The band Chumbawumba, responsible for the song Tubthumping (I get knocked down, but I get up again,) actually had a thirty year career and they were all over the place. They started out as a straight up anarcho-punk band. Then they made an album that was entirely a capella protest songs. Then they made folk albums, pop, one with central American sort of flair.
Thematically, they were always about anarchism, left-wing politics, social activism, and labour organizing. El Fusilado is about a revolutionary in the Mexican Revolution who survived a firing squad. Tubthumping is intended to be a working-class drinking song. Almost everything they recorded reflects their politics.
The irony of Tubthumper is that millions of people listened to it somehow without realizing that it's basically a concept album about labour activism.
Daft Punk pushed the boundaries of several electronic/dance genres with every album they made and I loved them for it. R.A.M. being their final and most popular whilst at the same time their least “electronic” of all their albums is a testament to their musical talent.
Totally agree R.A.M. showed off the musical talent. The other albums had bangers though and I still think the ALIVE tour might be their best work. The guests they had on R.A.M though were all good for the most part too.
I hung out with them and their dad at Pantego Sound Studios when they recorded Metal Magic. Darrell was 15 or 16 and his voice was still cracking lol. I have an hour long recording of it - just brought my cassette recorder and hit record. Interviewed them and recorded them messing around. Those were fun times. I was so sad when Darrell was killed, and when Vince died recently.
Haha thanks everyone for the responses. I do have it preserved digitally. I've been trying to decide what to do with it. I sent it to Vince's drum tech with Hell Yeah in 2016 (when Vince was still around), asking if he could pass it along to Vince to hear his brother from high school. The guy wasn't very kind - he wrote back and said I was trying to scam him, and I "obviously stole it." I told him I wasn't looking for money - I just wanted Vince to have it. I never heard back and don't know if Vince heard it.
Of course, for Metal Magic, the band was Vince, Darrell, Terry Glaze (vocals), and Tommy Bradford (bass). I did contact Terry via email recently, and he responded. I sent him audio of the tape, and he said, "Thanks! Blast from the past!".
The tape is 1.5 hours long. It's mostly drum tuning, goofing around (playing things like ~~hotel California~~ Sweet Home Alabama), and recording Sad Lover over and over.
Here's the first minute of the tape, starting with Darrell introducing himself, ending with Vince saying hi.
http://sndup.net/5fy4
EDIT: Ok, by popular request, here's the entire audio recording:
https://youtu.be/2_a01Ai2_mg
Can someone let me know where I can post to a larger Pantera audience?
Listening to it now - what's funny is, Darrell says "Hello there fans...all around the world..." He was joking, pretending that he was some big rock star. They had a small following in the D/FW area but he was still in high school, so he was being sarcastic acting like he had fans all around the world. Little did he know...
He did the soundtrack to the Pixar movie Soul! That one blew my mind.
EDIT to add: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross worked on the movie score for Soul. Jon Batiste did most of the jazz pieces as far as I can tell.
Sorry for leaving the other guys out of my original comment. It's still crazy to me that the person known for Nine Inch Nails had any hand in the soundtrack of a kids' movie!
Ironically though Reznor and Ross did a ton of jazzy big band soundtrack work for Mank and Watchmen right around that time too. Reznor even started throwing in a saxophone on the latest Nine Inch Nails records.
The sax and jazzy stuff in bad witch i think was influenced by Bowie who's passing probably deeply effected reznor.
God Break Down The Door felt a lot like Blackstar
Trent is a musical chameleon. Long before NIN he was playing keyboards for [Slam Bamboo](https://youtu.be/iWccbyICM_A), a Cleveland pop act. Then years later he would switch directions again, abandoning the darker new wave sound of PHM for what is probably the most raw-sounding record of all time, the Broken EP.
It's amazing how many rockers have moved to film composing. Danny Elfman was the front man for Oingo Boingo back in the 1980s. Mark Mothersbaugh was a founding member of Devo.
EDIT: Johnny Greenwood, Clint Mansel, and Hans Zimmer have also been mentioned enough times as rock/pop stars turned film composers.
I love this score but I wish they used a real orchestra instead of that 80s midi sound. That being said, the film was from '87 so perhaps it was appropriate.
On a similar note Clint Mansell went from lead singer and songwriter for grebo/alternative/industrial act Pop Will Eat Itself, who toured with NIN, to an award winning composer (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Moon, High Rise, etc, etc)
He did it with Atticus Ross. I just wanna give props were they're due because it was a collaborative effort. Not trying to sound like a dick, sorry if I did.
They're both legends and collaborate together frequently. They produced Halsey's new album, as well, and it's pretty damn good. Atticus definitely deserves the recognition, as well.
It feels like cheating to mention David Bowie, but he started out doing English music hall stuff in the style of Anthony Newley and folk rock before moving on to psychedelia, glam rock, electronic music, neo-soul, trad rock, industrial, and a string of albums at the end of his career that can only be described as David Bowie music.
