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Bands/artists that had a massive change in genre from their debut album/early career?

A

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
Kevtones said:
For sure man! Old GAF represent and that's amazing you're children are into it. I ought to try Hollis' solo record as a sleep aide...
Click to expand...

I special ordered that from Germany back in the day... Its pretty, pretty slow. Lol i need to give it another go, maybe.
 
eso76

eso76

Member
disappeared said:
Talk Talk. And for the better.

Whenever I hear "It's my life" on the radio I'm fondly reminded of how Laughing Stock and Garden of Eden absolutely destroyed the boundaries of what a band can do if they simply choose to shrug off preconceived expectations and do what they want to.
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I need to research this.
I only know the "it's a shame" and "life's what you make it" Talk Talk, but Always thought they had a lot to say. Plus the singer always looked like a nice funny guy.


I don't think Alice Cooper has been mentioned ?

1488462871mzd.jpg


His first 2 albums sound...very different from what you probably expect.

Like this, for example
 
T

TheExhaustedWalrus

Member
disappeared said:
Talk Talk. And for the better.

Whenever I hear "It's my life" on the radio I'm fondly reminded of how Laughing Stock and Garden of Eden absolutely destroyed the boundaries of what a band can do if they simply choose to shrug off preconceived expectations and do what they want to.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. On The Colour Of Spring you can definitely hear seeds of that transition. Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden are simply two of are most seminal and original pieces of music ever recorded.
 
U

Unspoken90

Member
Three 6 Mafia earlier sound had Horrorcore elements to it.

Sugar Ray was a Nu Metal act.

Smash Mouth was a Ska/Punk band if recall.
 
B

bebop242

Member
digitalrelic said:
Alex Ebert's first project was "Ima Robot", which sounded like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsJ3Zmgixt4

He rebranded and followed up Ima Robot with "Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros", which sounds like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8

Couldn't be more different!
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Your links send me to the same Magnetic Zeros video. Weird. SSX3 actually turn me onto Ima Robot and I really enjoyed their first album. Then he comes out with Magnetic Zeros and while I like "Home", I just couldn't get into it as much.
 
Indelible

Indelible

Member
Opeth started out as a Progressive Death Metal band with growls but now they are a straight up Prog Rock band with completely clean vocals, still one of my favorite bands ever.
 
G

Goldenroad

Member
Moody Blues were a totally different band after Denny Lane left. The Slip is a more modern example. They started out as straight up prog jazz jam rock and went full out indie rock on their latter couple albums. Replacements went from straight up drunk punks to...well drunk great pop songwriters.

I could probably go one forever here actually. Those were just the first three that popped into my head.
 
SoulUnison

SoulUnison

Banned
Panic at the Disco went from that "baroque pop" that was sort of chasing Fall Out Boy's sound on their first album to a second album that was surprisingly delightful Beatles inspired surf-pop-rock.

But...then they fell back into dance pop.
 
T

TheWraith

Member
Paradise Lost

From extreme Doom/Death metal in '89 to the electric pop almost of the Host album around '99 slowly evolving back to metal in the past decade.
 
K

komarkaze

Member
Def Leppard are known for as one of the standard 80s hard rock/ metal bands. But their early material was New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the genre that influenced bands like Metallica.
 
G

gamz

Member
komarkaze said:
Def Leppard are known for as one of the standard 80s hard rock/ metal bands. But their early material was New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the genre that influenced bands like Metallica.
Click to expand...

Honestly they were pretty much the same. They just got over produced, but the sound was the same. Less raw then early stuff, but it wasn't a radical change.
 
T

Travo

Member
HEh, just reading about Beastie Boys and their early days as punk rockers. I also love their 180 from obnoxious frat boys to rappers with a conscience.
 
T

The Albatross

Member
Green Day, just because of how long they've been around and how their fanbase got older/more casual.

Pop Punk
Mainstream Rock
Pop Rock
Pop

Paul SImon...
Bubble-gum rock n' roll in the early Tom & Jerry days
to Americana folk
to singer-songwriter
to pop
to world music
to world-music-pop
to Americana pop
to doo-wop, gospel Latin music (Songs from the Capeman, which is horrible except for the opening track which is amazing)
to spoken word (whatever that song on his new album is...)
to the world-synth roots stuff he does today, etc.

But just long careers have to adapt and try new things. I'd be challenged to find an artist whose legitimate done the same thing for their entire career if it spans 20+ years and still released new music.
 
TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
KMFDM was originally a straight-up, Throbbing Gristle-style performance art industrial band. You can hear a bit of that in their first album, but everything after that falls under EMB and dance metal.
 
