Split-personality bands

**PeterG** · 07-19-2015

Lots of bands start with one style and then quickly ditch it for something else more sellable e.g. Status Quo. But some of the big names waited until their 3rd, 4th or even 5th album before changing to a fresh horse. Some of the very obvious ones in my view anyway are:
Queen - 3 solid rock albums, then a dabble with concepts resulting in some very cheezy tracks, then arena-pop to the finishing line.
Fleetwood Mac - blues rock to West Coast pop.
Rush - Heavy rock, verging on early metal, to prog rock in 4 moves.
Deep Purple - 60s psych to hard rock in 5 moves.
Beatles - a jobbing R n B covers band to one of the most influential and creative bands of all time.
The Who - Mod pop and Soul to rock.

Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, and Radiohead are bubbling under.

**Lou** · 07-19-2015

Originally Posted by PeterG

Lots of bands start with one style and then quickly ditch it for something else more sellable .

Genesis would have to be the poster child for this.

**bob_32_116** · 07-19-2015

In many cases I think the explanation lies in band personnel changes. For example I've seen it claimed that Neil Peart replacing john Rutsey was the catalyst for Rush moving from heavy rock to more progressive.

The Rolling Stones are an example of a band that moved in the opposite direction to the Beatles - from being quite creative to being extremely derivative.

There are a few examples from Australia. The Master's Apprentices had a handful of quite progressive tracks mixed in among their mostly heavy wanky rock catalogue. It was pretty hard to pay the bills in Oz in those days unless you had material that went down well in the pubs.

Another dramatic example was a band called Alison Gross, who sounded a little like a folkier version of Cream. They also recorded a novelty hit under the pseudonym of Drummond, covering the old 1950's song "Daddy Cool" using vocoder effects in the manner of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Let me know which of these you prefer:

**No Pride** · 07-19-2015

Originally Posted by bob_32_116

In many cases I think the explanation lies in band personnel changes.

The Doobie Brothers; when they got Michael McDonald, they went from being a southern rock band to blue-eyed soul.

**JJ88** · 07-19-2015

Manfred Mann always spring to mind. There's very little relation between the singles, which tend to be very poppy, and their album/EP tracks, which show a far 'hipper' group.

**PeterG** · 07-19-2015

Originally Posted by JJ88

Manfred Mann always spring to mind. There's very little relation between the singles, which tend to be very poppy, and their album/EP tracks, which show a far 'hipper' group.

+1 of course....but at least they had the decency to add more words to the name for the new band.

**klothos** · 07-19-2015

Shotgun Messiah -- From 80s Glam Pop Metal to Hard Techno Industrial.....quite a switch

ELO - From Prog to Pop

**rcarlberg** · 07-19-2015

David Bowie
Brian Eno
Popol Vuh
Cat Stevens
The Moody Blues
The (Small) Faces
Rod Stewart
Phil Collins
Donovan

**progeezer** · 07-19-2015

Rolie Journey and Perry/Pineda Journey sound like 2 different bands.

**Progbear** · 07-19-2015

The ultimate example would have to be Lucifer’s Friend. A different sound every album!

Lucifer’s Friend: Doomy hard-rock heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.
Where the Groupies Killed the Blues: Gentle Giant-style prog with a LZ-ish heavy edge.
I’m Just a Rock & Roll Singer: Good-time boogie rock in the Grand Funk Railroad vein, mainly.
Banquet: A mega-bombastic orchestrated jazz-rock album.
Mind Exploding: Jazzy hard-rock prog, sort of a cross between WTGKTB and a scaled-down Banquet.
Good Time Warrior: Back to the good-time boogie-rock, albeit with a mega-prog epic album closer.
Sneak Me In: Slick AOR in the Lake vein, with some pomp-rock overtones.
Mean Machine: Hard rock bordering on the NWOBHM sound.

**Luckie** · 07-19-2015

Don't know how much they mean outside Britain, but Landscape went from playing accomplished trad-jazz fusion in bars...

... to reinvention out of nowhere and a Top 5 synth-pop success with 'Einstein A-Go-Go'.

**PeterG** · 07-20-2015

There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding amongst a few of you. The list of artists who change style and/or reinvent themselves from album to album is a very long one, e.g. Bowie, Bush, Young, Zappa, Reed, Eno, Opeth, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree etc.