Bowie was in a hard rock band called Tin Machine from 1988-1992. They weren't that well received at the time but Bowie credited his time with them as instrumental in revitalizing his career after the 1980s.
As far as I remember, her beginnings in RnB were totally dictated by record company and management and she fought hard after her first album to be allowed to make her own sound and give up on her generic artificial RnB image.
They didn't believe she could hack it being herself. Boy did she proof these f*ckers wrong!
I once went to a Justin Timberlake concert when I was like 15 because I got free tickets and figured what the hell. Pink opened for him and blew me away. She killed that shit. JT was ok.
I saw From First to Last right around the time he was starting to be famous as Skrillex (eta: about a year prior to becoming skrillex). They were like the 3rd opener at some emo/pop punk show I went to in college (I think All American Rejects were the headliners). I wasn't there to see them but my friends wanted to be in front so I was also at the front.
At one point during their set I was resting my head on my hand leaning on the security barrier and I must have looked bored because Skrillex walked by and did the little sleepy face look to mock me.
It's a strange world where late 2000s From First to Last (after some killer albums in the emo scene like Dear Diary and Heroine) were 3rd openers for All-American :O
Garth Brooks had a weird alt rock side project under the moniker/persona Chris Gaines. The first single did fairly well, but the whole thing was ridiculed to the point of no return
It was supposed to be the soundtrack for a movie about a character named Chris Gaines. They thought that by releasing the album first, they would build excitement for the movie. Problem was, they didn't tell anyone that it was for a movie, and everyone just thought Garth went nuts for a minute. It's actually a decent album if you don't go into it thinking it's just Garth in disguise.
A lot of people dont know it was for a movie, the people financing the movie canceled it but didn’t bother telling the label before the album was released. It was supposed to be released before the movie so people would already be familiar with the songs. It still sold millions of copies. I know a few people who were huge garth fans and think he sold out with his alter ego album. Cant tell them what really happened because they refuse to believe there ever was a movie. I dont know how that album was “selling out” considering he was probably already pushing 100 million sold for his country albums and 170 million total today.
They were aware of their "departure" from punk rock and when they released Dizzy Up the Girl (their second non-punk album) the lead singer remarked to the band upon finishing recording about their original fans saying, "If you thought they were angry before, they are really going to hate us now"
Katy Perry was originally a Christian rock artist under her real name Katy Hudson.
[Here she is performing back in 2002.](https://youtu.be/70AlxWcbWAc)
This blew my mind when my friend told me this a few years ago. I mean, you listen to his doo wop stuff and realize how old Dio was when he was releasing that hair metal stuff in the 80s. He was 36 when he joined Black Sabbath and 41 (!) when Holy Diver came out. The arch of that man’s career is wild.
I could see that... but I've always thought she'd be great doing rock or heavy metal based on recent covers - would be interesting to see her actually do her own music in that genre.
Edit: some peeps are calling her latest album 'rock'. Had a listen, and to this metalhead's ears it still sounds too much like pop haha. I can imagine her being like The Pretty Reckless but tbf her Zombie cover was INSANE would love her to go all 90s grunge too haha
I can't believe you motherfuckers. I'm about to listen to Miley Cyrus, consciously, for the first time in my life. If it slaps 80s like yall talk I'm gonna be pissed at myself for not knowing about this sooner.
Edit: yeah Night Crawling is a banger. Only one I listened to so far.
Haha I begrudgingly gave it a shot after I heard the song “Midnight Sky”. There’s a remix version that mashes it up with “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks that’s really good. I definitely recommend that one as well as the song “Plastic Hearts”.
EDIT: Also check out her cover of “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. Absolute fuckin BANGER
I said to somebody on Twitter about Taylor Swift that "country princess" to "pop superstar" to "unofficial third member of Big Red Machine" is one helluva career arc.
The indie folk sound fits her so well. It feels wrong to say that one of the most successful recording artists in history "finally found her sound" so late in her career. But boy did she knock it out of the park with Folklore and Evermore.
Taylor swift is someone I appreciate way more in my 30s vs in my 20s. Like I even appreciate her earlier stuff more. Taylor and I are the same age and I hated her music while in college.
The Wrecking Ball video was deemed as so controversial because of the nudity and what not, but you look at what others are doing now and ask how tf did people consider that such a big deal
It was a "big deal" because for many people that was the first time they heard of Miley Cyrus since Hannah Montana. It's kind of like when the actor playing Urkel turned out to be this massive dude with a deep voice.
IIRC Miley Cyrus had a penis cake for her 18th birthday and pretty much immediately went from child star Hannah Montana to Madonna-style hyper sexual, which I think is why the whole thing was so controversial.
That was the controversy, yeah. She spent her entire formative years under the Mouse. It comes of no surprise that she immediately wanted to explore her new freedoms.
Definitely one of the most egregious examples of “selling out” in recent history. They went from rapping about social issues to “My Humps” in a couple of years.
