which bands changed the most ?

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psuedo echo went from visage (autumnal park)to van halen (race)in 3 lps.
skid row went from bon jovi - judas priest in 2 lps

― retrokid, Sunday, 26 February 2006 07:48 (twenty years ago)

The Supersuckers went from hair metal to whatever they are now.

― cracktivity1 (cracktivity1), Sunday, 26 February 2006 09:44 (twenty years ago)

Not sure about most but Notwist have done a 180.

On top of all that the last album Neon Golden is a modern day classic, which is hard to do when you change that much.

― BeeOK (boo radley), Sunday, 26 February 2006 09:47 (twenty years ago)

PIL

― sleeve (sleeve), Sunday, 26 February 2006 11:01 (twenty years ago)

Section 25 went from Joy Division-ish Post Punk to Krautrock to electro in the course of five years.
More famously, New Order had a similar trajectory(sans the Krautrock, perhaps), but Section 25's transformation seems much more jarring(forced, perhaps) and, as a result, all the more fascinating.

― D.V. Caputo, Sunday, 26 February 2006 11:24 (twenty years ago)

Adam and the Ants.

Pirates to panto in 12 months.

― Ant, Sunday, 26 February 2006 12:15 (twenty years ago)

the notwist is a very good example. burzum maybe

― rizzx (Rizz), Sunday, 26 February 2006 12:46 (twenty years ago)

metallica went from godlike thrash metal to prog-metal to commercial hard rock to texas boogie/post-grunge to being THE WORST BAND EVER

― latebloomer: My Baby's A Labrador, He's Beautiful (latebloomer), Sunday, 26 February 2006 12:50 (twenty years ago)

Talk Talk. Ministry.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Sunday, 26 February 2006 12:57 (twenty years ago)

Swans.
Radiohead.

― Si.C@rter (SiC@rter), Sunday, 26 February 2006 13:07 (twenty years ago)

age of chance - twice ..

― mark e (mark e), Sunday, 26 February 2006 13:09 (twenty years ago)

lilys - from shoegaze to easy listening/kinks style, and back again.

― who say that, Sunday, 26 February 2006 16:43 (twenty years ago)

Talking Heads

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Sunday, 26 February 2006 16:58 (twenty years ago)

talk talk probably wins it - to go from 80's glossy pop hits to pre-post rock art music is really a big change, and a mystery - how could taht happen?

― seturn5, Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:00 (twenty years ago)

blur! with the caveat being that if a band was always changing (with the arguable exception of parklife --> the great escape) then has it really changed?

― marc h. (marc h.), Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:13 (twenty years ago)

Why has nobody mentioned Ulver yet? Black metal to ambient noise.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Scritti Politti, and probably a few others from that era, scratchy, lo-fi avant-punk to glossy, lush new pop in 3 years.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:44 (twenty years ago)

lilys - from shoegaze to easy listening/kinks style, and back again.

i keep seeing claims about the new lilys being shoegaze and even more laughable 'experimental' but it's just dreadful. it's like bob pollard demos. scary.

primal scream is a good answer. from jangly twee to twee dance to twee classic rock to twee metal.

― keyth (keyth), Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:53 (twenty years ago)

mekons
roxy music

― nerve pylon (flat_of_angles), Sunday, 26 February 2006 17:59 (twenty years ago)

Beatles

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 26 February 2006 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Metal Sludge Exposed

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Sunday, 26 February 2006 18:33 (twenty years ago)

beastie boys

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 26 February 2006 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Madness went from being a great band to one that really sucks in two records.

― LoneNut, Monday, 27 February 2006 10:51 (twenty years ago)

Also, Motorhead is the definitive opposing corollary here.

― LoneNut, Monday, 27 February 2006 10:53 (twenty years ago)

i'd say the beatles too.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 27 February 2006 11:23 (twenty years ago)

Bee Gees

Genesis

― Duke Dubuque (Duke Dubuque), Monday, 27 February 2006 11:36 (twenty years ago)

Madness???

Tell me more about Age of Chance, mark e. I only really know the stuff from "From Now On, This Will Be Your God" to the "Kiss" remixes, and that doesn't seem a radical change.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:17 (twenty years ago)

Check out "Hands to heaven", new front guy singer, new trancey style.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:25 (twenty years ago)

On a similar note, The Shamen went from psychedelic indie pop to "Ebenezer Goode", but it's not the most radical change in the world.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:31 (twenty years ago)

Sparks? Devo?

― zeus (zeus), Monday, 27 February 2006 12:39 (twenty years ago)

gwen stefani : from rock-ska-whatever to hip hop/rnb to 80s synth pop (ok, she's not a band).
or nerd : from hiphop/rnb to fusion rock... in 2 albums.
also, PE, ice t, beck... or spinal tap !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Monday, 27 February 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

Neurosis comes to mind. The transition from fairly straight-up crossover-core to ethereal catharctic shoegazing metal was quite pronounced.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:04 (twenty years ago)

re age of chance :

era 1
early days - shambolic lo-fi guitars that fit in with the c86 scene of the day.

era 2
post-Kiss : album '1000 years of trouble' big hard edged noise/samples/chants, very different to early days due to £250K production !

era 3
then Steve E "left" (ahem), the band drafted in Charlie Hutchinson a seal-sing-a-like for Mecca album, the band softened their sound, became much more mainstream pop at the request of the label. things fell apart.

era 4
then finally - the final duo of Jan P and Geoff T self released 2 excellent 12" singles that proved that they were fans of Curve all along, epic trance loops with layers of guitar noise.

if only they had kept that particular groove going, but they were past caring as were the fans/media.

though there are rumours that Geoff T is to dip toes back into the scene again, sometime soon.

only bowie fans like as drastic a change.

