Which musical group has changed the most?

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I’m watching TV, and one of those “greatest hits” collections comes on with a bunch of 60’s tunes. They play the Kinks’ original single “You Really Got Me,” and I think, hey, I never really noticed how raw and unpolished these guys were when they first came out; they sounded quite a bit different just a few years later.

So that got me to thinking: Which band evolved the most over its years together? Which band has the most different sound, musical philosophy, whatever you want to call it, when you compare their first songs to what they were recording towards the end? I’m not talking just about personnel; Menudo wins that one. I mean the sound/style of the music.

The Beatles, obviously, are a possible contender. The early “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” type material is a far cry from “Sgt. Pepper” and such. But then there’s the Moody Blues; they went from the epic “Nights in White Satin” to the radio-safe “Your Wildest Dreams.”

My nominee, though, would be Jefferson Airplane. Aside from the wacky history (Jefferson Airplane --> Jefferson Starship --> Starship --> Jefferson Starship – more), their sound changes dramatically over the course of their recording career. Compare “White Rabbit” and “We Built This City,” for starters.

(It’s interesting to note that most of these evolutionary changes were not for the better. That Moody Blues song was pretty generic compared to their early stuff, and Starship wound up being extremely lame. The Beatles, though, just got better and better, but I think that puts them in the minority. All IMHO, of course.)

So… anyone else have any suggestions?

P.S. A corollary question would be, which group has changed the least, but maybe that’s a separate thread…

2

Well, no group has changed as often or as dramatically as King Crimson: they started out as Moody Blues soundalikes,
then disbanded (except for Robert Fripp), reformed as a jazz band, disbanded (except for Fripp), reformed as a heavy-metal-cum-Bela Bartok band, disbanded, then reformed 7 years later with an African polyrhythmic sound!

Beyond that… well, the Moody Blues actually STARTED as a pop/Merseybeat band. “Go Now” was their first hit… it couldn’t have prepared anyone for “Nights in White Satin.” SO, in a sense, they returned to their pop roots with “Wildest Dreams.”

The U2 that put out “Boy” doesn’t sound much like the band that put out “Zooropa” or “The Fly” or “Mysterious Ways,” does it.

The REM that put out “Monster” didn’t sound much like the band that recorded “Radio Free Europe” or “Driver 8.”

And the Pink Floyd of “The Wall” sure didn’t sound much like the band that did “Arnold Layne” back in 1968.

Does “Pet Sounds” sound like the work of the same band that sang “Surfing Safari”? Nope.

Of course, not ALL changes are positive. Does the wimp who recorded “Pipes of Peace” and “The Girl is Mine” sound anything like the REAL Paul McCartney (the guy who wrote “Helter Skelter” and “Back in the USSR”)?

3

This one must be Rush. They’ve pretty much adopted every single style in pop/rock history.

4

First off, I’d say “Pop” is the most divergent of the U2 albums…

Now, let’s get this straight–you never ever ever compare Jefferson Airplane–the best band ever–to the drivel of Starship. They are not related, other than in some foolish historical sense. I will personally slap senseless the next person who eve utters those two bands in the same sentence. :smiley:

Jefferson Starship also put out some good stuff, but ye gods, “We built this city”??

5

…well, it’s Menudo, right?

6

I agree very much with Coldfire. I think Rush has tried almost everything but disco.

I’d also nominate Pete Townshend. He’s nothing like he was in '68!

7

Hell, he doesn’t even sound like the Paul McCartney who wrote “Yesterday” and “Here There and Everywhere”. Those love songs were at least decent.****
Disclaimer: I love everything Macca does. But even I know the difference between his “decent” songs, and his “crappy” songs.

8

The Beatles, hands down. They started off singing songs like “She Loves You” and doing covers like “Kansas City” and “Anna (go to him)”, and wound up doing everything from blues to acid rock. The Beatles of “Abbey Road” are pretty much indistinguishable from the group on “Meet the Beatles”.

Also remember that this transformation took place over the space of less than a decade. All these other groups took multiple decades to really change.