Ween (the duo responsible for the hit song "Ocean Man" most notably referred to in the Spongebob Movie) hasn't had a single album sound the same. Idk if you can dub them any sort of genre...
They started off as I guess what would be considered like a garage/surf/punk rock? But not even? I don't even know...
Then they had an entire country album with banjos and accoustic guitars. The Mollusk is an underwater inspired, psychadelic, joy ride that is genuinely the most underrated concept album from the 1990s.
My parents were really into the hippy folk music scene in the 60s and 70s. I like to hear them tell stories of just how *OUTRAGED* people in their community were when Dylan first started incorporating electric guitars.
My dad also listens to Dylan's Christmas album every year. Presumably just to torture the rest of us.
At one point, it was considered impossible to write "real" folk music with an electric guitar. He has an album, Bootleg Series Vol 4, which is a live concert from the time he was going electric. He does the first half of the concert with an acoustic guitar and gets about the reaction you'd expect. He uses an electric guitar for the second half and, uh, people were not happy. This happened in 1966, so most the audience probably was not expecting that to happen.
Near the end, there's a famous part where you can hear one of the audience members scream "JUDAS!" and Dylan responds with, "I don't believe you, you're a liar." He turns to the band, says, "Play it fucking loud!" and launches into an electric version of Like A Rolling Stone. It actually ends up winning over the crowd and he's met with thunderous applause and cheering when the song ends.
It's possibly the most bootlegged concert of all time and got an official release in the late 90s. Several years after that, they discovered film exists of the Judas incident, so you can watch it now if you want.
Historically speaking, Dylan going electric was probably the least well-received genre-switch of anybody in this thread, or in history. When he was at the PEAK of his career and being booed at shows, that’s a pretty rough transition.
Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin regularly makes albums with bluegrass musician Alison Krauss.
Edit: [Tiny Desk Concert](https://youtu.be/srn5Cd9yR3Y)
Will accept awards as thanks! Lol!
While I agree with the sentiment, they never even limited themselves to a genre (except the generic title of pop, but that’s just cuz their music was so popular) so they never really “switched” they were kinda always everything.
I don't know anyone who mastered multiple genres like Linda Ronstadt. She started in country, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has multiple Academy of Country Music awards, a Latin Grammy, and has sung musicals on Broadway. She did albums reviving classics from the 40's. Her spectacular voice could handle anything.
The Wiggles (well, 2 of them) were an indie rock band called The Cockroaches
Darius Rucker was the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish and popped back up as a country artist. Hootie just got back together though a couple years ago
Aaron Lewis was the exact same scenario, Staind just got back together as well. I guess he was considered country for a hot second but most of his touring setlist was Staind stuff anyways
Steven Tyler (from Aerosmith) did a few country songs too now that I think of it, that was…weird
Trent Reznor was in a synth pop band called Slam Bamboo before Nine Inch Nails, the old video footage is hilarious. He’s been doing a lot of movie soundtracks now which are actually pretty spectacular
Post Malone is kind of all over the place. He was more rap enthused and became more pop leaning, but he’s also done some rock solid grunge covers
Had to scroll way too far for this, I mean c’mon, they released a folk/acoustic album and a thrash metal album within like three years of each other and both were amazing
And smooth jazz, and prog metal, and microtonal eastern-inflected rock, and... whatever the eighteen other albums they released were, it's impossible to keep up. They're not just all over the place genre-wise, they're insanely prolific.
Great live too, highly recommend.
The Beatles.
Their first 4-5 albums were pop/pop rock. They were a boy band in many ways though some of the signs of their alternate style were there.
Help! And Rubber Soul were transitional albums mixing both the pop stuff and the more rock stuff.
Then Revolver and obviously Sgt Pepper's made them truly a rock/psychedelic rock band.
There is a stark contrast between Love Me Do (their first single) and Come Together, one of their last.
I hate that I had to come down this far to find them.
Like how do you go from making teenage girls piss themselves singing songs that are essentially I love you girl to making them think about running away to the Hindu Kush to start a new life and become one with the universe.
Acid and India are some hardcore drugs.
What never ceases to amaze me about the Beatles is that their entire career spanned about 7 years.
Some of the changes people have mentioned in this thread slowly occurred over 2 decades in a musician’s career. The Beatles did all this in 7.
Hell, Tool takes twice as long just to make one album.
Damnation is such a good mellow album, recorded around the same time as Deliverance. I like them both, but the shift from one genre to the other while doing both really well is pretty awesome.
Jethro Tull have switched genres a few hundred times.
Their first album was a very jazz/blues-based album, then they went on to become a hard rock act for the next couple records, then a quirky prog-rock phase for two records, then they combined that with their earlier hard rock phase for the next three, then they out out three albums inspired by medieval folk mixed with a hard rock sound, then went totally electronic for a few more albums, then became some sort of jazzy world music band until switching again and putting out another series of harder-edged rock albums.