V

Verano

Reads Ace as Lace. May God have mercy on their soul
Sepultura. Black/Death thrash to incorporating tribal rhythms. After Mac left...idk wtf they are anymore

Deftones..nu metal to shoegazy dream pop metal..
 
B

BeatnikGunsoo

Member
papa roach went from the prototypical nu metal band to that weird mid 2000s kind of glam revival but also butt rock band to a whatever is currently trendy now band

papa roach what a mess lol
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Came to post the following, but was beat:

Ulver - Used to be black metal, and now does atmospheric, synth.

Therion - Used to be death metal, but became operatic and orchestrated quite early in their career.

Opeth - Used to be progressive death metal with some clean vocals and acoustics, but have practically become prog rock.
 
S

Shiv47

Member
Scott Walker (not the shitstain politician) went from The Walker Brothers, making 60s pop hits like "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More," to his music of the last 30 odd years, which is about a million miles away. Check out his recent record with Sunn O))) for an example.
 
P

pablito

Member
It's too bad you don't like Ulvers other stuff OP. William Blake/Perdition City/Quick Fix/Blood Inside are right up there with their black metal material to me.
 
G

gfxtwin

Member
ISIS (Metal band) - started out as consistently heavy, noise metal with lots of droning riffs, sounds like Neurosis. By the time Panopticon is released they have a more trance-inducing post-rock sound and were an early adopter of the style of music that everyone associates with Deafheaven now.

Massive Attack - Started off as a loungey electro band with heavy soul and reggae influences. Moving forward, they added epic, moody-sounding guitar riffs and kinda reinvent what rock music could sound like and are one of the main creators of what is now thought of as the Bristol Sound (Portishead, Tricky, etc)

My Bloody Valentine - Started off making post-punk (Smiths, Cure, Joy Division) and by the time Loveless was released they had concocted and "perfected" shoegaze, via a unique sound that was much heavier and rocky with electronica, dream pop, psychadelia influences. Nothing sounds like that album and it still feels contemporary af IMHO.

Childish Gambino - Started off making hip-hop that was heavily influenced by Kanye to his own brand of weirdo funk/soul

M83 - Started off making straightforward post rock to retrowavey, rock/pop with post rock epicness
 
P

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
komarkaze said:
Def Leppard are known for as one of the standard 80s hard rock/ metal bands. But their early material was New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the genre that influenced bands like Metallica.
Click to expand...

I think this is one of the most famous examples right here.

gamz said:
Honestly they were pretty much the same. They just got over produced, but the sound was the same. Less raw then early stuff, but it wasn't a radical change.
Click to expand...

Nah, there's a genre difference between either exhibit A or exhibit B....

...


and their sound by the end of the 1980's.
 
G

Goldenroad

Member
Shiv47 said:
Scott Walker (not the shitstain politician) went from The Walker Brothers, making 60s pop hits like "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More," to his music of the last 30 odd years, which is about a million miles away. Check out his recent record with Sunn O))) for an example.
Click to expand...

I know there has got to be someone big that I can't think of here, but I think you win with Scott Walker.
 
N

nintendork666

Member
eso76 said:
I need to research this.
I only know the "it's a shame" and "life's what you make it" Talk Talk, but Always thought they had a lot to say. Plus the singer always looked like a nice funny guy.


I don't think Alice Cooper has been mentioned ?

1488462871mzd.jpg


His first 2 albums sound...very different from what you probably expect.

Like this, for example
Click to expand...

Don't forget the controversial Flush the Fashion era of Alice.

ALICE_COOPER_FLUSH%2BTHE%2BFASHION-463679.jpg


Homeboy went straight up synth punk or something
 
O

Obscura

Member
Morrigan Stark said:
Good job on reading the OP... e_e
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Yeah, noticed after and didn't feel like wiping the post. I've seen these threads quite a lot over the years and Ulver are never mentioned so I spoke without thinking (so to speak) unfortunately. To be fair, the song I chose from The Assassination of Julius Caesar is way better.
 
S

starchild excalibur

Member
Lion_Sagittarius said:
Incubus changed a lot.

On their first two albums (Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.CE) they had this trippy djembe fuelled half singing-half talking songs, then during Make Yourself and Morning View they go through a pure pop rock radio-friendly phase.

From there on they kept swinging between soft rock and hard rock I guess.
Click to expand...

Yup. I was a big Incubus fan because of their early stuff. I was a bit indifferent to Make Yourself. By the time Morning View came out I was done.
 
N

n00bsauce87

Member
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar and Erykah Badu - Baduism was seen as the beginnings of the Neo Soul genre.

I had the latter.

I'd imagine there may not be any love here for it, so someone has to.
 
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