10,000 Maniacs began as a Joy Division cover band
Darius Rucker, lead singer for Hootie and the Blowfish, recently released a country solo album.
I’m mistrustful of ‘genre’ as the CDDB defines it, but still…
Benny Goodman not only led a fantastic jazz big band, but he also recorded with Bela Bartok.
Then there’s Wynton Marsalis’ success as both a jazz and a classical trumpeter in the Haydn, Hummell and Leopold Mozart trumpet concerti
John McLaughlin’s guitar styles have always straddled many genres - there’s a tremendous difference between his work with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Paco de Lucia/Al DiMeola, Shakti and with Herbie Hancock on the ‘Round Midnight’ soundtrack.
Rick Derringer has gone from full-blown rock and roll to smooth jazz and Christian music.
Jan Akkerman went from progressive jazz/rock to more or less classical.
Fleetwood Mac went from blues to pop.
David Benoit went from jazz to smooth jazz. Yes, it’s a complete switch.
Fats Domino went from blues/jazz to pop.
Nat King Cole went from jazz to pop.
Cannonball Adderly: ditto
Kenny Rogers started off with a Doo Wop group, then a jazz band, then the New Christy Minstrels, then a lame rocker who flirted with drug references before striking paydirt as a country artist.
Lyle Lovett and k. d. lang started out as fairly mainstream country artists. He flirted with jazz and big band, she drifted towards lounge and standards. I love them both.
What single genre description could describe the careers of Ray Charles, Michelle Shocked, Elvis Costello or Wynton Marsalis?
I think Elvis Costello is jazz now.
There was quite a distance between the Replacments’ first album, the post-punk “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash”, and their last album, the pop classic “All Shook Down”.
Metallica went from being good to … something else.
Exile went from scoring a #1 single (“Kiss You All Over”) as a soul band to playing almost nothing but country music.
Penelope Houston - punk chanteuse with The Avengers to neo-folkie.
Robert Plant! Led Zeppelin to The Honeydrippers to…to I’m not sure how to describe his collaboration with Allison Krauss on Raising Sand. It’s all good, anyways.
Alanis Morrisette started off as bubble gum pop, no? What is she now? adult pop?
I came in here to say that Dennis DeYoung from Styx was classically trained, but Wikipedia says I’m wrong, thus ending a 20+ year bit of “knowledge” for me. He was a music teacher, does that count? He had a helluva voice.
Linda Ronstadt went from folk/bluegrass to standards to Spanish something.
Leif Garret went from teeny bopper icon to washed up wannabe that appears on some cop show on cable. He used to be cute, believe it or not.
Oh yeah. They did “I Just Can’t Get Enough.” I have it on my iTunes, and I figured whoever I got it from must have mislabeled it, because there’s no way the band that did “Policy of Truth” and “Strangelove” did that.
That’s partially because Vince Clarke was their primary songwriter in the beginning while Martin Gore took over duties later. Some fun examples of Depeche Mode’s style change (although, to be fair, “I Like It” was a cover) …
I Like It vs. A Pain that I’m Used To
What’s Your Name? vs. Better Days
Smashmouth went from an average mid-90s third-wave ska/punk band to a retro-60s pop act and ubiquitous movie soundtrack fixture after “Walking on the Sun” became a huge hit.
Green Day released a new wave album under the name The Network, and a garage rock album under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs, although the latter was more of an evolution of the sound they explored on “Warning” rather than an abrupt switch.
There’s, of course, the Beatles. They didn’t exactly “switch” genres as so much moved between them, while creating a few of their own.
Vanilla Ice went from rap to numetal, which raced his 15 minutes of fame closer to the end.
Sting has evolved to essentially a jazz singer, although it’s something more than that. When Herbie Hancock played for one of his numbers, he had difficulty figuring out exactly what the hell Sting was doing. It’s all about complex structures and rhythm changeups that defy classification.
Conway Twitty went from rockabilly to country pretty quickly, as did Carl Perkins.