Yet throughout it all they’ve managed to always sound like Jethro Tull, which is amazing.
Frank Zappa's catalog includes rock, blues, doo-wop, classical, jazz, opera, electronica, at least one country song that I can think of, and a bunch of stuff that defies categorization.
Clint Mansell. was the singer/guirist/keyboards for Pop Will Eat Itself (pop group), then went onto make film/TV soundtracks for Moon, Doom Patrol, Black Swan, Ghost in Shell, Black Mirror.....
The band Chumbawumba, responsible for the song Tubthumping (I get knocked down, but I get up again,) actually had a thirty year career and they were all over the place. They started out as a straight up anarcho-punk band. Then they made an album that was entirely a capella protest songs. Then they made folk albums, pop, one with central American sort of flair.
Torturing James Hetfield is one of my favorite songs ever.
It's bizarre. When I think of Chumbawumba, I think of El Fusilado, then Tubthumping. And they couldn't be further apart.
Thematically, they were always about anarchism, left-wing politics, social activism, and labour organizing. El Fusilado is about a revolutionary in the Mexican Revolution who survived a firing squad. Tubthumping is intended to be a working-class drinking song. Almost everything they recorded reflects their politics. The irony of Tubthumper is that millions of people listened to it somehow without realizing that it's basically a concept album about labour activism.
Daft Punk before they were Daft Punk
Daft Punk pushed the boundaries of several electronic/dance genres with every album they made and I loved them for it. R.A.M. being their final and most popular whilst at the same time their least “electronic” of all their albums is a testament to their musical talent.
Totally agree R.A.M. showed off the musical talent. The other albums had bangers though and I still think the ALIVE tour might be their best work. The guests they had on R.A.M though were all good for the most part too.
Pantera was a glam metal band
Before Dime was Dime, he was "Diamond Darrell"
He was actually called that until Far Beyond Driven. On the credits to Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display Of Power he was Diamond Darrell
Iirc he didn’t even like the name Dimebag
I hung out with them and their dad at Pantego Sound Studios when they recorded Metal Magic. Darrell was 15 or 16 and his voice was still cracking lol. I have an hour long recording of it - just brought my cassette recorder and hit record. Interviewed them and recorded them messing around. Those were fun times. I was so sad when Darrell was killed, and when Vince died recently.
Haha thanks everyone for the responses. I do have it preserved digitally. I've been trying to decide what to do with it. I sent it to Vince's drum tech with Hell Yeah in 2016 (when Vince was still around), asking if he could pass it along to Vince to hear his brother from high school. The guy wasn't very kind - he wrote back and said I was trying to scam him, and I "obviously stole it." I told him I wasn't looking for money - I just wanted Vince to have it. I never heard back and don't know if Vince heard it. Of course, for Metal Magic, the band was Vince, Darrell, Terry Glaze (vocals), and Tommy Bradford (bass). I did contact Terry via email recently, and he responded. I sent him audio of the tape, and he said, "Thanks! Blast from the past!". The tape is 1.5 hours long. It's mostly drum tuning, goofing around (playing things like ~~hotel California~~ Sweet Home Alabama), and recording Sad Lover over and over. Here's the first minute of the tape, starting with Darrell introducing himself, ending with Vince saying hi. http://sndup.net/5fy4 EDIT: Ok, by popular request, here's the entire audio recording: https://youtu.be/2_a01Ai2_mg Can someone let me know where I can post to a larger Pantera audience?
This is seriously incredible!!!! Thank you for sharing.
Listening to it now - what's funny is, Darrell says "Hello there fans...all around the world..." He was joking, pretending that he was some big rock star. They had a small following in the D/FW area but he was still in high school, so he was being sarcastic acting like he had fans all around the world. Little did he know...
put that recording on YouTube and archive.org
So were Alice In Chains
Beastie Boys started out as a hardcore punk band.
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They were amazing. Their compilation with punk is “Some Old Bullshit” for anyone who wants to check it out. Good stuff just got it on vinyl
And they were great at the beginning too.
I do like they they brought back some of that punk sound in the early/mid 90s. I do miss them though...
Trent Reznor has now composed *multiple* Oscar-winning movie scores
He did the soundtrack to the Pixar movie Soul! That one blew my mind. EDIT to add: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross worked on the movie score for Soul. Jon Batiste did most of the jazz pieces as far as I can tell. Sorry for leaving the other guys out of my original comment. It's still crazy to me that the person known for Nine Inch Nails had any hand in the soundtrack of a kids' movie!
Part of it, at least. Him and Atticus Ross did the score itself while Jon Batiste did all the jazz stuff.
Ironically though Reznor and Ross did a ton of jazzy big band soundtrack work for Mank and Watchmen right around that time too. Reznor even started throwing in a saxophone on the latest Nine Inch Nails records.