I thought my opening post was quite specific in detail, I know I've been accused of being vague in the past, but not this time.

So to make it even clearer: Artists/bands that have changed from one specific style after several albums and then stuck with another specific style onwards for several albums.

**PeterG** · 07-20-2015

Originally Posted by Lou

Genesis would have to be the poster child for this.

That was more of a gradual change from prog to poppier prog though. They didn't suddenly make a conscious decision to change from prog to hard rock or fusion after 3 or 4 albums. They made 11 good prog rock studio albums IMO before the full blown prog-pop of Invisible Touch. So I'm not sure where you see the great schism of musical genres in their output.

**bob_32_116** · 07-20-2015

Originally Posted by PeterG

There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding amongst a few of you. The list of artists who change style and/or reinvent themselves from album to album is a very long one, e.g. Bowie, Bush, Young, Zappa, Reed, Eno, Opeth, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree etc.

I thought my opening post was quite specific in detail, I know I've been accused of being vague in the past, but not this time.

So to make it even clearer: Artists/bands that have changed from one specific style after several albums and then stuck with another specific style onwards for several albums.

Since you mention Porcupine Tree, there is a case for including them. Broadly speaking their albums fall into three periods: the psychedelic/trance period, with many instrumental tracks; the "poppier" more accessible song-oriented period, and the heavier metal-influenced period. Clearly it's not all black and white, and there was a certain overlap,

**bob_32_116** · 07-20-2015

Here's one: Exile.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

They hit the peak of their success in 1978 with the ballad hit "Kiss You All Over." After a couple of minor subsequent pop hits, they re-established in 1983 as a country music group.

**PeterG** · 07-20-2015

Yea, I take your point about PT, the same was true also of PF in a way, 2 whimsical acid-psych pop albums, 2 soundtracks, a few prog albums, then mediocrity.

**bob_32_116** · 07-20-2015

Of course, Steven Wilson himself has always had a split musical personality. Mostly he handled this by spreading his compositions out between half a dozen different bands or "projects", rather than putting them all into the one. Very wise; I think many people who loved Fear of a Blank Planet would have been thoroughly bored by Bass Communion.

**the ferret** · 07-20-2015

R.E.O. Speedwagon. From the hard rockin' boogie of the debut up to This Time We Mean It to the country rock/aor of the Cow Album onwards. As it happens I enjoy both eras of the band.

**Mr.Flower** · 07-20-2015

Not sure if this fulfils PeterG's criteria, but The Cult went from post-punk Goth to hard rock on releasing Electric and stayed with this for years (Sonic Temple, Ceremony etc, etc. The change was initially down to ditching the more gothic, original version of Electric produced by Steve Brown and bringing in Bob Rock. I'm not sure the change was totally volte face, but at the time, it was hugely devisive amongst their fans.

**PeterG** · 07-20-2015

The Cult definitely fits! Goths to headbangers! Love both periods. But prefer the earlier goth stuff.

**klothos** · 07-20-2015

Originally Posted by PeterG

There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding amongst a few of you. The list of artists who change style and/or reinvent themselves from album to album is a very long one, e.g. Bowie, Bush, Young, Zappa, Reed, Eno, Opeth, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree etc.

I thought my opening post was quite specific in detail, I know I've been accused of being vague in the past, but not this time.

So to make it even clearer: Artists/bands that have changed from one specific style after several albums and then stuck with another specific style onwards for several albums.

This is why I mentioned E.L.O.: Their first album is nothing like the second which is nothing like the third which is nothing like the fourth, although all four were definitely prog. The fifth album, "Face The Music", had elements of prog and pop but, by "A New World Record", there was nothing "proggy" about them. From "face The Music" to "Discovery" (an album that went disco, even) its hard to say that this band was even the same band that did the first four albums...Then, in 1981, they return to some prog with "Time" but this album is almost a primitive version of electronica

**kayfabe58** · 07-20-2015

Japan...glam boys become influential art rockers.
.

**Mr.Flower** · 07-20-2015

Scritti Politti - from agit, scratchy, post punk to pop chart bothering soul/R&B with Cupid & Psyche '85. Those anarcho-punks who loved Skank Bloc Bologna didn't see that one coming.