Nothing is quicker to turn a comments section into a wild rage than artists having the nerve to take their artistic talents in a different direction. Bands have various reasons for tearing down everything they’ve built in the name of starting over. Whatever way you slice it,changing musical direction is risky business for any artist.
Be it changing a direction that isn’t working out or having the guts and fortitude to stick to artistic principles to create something new (in full awareness that fans might revolt), these musical rolls of the dice often have varying results. While a lot of these kinds of experiments become musical car crashes that can change the course of entire careers,these are the artistic shifts that have served artists bestthroughout musical history.
10Muse
Hands up if you’re old enough to remember Muse being lazily compared to Radiohead on their entire debut album cycle? Back in the days when Matt Bellamy and his power trio had far less strings to their bow, the relatively bare-bones musical approach ofShowbizfeatured little of their avant-garde approachthat would earn them legions of fans. It’s also arguably their least impressive release, but that’s a more subjective point.
The truth is that the leap Muse took betweenShowbizandOrigin Of Symmetryis monolithic.Muse are most loved for their bombastic ideas, wide-ranging instrumentation, and ambitious songwriting ideals. That’s 100% more evident on every album afterShowbiz.
9Pantera
Glam Rockers Become Cowboys From Hell
Pantera became the originators of Groove Metal and the tipping point in the ’90s when denim-and-leather “heavy metal” gave way to simply “metal.” Dimebag and Vinnie Paul started life as a Van Halen tribute band in Texas andthe early years of Pantera would feature glam rockakin to the hard-rocking sounds of Kiss and Ted Nugent, with vocalist Terry Glaze on the mic. Phil Anselmo would soon join the band for one more glam record before everything changed.
Even though it’s inaccurate,Cowboys From Hellis widely regarded as the first Pantera album, such is the stylistic shift between early Pantera and the band that would own metal in the ’90s. It’s when being steamrollered by the crunching breakdowns of “Domination” and dealing out a rhythmic-pulverizing on “Primal Concrete Sledge” that the seeds are sown for the Groove Metal to come fromVulgar Display Of Poweronwards. Dime, Vinnie and their bandmates would change both Pantera and the sound of heavy music forever.
8Def Leppard
From NWOBHM to Arena Rock
It is frankly hysterical to think of Def Leppard being associated with “heavy metal.” Joe Elliot and Sheffield’s finest are one of Britain’s most criminally underrated artists on their own shores, asDef Leppard traded NWOBHM for U.S.-tinged arena rock. Embracing the more polished talents of AC/DC, Foreigner, and Boomtown Rats producer Mutt Lange, 1981’sHigh N Drychanged everything for Def Leppard and things would only improve from there.
For pure chart-bothering, stadium-shagging anthems,Def Leppard were one of the ’80s most loved bands,mainly because of their radio-friendly tunes and carefree attitude. That they have continued to play stadiums with the likes of Mötley Crüe and Journey in recent years speaks volumes about the quality of the work Leppard produced while in their pomp. Def Leppard could never have achieved any of this in their original incarnation. you may’t write “Make Love Like A Man” when you’re in a band that sounds like Iron Maiden.
7Bring Me The Horizon
Deathcore Duds Become Slick Rocking Hit Makers
Bring Me The Horizon are one of rock’s unlikeliest success stories, having spent their earliest years being one of metal’s biggest punchlines. Their early work has been largely completely shunned by the band themselves (save for “Pray For Plagues”), such was the lack of quality in the content and delivery of that material. Indeed, the band were so bad in early live performances that seeing Bring Me The Horizon remains the only time that a band’s manager has apologized to me for taking the time to see them.
It was onSuicide SeasonandThere Is A Hell, Believe Me I’ve Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Lets Keep It A Secretthat they began to flourish with a more grown-up and musical direction, andBMTH would finally pull everything together onSempiternal.Still comfortably the best record in the band’s catalog, they enlisted Worship songwriter Jordan Fish to deliver a slick, generation-defining album. They have continued to garner fans after that album’s impact, as BMTH move with the times and follow the trends of the day.
6Depeche Mode
’80s Popsters Turn To The Dark Side
Some of the bands on this list started their careers painfully, before changing lanes and blossoming into the artists they were always supposed to be. Depeche Mode, however, were great from their inception. But with Vince Clarke at the helm of their songwriting, the synth-pop of “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “New Life” are about happy vibes and syrupy melodies. It was whenClarke left to form Yazoo and the Mode embraced their dark sidethat they found their true calling.