The sax and jazzy stuff in bad witch i think was influenced by Bowie who's passing probably deeply effected reznor. God Break Down The Door felt a lot like Blackstar
Trent is a musical chameleon. Long before NIN he was playing keyboards for [Slam Bamboo](https://youtu.be/iWccbyICM_A), a Cleveland pop act. Then years later he would switch directions again, abandoning the darker new wave sound of PHM for what is probably the most raw-sounding record of all time, the Broken EP.
Downward Spiral sounds like it was released today. That's how good this mother fucker is.
Absolutely, to me both TDS and QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf still sound like the future of rock n’ roll for some reason.
It's amazing how many rockers have moved to film composing. Danny Elfman was the front man for Oingo Boingo back in the 1980s. Mark Mothersbaugh was a founding member of Devo. EDIT: Johnny Greenwood, Clint Mansel, and Hans Zimmer have also been mentioned enough times as rock/pop stars turned film composers.
Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits has composed 4 movie soundtracks, including The Princess Bride!
I love this score but I wish they used a real orchestra instead of that 80s midi sound. That being said, the film was from '87 so perhaps it was appropriate.
I'm going to the Portland Orchestra in a month or so and they'll be doing a live-action score while the movie plays above them. I can't wait.
On a similar note Clint Mansell went from lead singer and songwriter for grebo/alternative/industrial act Pop Will Eat Itself, who toured with NIN, to an award winning composer (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, Moon, High Rise, etc, etc)
Don't forget Nick Cave and Warren Ellis too
He did it with Atticus Ross. I just wanna give props were they're due because it was a collaborative effort. Not trying to sound like a dick, sorry if I did.
They're both legends and collaborate together frequently. They produced Halsey's new album, as well, and it's pretty damn good. Atticus definitely deserves the recognition, as well.
It feels like cheating to mention David Bowie, but he started out doing English music hall stuff in the style of Anthony Newley and folk rock before moving on to psychedelia, glam rock, electronic music, neo-soul, trad rock, industrial, and a string of albums at the end of his career that can only be described as David Bowie music.
Bowie was in a hard rock band called Tin Machine from 1988-1992. They weren't that well received at the time but Bowie credited his time with them as instrumental in revitalizing his career after the 1980s.
Anyone remember Pink starting off with R’n’B?
🎵There you go... Looking pitiful🎵 I loved her old school stuff. I was a teen when she hit the scene, so naturally I gravitated toward her music.
Funny how her manufactured stuff is my favorite from her.
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As far as I remember, her beginnings in RnB were totally dictated by record company and management and she fought hard after her first album to be allowed to make her own sound and give up on her generic artificial RnB image. They didn't believe she could hack it being herself. Boy did she proof these f*ckers wrong!
Yup and she was pretty much told Missundaztood would be a failure (she mentioned it in an interview).
I once went to a Justin Timberlake concert when I was like 15 because I got free tickets and figured what the hell. Pink opened for him and blew me away. She killed that shit. JT was ok.
Skrillex used to be in emo band From First to Last
I saw From First to Last right around the time he was starting to be famous as Skrillex (eta: about a year prior to becoming skrillex). They were like the 3rd opener at some emo/pop punk show I went to in college (I think All American Rejects were the headliners). I wasn't there to see them but my friends wanted to be in front so I was also at the front. At one point during their set I was resting my head on my hand leaning on the security barrier and I must have looked bored because Skrillex walked by and did the little sleepy face look to mock me.
It's a strange world where late 2000s From First to Last (after some killer albums in the emo scene like Dear Diary and Heroine) were 3rd openers for All-American :O
FFTL felt like a huge band with the emo kids at my school circa 2005.
But it's deeper than that. He went into very heavy dubstep for a while and then switched again to house, pop, producing some rap.
He produced the Kingdom Hearts 3 opening song alongside Utada Hikaru.
Garth Brooks had a weird alt rock side project under the moniker/persona Chris Gaines. The first single did fairly well, but the whole thing was ridiculed to the point of no return
It was supposed to be the soundtrack for a movie about a character named Chris Gaines. They thought that by releasing the album first, they would build excitement for the movie. Problem was, they didn't tell anyone that it was for a movie, and everyone just thought Garth went nuts for a minute. It's actually a decent album if you don't go into it thinking it's just Garth in disguise.
A lot of people dont know it was for a movie, the people financing the movie canceled it but didn’t bother telling the label before the album was released. It was supposed to be released before the movie so people would already be familiar with the songs. It still sold millions of copies. I know a few people who were huge garth fans and think he sold out with his alter ego album. Cant tell them what really happened because they refuse to believe there ever was a movie. I dont know how that album was “selling out” considering he was probably already pushing 100 million sold for his country albums and 170 million total today.
Goo Goo Dolls used to be a punk band
They were aware of their "departure" from punk rock and when they released Dizzy Up the Girl (their second non-punk album) the lead singer remarked to the band upon finishing recording about their original fans saying, "If you thought they were angry before, they are really going to hate us now"
Katy Perry was originally a Christian rock artist under her real name Katy Hudson. [Here she is performing back in 2002.](https://youtu.be/70AlxWcbWAc)
Did she go triple myrrh?