Also remember that most of the other groups changed as a result of changes in the culture of music. The Beatles were the ones that changed the culture itself. Their transformation came from within, rather that from external forces.

Some other transformations not mentioned:

[ul]
[li]Willie Nelson, who started as a Hank Williams-style country singer, turned into a southern rocker, then into an MOR crooner.[/li][li]Bob Dylan, who outraged an entire generation of folkies when he went electric.[/li][li]Pat Boone, who did an album of heavy metal covers[/li][li]Kenny Rogers, who started out as a country artist, turned into a fairly heavy rocker with the First Edition, then headed into Willie Nelson-ish MOR superstar.[/li][li]Eric Clapton, who has mellowed and gone back to his Blues Roots in the last decade, after spending the 60’s and 70’s as a lightning-fingered hard rocker.[/li][li]The Bee Gees, who started out as a folk group, made songs like “I Started a Joke” in the 60’s, then became Disco superstars[/li][/ul]

9

The Beatles? Rush? Please. I’m big fans of both, but if your idea of different is from “She Loves You” to “When I’m 64”, you ain’t exactly pushing the envelope.

My vote: Ministry. “Every Day is Halloween” to “New World Order (NWO)”. Now there’s a difference.

10

Funny, as soon as I saw the title of this thread, I thought of Jefferson Airplane. And Starship. (Separate sentences, see?)

I have to disagree about many of the groups/musicians that have been listed. Yeah, they have changed, but I don’t think that that is what the OP is asking about. Change and evolution is expected. (It would be pretty weird if U2 was still writing songs like “I Will Follow.”) Transformations like the Airplane/Starship thing are something else entirely.

I nominate Elton John. He used to ROCK, godammit. Now he is writing vomitrocious Disney drivel and pabulum-to-the-public Broadway scores.

Runner-up is Rod Stewart. How he went from Every Picture Tells a Story to Have I Told You Lately I’ll never know.

11

Well, he ain’t a group, but Michael Jackson started out singing soul music, and the whiter HE got, the whiter his MUSIC got.

12

Most people aren’t really aware that before their “overnight sensation” status they were a VERY traditional country-western band. They were very heavy on the acoustic instruments (banjo, dobro, fiddle, etc.) and they wore glittery frilly cowgirl outfits. The two sisters who form the basis of the band have been "Menudo"ing band members they don’t think fit the cuteness profile to their liking.

So they don’t have the same longevity as Rush. I thought I’d nominate a popular country Top 40 group. :smiley:

13

Blessid Union of Souls went from being a religious ballad-y group in the early 90s to a pretty decent alternative rock group a few years later. I thought that transformation was quite impressive.

14

I’m not really a huge fan, but I suppose Neil Young belongs on this list.

15

Not a group but Miles Davis went through so many styles in his long career. In fact he pioneered most of them. Just listen to his Birth Of The Cool album followed by Bitches Brew

16

As well as REM, I’d nominate Blur. They started as a typical shoegazing-floppy-haired-lazy-guitars indie band (“She’s So High”, “There’s No Other Way”), then got all mock-London-geezer (“Parklife”), then turned into a sarcastic phase with any and all instruments (“The Universal”, “Yuko & Hiro”), and lately have gone all rock (“Song 2”).

17

Think you might be missing the point a little, Bill. Quite a long way from straight, simple pop tunes in ‘64 to the social comment, irony and counterweight-for-effect silly stuff perhaps four years later.

US release dates:

‘She Loves You’ – (LP, April/single, May 64)
‘When I’m 64’ on the same LP (St Pepper) as ‘A Day in the Life’ – 4 years later.

It was only 3 ½ years from ‘She Loves You’ to ‘I am the Walrus’ – that might be a fairer indication of earnest song writing development.

Course, it doesn’t measure up to Rush.

18

k d lang has to be up there. She went from quirky cow-punk girl to lesbian crooner.
The least changed band has to be the Ramones.

19

…How 'bout Fleetwood Mac circa bare trees vs. the pop-crappola they enjoyed such success with (e.g. tusk)

20

That was my first thought as soon as I saw the thread title. They went from crazy poppy dance type i don’t know what to call it to hardcore industrial.