# Musicians who changed styles or genres and became popular **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838 "2010-06-28T20:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/61 "2010-07-01T19:35:19Z")
Cyndi Lauper started out in a rockabilly group called Blue Angel. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/62 "2010-07-01T20:00:36Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > \*\*Journey \*\*was a blue based rock band till Steve Perry turned them into arena pop rock (gag me with a spoon) icons. I like a lot of their early work. It seemed kind of jazzy. From what I remember they changed their sound because they weren’t very successful. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/63 "2010-07-01T20:10:41Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > \*\*Journey \*\*was a blue based rock band till Steve Perry turned them into arena pop rock (gag me with a spoon) icons. Not bluesy, exactly, but VERY different from the mellow pop they’d play in the Steve Perry days, The band was founded by organist Gregg Rolie and guitarist Neal Schon, who were proteges of Carlos Santana. The original drummer was Aynsley Dunbar, a longtime friend and collegaue of Frank Zappa. All of the founders were into extended instrumental jamming. Hard to classify, but I’d call the early Journey a jazzy prog-rock band. But whatever you’d call them, little girls who liked “Send Her My Love” and “Faithfully” would have hated them. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/64 "2010-07-01T20:20:09Z")
Jimmy Buffet started in country, moved to folk, then found success and Parrot heads. ---
**Author:** ![Acantha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Acantha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acantha)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/65 "2010-07-01T22:03:15Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Not quite- Jimmy Seals and Dash Crofts had a lot of mellow rock hits in the Seventies. Jimmy’s younger brother Daniel took the stage name “England Dan” and formed his own successful duo with John Ford Coley. Together, they had a few big hits like “Nights Are Forever” and “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.” > > “England Dan,” of course, had some big country hits under the simpler name Dan Seals. > > Speaking of acts that switched to country, remember these guys? > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJJQpSzDgC0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJJQpSzDgC0) > > They reinvented themselves as a successful country band. Ah, yes, you are correct. Same time frame, similar mellow sound. I always mix those guys up. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838/66 "2010-07-03T12:02:06Z")
> [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](#): > > It’s not that Darius Rucker wasn’t popular 15 years ago (as frontman of Hootie and the Blowfish), but the band died out as a pop music joke in the start of the 2000s (well, before then, but apparently, they kept releasing albums until 2003). > > Fast forward to 2008-20099 or so, and witness Darius Rucker, the successful country music solo act (three Billboard Country #1s, and a #3, so far). Hootie was only a joke to people who don’t like pop-rock. An their last album was released in 2005. It’s also worth noting that Rucker’s successful country album has only barely sold more than the worst selling Hootie albums. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-who-changed-styles-or-genres-and-became-popular/544838.md?page=3)