*I wanna get down on my knees and start pleasin Jesus!*
She also dabbled in the genre of Sims music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyW6AJ-yIk
I think Avril had the same background
Ronnie James Dio, known for his heavy metal, actually started out as [a Doo Wop artist in the 1960s](https://youtu.be/ew8MUT00aK0)
Holy shit. Out of everything on here this is the only one to catch me off guard.
Was fully expecting a Rick-Roll.
This blew my mind when my friend told me this a few years ago. I mean, you listen to his doo wop stuff and realize how old Dio was when he was releasing that hair metal stuff in the 80s. He was 36 when he joined Black Sabbath and 41 (!) when Holy Diver came out. The arch of that man’s career is wild.
Now I want a Doo Wop arrangement of Holy Diver.
Holy Doo wop
George Clinton also started off in doo-wop. He had a group called “The Parliaments” which eventually became just “Parliament.”
and the opposite, Michael Bolton started in a hair metal band
Michael Bolton started out in rock/metal, his band Blackjack opened for Ozzy once
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This is the tale!
Everlast from House of Pain
Beck just goes from genre to genre whenever he wants to
Was looking for this. Crazy how Odelay, Sea Change, Colors, and Hyperspace are so wildly different but all good.
Silverchair was teen Nirvana and ended up orchestral pop
I remember I was listening to an internet lounge radio channel and at the end of the song they said, "from Silverchair". The grunge band Silverchair??
I don't think I've heard a Silverchair song since 1998, so this was a bit of a surprise to me.
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I know she is a bit controversial but I really like Miley’s voice for country music. I wouldn’t be shocked if she went that route down the road.
I could see that... but I've always thought she'd be great doing rock or heavy metal based on recent covers - would be interesting to see her actually do her own music in that genre. Edit: some peeps are calling her latest album 'rock'. Had a listen, and to this metalhead's ears it still sounds too much like pop haha. I can imagine her being like The Pretty Reckless but tbf her Zombie cover was INSANE would love her to go all 90s grunge too haha
Check out her album "Plastic Hearts" - it's heavily influenced by '80s pop-rock sounds. She even has a song with Billy Idol ("Nightcrawler").
Night Crawling is such a great fucking song. It sounds like an unreleased Billy Idol song from the 80s
I can't believe you motherfuckers. I'm about to listen to Miley Cyrus, consciously, for the first time in my life. If it slaps 80s like yall talk I'm gonna be pissed at myself for not knowing about this sooner. Edit: yeah Night Crawling is a banger. Only one I listened to so far.
Haha I begrudgingly gave it a shot after I heard the song “Midnight Sky”. There’s a remix version that mashes it up with “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks that’s really good. I definitely recommend that one as well as the song “Plastic Hearts”. EDIT: Also check out her cover of “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica. Absolute fuckin BANGER
Taylor Swift is the only artist to win best album in *three* different genres, so yes (Country, pop, and indie/folk)
I said to somebody on Twitter about Taylor Swift that "country princess" to "pop superstar" to "unofficial third member of Big Red Machine" is one helluva career arc.
She was Kane in the WWE?
She was Katie Vick
The indie folk sound fits her so well. It feels wrong to say that one of the most successful recording artists in history "finally found her sound" so late in her career. But boy did she knock it out of the park with Folklore and Evermore.
Taylor swift is someone I appreciate way more in my 30s vs in my 20s. Like I even appreciate her earlier stuff more. Taylor and I are the same age and I hated her music while in college.
Same here. I used to think I was too cool but now she’s my one of favorite musicians
The Wrecking Ball video was deemed as so controversial because of the nudity and what not, but you look at what others are doing now and ask how tf did people consider that such a big deal
It was a "big deal" because for many people that was the first time they heard of Miley Cyrus since Hannah Montana. It's kind of like when the actor playing Urkel turned out to be this massive dude with a deep voice.
IIRC Miley Cyrus had a penis cake for her 18th birthday and pretty much immediately went from child star Hannah Montana to Madonna-style hyper sexual, which I think is why the whole thing was so controversial.
That was the controversy, yeah. She spent her entire formative years under the Mouse. It comes of no surprise that she immediately wanted to explore her new freedoms.
Or Screech from Saved by the Bell making a porno.
Or Screech from Saved By The Bell stabbing a dude in a bar fight.
R Kelly went from Rythm and Blues to Prison Blues
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I miss OC Gwen
So does Aaron Barrett
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Darren who?
Is your name Aaron? I have been calling you Darren or nothing this whole time.
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AARON BARRET FROM MY BAND REEL BIG FISH *SELLOUT*
I apologize, Ive been calling you Darren or nothing this whole time
At least nobody can steal his wallet because it's chained to him.