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:13 (twenty years ago)

I realised when I AMGed them that I'd mostly lost interest by the first album. The sound was better, but the songs didn't seem as good (at the time). The early singles are magnificent, AoC are far and away the most interesting group on C86.

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:20 (twenty years ago)

bias stops me from going on too much .. but i agree of course.
though dont hold your breathe for a "20 years of c86" sanctioned AOC reunion.

― mark e (mark e), Monday, 27 February 2006 14:22 (twenty years ago)

Everything But the Girl - Folk to Beats

― dewey2, Monday, 27 February 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

Also, Motorhead is the definitive opposing corollary here.

also, Daniel Johnston.

― Aaron A, Monday, 27 February 2006 17:10 (twenty years ago)

If we're talking about solo artists, Miles Davis is the first to spring to mind. From bebop and cool jazz to modal jazz to hard bop to proto-ambient to jazz-rock to avant-garde to jazz-funk and, finally, to hip hop. That's quite a journey.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:22 (twenty years ago)

Though I guess Herbie Hancock did something similar in a shorter time span. Though unlike Miles, who never looked back, he also returned to the old forms.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Solo artists aside, the Mekons surely own this thread.

― A|ex P@reene (Pareene), Monday, 27 February 2006 17:31 (twenty years ago)

Moby = punk to dance to shitty dad-rock

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 27 February 2006 21:14 (twenty years ago)

Beatles

Love Me Do to Tomorrow Never Knows in four years.

― Cunga (Cunga), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:34 (twenty years ago)

I don't think the Beatles are in the spirit of this thread. They didn't so much "change" as take the wheel and add axles, a motor and a chassis.

― Mitya (mitya), Monday, 27 February 2006 23:47 (twenty years ago)

Joe Jackson anyone?

Started out as pubrock new waver, went through a blue eyed soul phase and is now a classical composer.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:00 (twenty years ago)

Also, Neil Young. Half of his output may have been rather typical of him, but the other half consists of synthpop, 60s psychedelia, Stax Soul, 50s rock and grunge, among other things.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:02 (twenty years ago)

Tiefscwarz - went from remixing Rick Astley to remixing Lopazz.

― Geological fondue (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

Tiefschwarz

― Geological fondue (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

"classical"

― Raw, Uncompromising, and Noodly (noodle vague), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 00:08 (twenty years ago)

liars

― Daniel Gelfer (gelfball), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 08:40 (twenty years ago)

afi

― Harpal (harpal), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 09:26 (twenty years ago)

I'd say P-Funk wins if you count the Parliaments (a doo-wop group, FFS).

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)

fleetwood mac

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 06:02 (twenty years ago)

as solo artists go, wayne county is certainly way up there in the pantheon.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 1 March 2006 06:05 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

hi dare SCOTT WALKER
hi dare RADIOHEAD
hi dare XTC
hi dare SLOWDIVE

TALK TALK cosugn

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Seefeel

er, 14 Iced Bears

I'm out...

― henry s, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 21:05 (nineteen years ago)

Bowie

― henry s, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 21:22 (nineteen years ago)

Pop Will Eat Itself in pre-hip-hop and post-hip-hop transition.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:10 (nineteen years ago)

Moody Blues went from awful, badly produced, R&B to wonderful symphonic psychedelia and then to largely synth-based AOR.

― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:12 (nineteen years ago)

boredoms.

― Fetchboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:29 (nineteen years ago)

thought about saying boredoms but actually in listening to 'pop tatari' you can clearly sense where VCN came from; as for the bands I actually mentioned the change was utterly indetectable in their early works

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

the beach boys:
surf
pop
psych
r n b
soul
disco
hip hop - http://youtube.com/watch?v=gt0LBlH3dAc *
top 40

*[HEAVENS! WARNING LINK HAS A QUESTION MARK GOD FORBID]

― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:37 (nineteen years ago)

i don't hear much of Soul Discharge in Seadrum

― Fetchboy, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:41 (nineteen years ago)

i knew you'd go one better in both directions... :-P

very well, i'll accept the boredoms!

― unfished business, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

I go w/Fleetwood Mac too, as their early days are totally unrecognizable to the majority of their fanbase...I mean w/Talk Talk the vocals at least stayed sort of the same.

― dlp9001, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 22:44 (nineteen years ago)

pantera

― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 20 March 2007 23:43 (nineteen years ago)

Black Flag changed a lot between 'Damaged' and 'My War'.

Even better, the Meat Puppets' entire SST career - from noisy hardcore (In A Car/Meat Puppets) to cow-punk (Meat Puppets II) to psychedelia (Up On The Sun) to boogie (Out My Way) to electro-pop-rock-whatever (Mirage) to hair metal (Monsters). Now that's what I call evolution - and yet, there's an intangible coherence to it all.

― MacDara, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 00:14 (nineteen years ago)

The coherence is that Kirkwood kept trying to carry a tune, but couldn't. I say that as a fan.

― bendy, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 01:15 (nineteen years ago)

Tom Waits went from a pack a day voice to 5 packs a day voice early in his career.

― I am not afraid of you and you can spank my ass, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 02:11 (nineteen years ago)

Black Dice

― circa1916, Wednesday, 21 March 2007 05:26 (nineteen years ago)

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