Quite rightly, in the modern age, the reputation of the band is thatDepeche Mode are one of goth’s greatest musical acts, with albums likeViolatorandSongs Of Faith And Devotionresponsible for influencing everyone from harder artists like Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson and Rammstein (who regularly cover “Stripped”) to today’s darker electronic royalty such as Billie Eilish, Bad Omens, and Charli XCX. They are also still a devastating live band, whose staying power now sees them play to four or five generations of black-clad masses.
5AFI
Scrappy Horror Punks Lose Their Mohawks
When considering the artier look and feel of modern AFI, it’s hard to think of them being a band fronted by a guy with Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos. Signed by The Offspring’s Dexter Holland,AFI were fired-up, teenage Bay Area punks, spitting out tunes with lightning-paced drums and bratty vocal melodies. Things would begin to mature into something a little grander with their spectacularBlack Sails In The Sunsetbut their “Days Of The Phoenix” single would change everything.
Having taken their horror-punk roots as far as they could on their classicThe Art Of Drowningalbum, like so many before them,AFI embraced something larger than punk rockto create their magnum opus.Sing The Sorrowis a goth-soaked arena rock album that keeps the gang vocals and attitude, but ups the drama and rips up the playbook to create one of 21st-century rock’s best albums. AFI have continued to be a musical chameleon with mixed commercial and critical response, but the band that wroteShut Your MouthAnd Open Your Eyescould never have achieved “I Hope You Suffer” or “Beautiful Thieves.”
4Ghost
Occult Rockers Morph Into Arena Rock Gods
Crawling from the crypt onOpus Eponymous,Ghost arrived with little fanfare. The brainchild of former Repugnant man Tobias Forge, the Swedish occult rock band had a quirky album that sounded dusty and as far from trendy as is humanly possible. The album artwork, though, was a masterpiece and was worn on t-shirts by Slash from Guns N Roses, James Hetfield from Metallica, and Phillip Anselmo of Down and Pantera.
They then signed a mega-deal with Universal Music via their Republic Records imprint, and Ghost receiving a cash injection changed their art forever. The band looked like they’d been shaved and kicked through Party City on their first album, but by the timeInfestissumamcame around, Ghost had a stage show people could believe in and a blockbuster album that used its bigger budget superbly. They have continued to evolve in this way, to such an extent thatGhost are essentially “spooky Abba” now,and we couldn’t be more here for it.
3Beastie Boys
NYC Hardcore Crew Change Rap Music Forever
The Beastie Boys have one of the best musical evolutions in history. A band that always led with honesty, artistic integrity and a healthy dose of nonsense,Beastie Boys started life as a hardcore band, influenced by the likes of Bad Brains and Minor Threat. The seeds of artistic anarchy were in the Beastie Boys DNA from the get-go, but the sound of rebellion was about to change in New York City.
As turntables, Studio 54, block parties, and hip-hop culture were being birthed in New York,Beastie Boys put their own character on rap culture. As spiky and confrontational as they were as punks,Licensed To Illbecame the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 chart, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. WithPaul’s Boutiquethey quietened anybody who tried to delegitimize the artistic integrity of rap music with a mind-blowingly complex musical canvas, and they put out monster hit singles from every single one of their albums.
2Radiohead
Decent Grunge Act Become One Of Music’s Most Respected Acts
Much like Depeche Mode earlier in this list, Radiohead had quality in their veins from the beginning. Delivering “Creep” onPablo Honeygarnered them the world’s attention from their debut album, and follow-upThe Bendsshowed that their success wasn’t just a flash-in-the-pan fluke. Even with this level of public admiration and critical acclaim,Radiohead refused to be pigeonholed.
Released to much fanfare from new and old fans, Radiohead’s 1997OK Computeralbum flexed the band’s musical muscles further still to universal praise. When they did that same trick onKid A, creating an album that sounded like an entirely different band, and people still loved it,Radiohead were given artistic licence to experiment forever. It is a right they continue to express through releasing their music in radical ways and challenging themselves and their audience artistically.
1Fleetwood Mac
Blues Rockers Become One Of Pop’s Most Successful Acts
In their early years,Fleetwood Mac were Peter Green’s baby. Using his immense talents to garner a blues-driven and dramatic sound, the likes of “Albatross” and “Black Magic Woman” were lead-guitar heavy songs that became Fleetwood Mac’s earliest hits. The introduction of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks gave them a much shinier and more appealing feel almost instantly.
The band’s self-titled 1975 album would feature the Nicks-penned and performed duo of “Rhiannon” and “Landslide,” but it was onRumorsFleetwood Mac became something entirely unrecognizable from the sultry blues tones of their humble beginnings. Instead,Fleetwood Mac became pop behemoths, their songs still filling the air in an almost omnipresent state, such is the class and performance in the likes of “Don’t Stop,” “Dreams” and “Everywhere.”