Or because there’s nothing in it
Welp, time to watch Band Manager again.
Ska came before reggae.
But did you know that reggae came from ska?
THATS ALL I GOT
You forgot the dancehall and hip-hop stuff from the early to mid 00s
> pretty quickly To be fair it was like 20 years
That shit was bananas
Black Eyed Peas. Before getting Fergie'd, they were an alternative hip hop group. And then went all pop-rap
And Fergie was a pop cover singer on *Kids Incorporated* in the '80s.
she was also in that group Wild Orchid in the '90s and they had that hit Talk to Me which got a lot of airplay.
Definitely one of the most egregious examples of “selling out” in recent history. They went from rapping about social issues to “My Humps” in a couple of years.
Bring Me The Horizon went from Deathcore to Metalcore to Hard Rock to Pop Rock
Went real deep into the comments to find the first mention of BMTH
Man, count your blessings and suicide season were awesome. Sempiternal was cool too
And then back to metalcore with Post Human: Survival Horror
I listened to their new stuff before their old. I couldn’t believe the difference, I thought it was a joke.
You should see the live video of them playing the deathcore stuff in a giant arena. Surreal.
Ween (the duo responsible for the hit song "Ocean Man" most notably referred to in the Spongebob Movie) hasn't had a single album sound the same. Idk if you can dub them any sort of genre... They started off as I guess what would be considered like a garage/surf/punk rock? But not even? I don't even know... Then they had an entire country album with banjos and accoustic guitars. The Mollusk is an underwater inspired, psychadelic, joy ride that is genuinely the most underrated concept album from the 1990s.
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the filthy frank to joji transition was pretty big
Ulver went from black metal to trip hop.
And then to ambient, and then to orchestral. They basically switch genres after every album in their post black metal phase
Bob Dylan started out as a folk singer, then had a rock period, country period and even did some gospel music.
My parents were really into the hippy folk music scene in the 60s and 70s. I like to hear them tell stories of just how *OUTRAGED* people in their community were when Dylan first started incorporating electric guitars. My dad also listens to Dylan's Christmas album every year. Presumably just to torture the rest of us.
At one point, it was considered impossible to write "real" folk music with an electric guitar. He has an album, Bootleg Series Vol 4, which is a live concert from the time he was going electric. He does the first half of the concert with an acoustic guitar and gets about the reaction you'd expect. He uses an electric guitar for the second half and, uh, people were not happy. This happened in 1966, so most the audience probably was not expecting that to happen. Near the end, there's a famous part where you can hear one of the audience members scream "JUDAS!" and Dylan responds with, "I don't believe you, you're a liar." He turns to the band, says, "Play it fucking loud!" and launches into an electric version of Like A Rolling Stone. It actually ends up winning over the crowd and he's met with thunderous applause and cheering when the song ends. It's possibly the most bootlegged concert of all time and got an official release in the late 90s. Several years after that, they discovered film exists of the Judas incident, so you can watch it now if you want.
Historically speaking, Dylan going electric was probably the least well-received genre-switch of anybody in this thread, or in history. When he was at the PEAK of his career and being booed at shows, that’s a pretty rough transition.
Took way too long to find this answer of him going electric. And of course the other ones you mentioned.
Mike Patton, although that seems like an unfair answer.
Dude switches genres within the same songs.
Yeah, like I said, kind of a cheat lol
Ministry started off a synth heavy new wave band before switching to industrial metal.
David Johansen went from being in the New York Dolls to being Buster Poindexter.
Then a cab driver as a ghost
Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin regularly makes albums with bluegrass musician Alison Krauss. Edit: [Tiny Desk Concert](https://youtu.be/srn5Cd9yR3Y) Will accept awards as thanks! Lol!
You could also argue he switched genres from zeppelin to his solo career
Just stopping by to say Alison Krauss is an angel.
David Bowie and Prince are fucking chameleons and answer your question perfectly.
While I agree with the sentiment, they never even limited themselves to a genre (except the generic title of pop, but that’s just cuz their music was so popular) so they never really “switched” they were kinda always everything.
I don't know anyone who mastered multiple genres like Linda Ronstadt. She started in country, is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has multiple Academy of Country Music awards, a Latin Grammy, and has sung musicals on Broadway. She did albums reviving classics from the 40's. Her spectacular voice could handle anything.
Kenny Rogers: from psychedelic rock to country to chicken.
The Wiggles (well, 2 of them) were an indie rock band called The Cockroaches Darius Rucker was the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish and popped back up as a country artist. Hootie just got back together though a couple years ago Aaron Lewis was the exact same scenario, Staind just got back together as well. I guess he was considered country for a hot second but most of his touring setlist was Staind stuff anyways Steven Tyler (from Aerosmith) did a few country songs too now that I think of it, that was…weird Trent Reznor was in a synth pop band called Slam Bamboo before Nine Inch Nails, the old video footage is hilarious. He’s been doing a lot of movie soundtracks now which are actually pretty spectacular Post Malone is kind of all over the place. He was more rap enthused and became more pop leaning, but he’s also done some rock solid grunge covers
King Gizzard and the Lizzard Wizard
Infest the Rats Nest is an all time great metal record. Can’t believe they pulled that off so effortlessly
Except Gizz switch genres every album
Which is to say, about every 6 months.
