# Musical acts that have turned into the exact opposite of what they started as **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362 "2010-07-02T23:06:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/1 "2010-07-02T23:06:45Z")
Inspired by [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=568644). Okay, I don’t mean the exact opposite in _every_ sense, nor just a radical change in direction, but a change to almost an exact opposite in one very important direction. Pink Floyd. It started as a pretty loose band, fronted by a singer who was philosophically opposed to more than one take and who sang happy if a bit scary sometimes songs about little hippie girls and gnomes. It morphed into a hyper-produced band singing songs about war and dads dying. (I like both incarnations, btw.) U2. they became big witht their “message songs”, and then became a meta-shallow band like Devo (we’re shallow cause we’re deep, man.) I don’t particularly like U2 so I don’t know if they are still in that phase or not. The Promise Ring. 30° Everywhere was as hardcore an album you can make if your singer has a lisp. Wood/Water was 70’s influenced soft rock. But their transformation was not linear, because their second studio album, Nothing Feels Good, was Weezer-influenced, slightly sophiticatedly-produced, intentionally overly-piteous emo, while the album after that, Very Emergency, was intentionally sloppy and more grungy, if still pretty much pop. So much so that usually I forget that Nothing Feels Good came _before_ Very Emergency. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/2 "2010-07-02T23:48:06Z")
The Beastie Boys went from a hardcore punk band to a rap group. They did come back to it for a bit, though. Maybe that’s not an exact opposite though, since their message didn’t change much. There initial popular phase was party-oriented, then they brought in the hippie stuff too. Pretentious indie and punk fans might argue that such-and-such a band _changed, man_ when they sold out. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/3 "2010-07-03T01:44:01Z")
I’m not totally familiar with all his work, but I think Kid Rock might qualify. mmm ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/4 "2010-07-03T01:58:05Z")
Well, If I’d told an Elvis Costello fan in 1977, “Your man will be working with Burt Bacharach,” would they have believed it? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/5 "2010-07-03T02:28:16Z")
Smash Mouth started out emulating the Clash and wound up emulating the Monkees. ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/6 "2010-07-03T02:36:29Z")
Ulver went from black metal to neofolk back to black metal to industrial to glitchy electronica to experimental pop to ambient or something. Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Lobot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Lobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobot)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/7 "2010-07-03T02:43:51Z")
Genesis: Originally based around Peter Gabriel’s theatricality and Tony Banks’ classical piano-based songwriting, they wrote fantasy-based epics and shunned the singles market. Twenty years later and they were based around Phil Collins’ radio-friendly love song soul/pop instincts with epics relegated to album tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/8 "2010-07-03T03:43:19Z")
**Fleetwood Mac** - Started out as a British-based, blues band that played back-to-roots ‘die-hard’ blues songs. Less than ten years later, a move to the U.S.'s left coast and a near complete changeover in group roster, and they come to epitomize the sound of laid back, lushly produced mainstream pop music. Not a ‘band’, but **Ozzy Osbourne** - When I was a kid (early 80s), he was to many people (including my parents) the anti-Christ. He was the living embodiment of anarchic, blasphemous, tasteless, violent heavy metal rock & roll. Nowadays, he’s better known as a middle-aged basket case, a henpecked husband, and a poster child for clean living. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/9 "2010-07-03T03:49:39Z")
I’d nominate **The Clash**. Three-chord, shouty, “no future” songs… to reggae, dub, gospel, jazz-form, funk, and hip-hop. Those guys pretty much could play anything by 1983. And few albums have the diversity of styles found on _London Calling_ and _Sandinista!_ ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/10 "2010-07-03T20:13:34Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > Genesis: Originally based around Peter Gabriel’s theatricality and Tony Banks’ classical piano-based songwriting, they wrote fantasy-based epics and shunned the singles market. Twenty years later and they were based around Phil Collins’ radio-friendly love song soul/pop instincts with epics relegated to album tracks. In an interview Phil Collins said that in the early days Genesis would write three to four minute songs to get air play, but they never caught on until the 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/11 "2010-07-03T20:21:42Z")
Over the course of about twenty years, Spinal Tap went from “Listen to the What the Flower People Say” to "Lick my Love Pump. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/12 "2010-07-04T00:10:02Z")
The Goo Goo Dolls. The fucking Goo Goo Dolls! They used to be on Metal Blade Records, they played venues like CBGB’s, they shared the stage with hardcore bands like the Cro-Mags and Uniform Choice…then came “Iris.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/13 "2010-07-04T03:27:02Z")
Electric Light Orchestra started out as an attempt to create rock music using orchestral instruments, inspired by some of the experimental stuff that the Beatles were doing. By the early 80s, they had abandoned orchestral instruments entirely, and were a synth-and-guitar based pop band. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/14 "2010-07-04T09:52:21Z")
Deep Purple put out three albums of half-baked psychedelia in the late sixties before going full proto-metal once Ian Gillan and Roger Glover came on board. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/15 "2010-07-04T10:23:40Z")
David Bowie of the 70s and David Bowie of the 80s were two quite different creatures. ---
**Author:** ![Manwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Manwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manwich)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/16 "2010-07-04T11:26:14Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > David Bowie of the 70s and David Bowie of the 80s were two quite different creatures. I was going to say David Bowie but with different time periods. His earliest music in the 60’s was cutesy music hall stuff. Try to find “Rubber Band” or “When I’m Five”. Then he got a bit more serious and his career took off. Then he changed image, and changed again and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/17 "2010-07-04T12:04:45Z")
> [@Lobot](#): > > Genesis: Originally based around Peter Gabriel’s theatricality and Tony Banks’ classical piano-based songwriting, they wrote fantasy-based epics and shunned the singles market. Twenty years later and they were based around Phil Collins’ radio-friendly love song soul/pop instincts with epics relegated to album tracks. From [The Musical Box](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35wtfcByIY)-Genesis to [Invisible Touch](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN60DR5GQpg&feature=related)-Genesis. The **Beatles** are a great example. They started out as the ultimate teeny boppers, perhaps the first boy band, playing R&B standards to screaming little girls, and 3-4 years later were composing sophisticated music using experimental studio recording techniques and borrowing from the avante garde classical world. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/18 "2010-07-04T17:20:16Z")
Prince was one of the first musical acts to sing blatantly about sex- he used dirty words and was extremely explicit. Nowadays, he sings gospel, is extremely religious (Jehova’s Witness), and refuses to say any “four-letter words except love”. Damn him. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musical-acts-that-have-turned-into-the-exact-opposite-of-what-they-started-as/545362/19 "2010-07-04T17:36:10Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Well, If I’d told an Elvis Costello fan in 1977, “Your man will be working with Burt Bacharach,” would they have believed it? He covered Bacharach/David “I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself” on the 1978 “Live Stiffs” album. > **[Live Stiffs Live](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiffs_Live)** > > Live Stiffs Live is a live album released in 1978 by Stiff Records. It compiles concert performances by several of the record label's artists recorded during the "Live Stiffs Tour", which ran from 3 October to 5 November 1977. > Among the recording artists featured on the album are Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, and Larry Wallis. The album opens with tour MC (and later Clash road manager) Kosmo Vinyl calling audience members away from the ...