Since we threw out the “bands” qualifier eons ago, how about every individual? Elvis, Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson, Diana Ross, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Prince, Madonna, Cher, and probably Che, Ch, and C.
40 replies in and no mention of Elvis Costello?
New wave>alternative>country>adult alternative>classical>pop>R&B>soul, etc.
mmm
Don’t know about that…I wouldn’t say you can really compare their first-album material like Don’t Beat My Ass With A Baseball Bat to their movie-soundtrack fare.
Incidentally, Hold Me Up has been one of my “desert island” records from the day it was released.
Return to Forever circa 1972 had a very ethereal sound, while the 1976 version was practically progressive rock.
I first heard this band at my friend’s bar. He was playing their newest CD “XTRMNTR” (this was back in 2000), and to me they sounded like an edgy techno / dance / pop hybrid like “Nine Inch Nails”.
A few months later and I was at another friend’s house and he puts on a CD of what sounds to me like mellow Southern country / blues / rock. I thought he was playing “The Black Crowes”.
Turns out it was an earlier Primal Scream album. (I don’t remember which one, but from the Wikipedia article I’m guessing it was Give Out But Don’t Give Up.)
I could not believe it was the same band.
No better example than Slayer. If anything, they’ve just gotten louder, faster and more pissed off over the last 30 years.
And for my money, there’s no better example of a change-up artist than Neil Young. The guy has done it all: country, country rock, folk, folk rock, big band, swing, jazz, punk rock, arena rock, pop, ballads, experimental noise, etc., etc.
So has Todd Rundgren, come to think of it.
Aye, he’s a wizard, a true star who just wants to bang on the drum all day.
Deep Purple released three rather mediocre psychedelic albums before switching singers and going proto-metal.
They didn’t exactly become more famous, but I can’t help but think that Talk Talk would be a footnote in music history were it not for Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock.
The MOST radical sound change had to be Kenny Rogers. His first hit, Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Was In, was pretty good.
I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in
I watched myself crawlin’ out as I was a-crawlin’ in
I got up so tight I couldn’t unwind
I saw so much I broke my mind
I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in
And then they turned to some slow ballad, preachy pseudo country format. I mean, any band has got to evolve or it’s just churning out re-releases of its old stuff. But Kenny, that wasn’t evolution, but transmogrification, shape shifting in the music industry.
The Four Seasons went from 50’s Schmatz to 70’s Disco with their comeback-of-the-decade megahit “Oh, What A Night.”