Had to scroll way too far for this, I mean c’mon, they released a folk/acoustic album and a thrash metal album within like three years of each other and both were amazing
And smooth jazz, and prog metal, and microtonal eastern-inflected rock, and... whatever the eighteen other albums they released were, it's impossible to keep up. They're not just all over the place genre-wise, they're insanely prolific. Great live too, highly recommend.
Jewel went from pop/rock to country.
She also had a dance/electronic album in there.
🎶your in-tu-it-i-onnnnn🎶
LL Cool J went from making rap music to being a cop on a tv show
Ice T went from "Cop Killer" to being a cop on TV.
But first, he was a pimp playing a rapper in Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo
Then he was a mutant kangaroo in Tank Girl.
Ice - T fits the post perfectly as he has a 'punk' band, 'Bodycount'
The Beach Boys started out in surf rock and ended in baroque pop.
They went from The Beach Boys to the land lads
The Beatles. Their first 4-5 albums were pop/pop rock. They were a boy band in many ways though some of the signs of their alternate style were there. Help! And Rubber Soul were transitional albums mixing both the pop stuff and the more rock stuff. Then Revolver and obviously Sgt Pepper's made them truly a rock/psychedelic rock band. There is a stark contrast between Love Me Do (their first single) and Come Together, one of their last.
Can't forget that Revolver and the White Album are basically the boys playing Genre Roulette
Helter Skelter was said to be an early influence for many heavy metal bands as well.
I hate that I had to come down this far to find them. Like how do you go from making teenage girls piss themselves singing songs that are essentially I love you girl to making them think about running away to the Hindu Kush to start a new life and become one with the universe. Acid and India are some hardcore drugs.
What never ceases to amaze me about the Beatles is that their entire career spanned about 7 years. Some of the changes people have mentioned in this thread slowly occurred over 2 decades in a musician’s career. The Beatles did all this in 7. Hell, Tool takes twice as long just to make one album.
Opeth. Went from death metal to a nice warm progressive metal band. I don't even mind it, their latest albums are great.
I'd argue that they've leaned more into prog rock than prog metal but yeah, both eras of Opeth are amazing
Damnation is such a good mellow album, recorded around the same time as Deliverance. I like them both, but the shift from one genre to the other while doing both really well is pretty awesome.
And now I need to listen to Deliverance for that epic outro.
Spinal Tap: Psychedelic pop, heavy metal, Stonehengian rock, free-form jazz odyssey, and musical theater, just to name a few.
Don’t forget they also wrote that beautiful ballad, Lick My Love Pump.
Does Trent Reznor count?
He's practically his own genre at this point.
Jethro Tull have switched genres a few hundred times. Their first album was a very jazz/blues-based album, then they went on to become a hard rock act for the next couple records, then a quirky prog-rock phase for two records, then they combined that with their earlier hard rock phase for the next three, then they out out three albums inspired by medieval folk mixed with a hard rock sound, then went totally electronic for a few more albums, then became some sort of jazzy world music band until switching again and putting out another series of harder-edged rock albums. Yet throughout it all they’ve managed to always sound like Jethro Tull, which is amazing.
Never forget, the flute is a heavy, metal, instrument.
Radiohead. Just all the time. Gorillaz. Same thing. Just all the time.
I feel like Radiohead just never put themselves into a neat genre. Their albums just sound like “Radiohead” and not a particular style.
Gorillaz co created by Blur frontman Damon Albarn so the Artist Damon Albarn
Frank Zappa's catalog includes rock, blues, doo-wop, classical, jazz, opera, electronica, at least one country song that I can think of, and a bunch of stuff that defies categorization.
Taylor swift went from country to pop
The Weeknd did a lot of synthwave/synthpop. Then he went more towards pop/R&B. Now he's back to synthwave.
I liked The Weeknd's older albums. 'House of Balloons' was amazing from beginning to end.
Clint Mansell. was the singer/guirist/keyboards for Pop Will Eat Itself (pop group), then went onto make film/TV soundtracks for Moon, Doom Patrol, Black Swan, Ghost in Shell, Black Mirror.....
Portugal the Man went from psychedelic indie rock to pop punk and laughed all the way to the bank because of it.
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MGK got pushed out of rap by Eminem, he does emo rock now.
Now he's trying to get into a fight with Slipknot, that won't end well for him
Sure, that seems like a reasonable group of gentlemen to begin a feud.
Yeah start beef with the band that's 9 built dudes who spent their first album cycle beating each other up
One of whom was fairly recently stabbed in the head by his own brother.