to expand...
Was that just a Swedish death metal thing? Like Therion went from being an excellent example of the old school Swedish sound and really pushing it forward on their first three albums to being all light and mellow and a bunch of choirs and symphonic metal stuff. Or Nocturnal Rites who put out a cool death metal demo before doing power metal and eventually a really catchy hard rock album.

The Gothenburg melodeath bands too. The first At the Gates album is prog death metal, then they got the typical "Iron Maiden with heavier guitars and growls." Dark Tranquillity started as death metal too, did the "Gothenburg sound", but have been doing goth metal stuff since the late 90s with lots of keys. And In Flames is the Metallica of extreme metal and hopped on every trend from mallcore to metalcore to limp-dicked alternative rock.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Idiot Asshole
last whitey in Toronto said:
I mean sometimes it's necessary for artists to change. I heard Anthony Kleidis started as a rapper before going into singing. But at same time I feel like changing genres is just a weak way to make new music and seem fresh. The fucking red hot chilli peppers keep making songs about California and sex on psychedelics. They don't need to change genres just change the topic.
Click to expand...
Yeah, Chili Peppers was a funk rock band in their early albums (The Red Hot Chili Peppers '83, Freaky Styley '85 (produced by George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic) and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan '87). Anthony Kiedis himself was a big fan of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and other rap artists. Kiedis started going to a more melodic style of singing in their fourth album Mother's Milk, but still retained some of their funk and punk roots in that one. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was a major turn for them though. Rick Rubin produced the album, John Frusciante was experimenting more with music. By their next album Anthony already mostly abandoned the rap style singing in favor of melodic one, and in the Californication era he hired a vocal coach.
In their case, though, I don't consider them changing genres but rather evolving (or de-evolving, as some fans of their earlier eras think) according to what they are listening or living. Anthony himself dislikes singing songs from pre-BSSM era because he doesn't feel connected to the lyrics anymore after getting sober, but they still love funk rock very much, it just doesn't make sense making music like that anymore.
Although he still writes about California, drugs and sex a lot, I think he has added some good topics to his lyrics as the years have passed. But don't expect much more than that, though.

One that I consider that shifted quite a lot is John himself. He has a few alt rock albums:
First one was Niandra Lades and Just A T-Shirt, which has a stream-of-consciousness guitar playing style and some bizarre stuff, but I like it quite a lot
His third is To Record Only Water for Ten Days (2001), which has a different style
The Empyrean was released in 2009 and I think it's one of his most well received albums

And then by 2012 he started releasing acid house/breakcore music as Trickfinger:
Which leave some fans of his work with Chili Peppers confused.

There are other different tracks but that's basically it.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: last whitey in Toronto
Gary Numan, started off as synth-pop/new wave in 1979. He took a nosedive during the late 80's and early 90's that makes me cringe even as a fan, and then had big comeback in the mid 90's with a more industrial sound. Definitely for the better imo. Gary announced a plan for Sacrifice, Exile and Pure to be rerecorded in 2020 with help of Ade Fenton, so when that finally happens I will have 3 copies of each.


 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Ron Jeremy Stan Account, Da Capo, The Token Ethnic and 1 other person
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back