For a future post, I’m crowdsourcing a topic: performers, bands, or other musical units whose work received a significant artistic or commercial boost by reinventing themselves. What examples come to mind for you?
Sure, lots of musicians adopt new approaches with virtually each album. Others have pursued new styles or found greater success through a different band (Joy Division —> New Order, for instance). But with this question I have in mind groups or musicians who opened a significant or surprising “second chapter” within the context of a single career. Some examples:
- changing the line-up: Fleetwood Mac changed from a respected British blues/folk band into a Southern California soft-rock monster by adding new members Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham.
- abandoning a signature sound: Everything But The Girl plied a jazz pop sound for 12 years, then morphed into a confident house music unit.
- outside collaborators: a producer or outsider collaborator reorients a musician’s trajectory. Think of Brian Eno’s influence on Talking Heads, or Rick Rubin’s revitalization of Johnny Cash’s legacy.
I’ll leave it as open-ended and suggestive as this. Please submit your examples in the comment section below, or reply to the related tweet or Facebook post. I’ll give credit to you when this whole thing is done!
4 comments
Joshua Solomon says:
Mar 10, 2014
Blur: Their first album was fairly Madchester, yet once that scene died they abandoned the dance pretensions and became a Britpop powerhouse.
Genesis: Prog-rock until Peter Gabriel left. Once Phil Collins took over, they gradually morphed into the pop/rock band that crafted such “essential” hits as “Invisible Touch” and “That’s All.” Also, “Illegal Alien” might have the most offensive music video ever made, so that’s something, I guess.
Aerosmith: Not that I was alive, but according to my stepdad, Aerosmith was really cool at one point and put out some of the best and sleaziest rock of the 1970s. Once they got sober in the 1980’s, they became even more popular, but the musical quality dipped quite a bit.
Farell says:
Mar 24, 2014
Bowie, for obvious reasons.
Doobie Brothers, Simple Minds.
Your distinction between “musicians (who) adopt new approaches with virtually each album” and “musicians who opened a significant or surprising “second chapter” within the context of a single career” is very obscure.
Also, what major artist adopted a new approach with (virtually) each album other than Bowie and, to an extent, the Beatles?
Leonard Nevarez says:
Mar 24, 2014
Re: obscure distinction, fair enough. I use this forum to try to work these ideas out, and I’m still trying to articulate exactly what I mean by this.
But as for artists who adopted a new approach with (virtually) each album, I think there’s many, from Bob Dylan and Neil Young, to Prince and Madonna, to PJ Harvey… Elvis Costello’s entire career after his initial run of Nick Lowe-produced records are another case in point…
Dave Moss says:
Jun 18, 2014
This is an interesting question for discussion, and has a whole range of acts that fit the bill, depending on how you want to define the parameters. To narrow the choices, I tried to think of artists that 1) had success both before and after a major shift in style, and 2) maintained that style thereafter. This eliminates the performers who embrace the mercurial as part of their over-arching image (yes, I’m thinking of Bowie). A few minutes thought led me to:
Dan Zanes
The Del Fuegos, who had several successful records in the 80’s. Dan was even featured in a Budweiser ad, for crying out loud. Now he writes, performs, and records award-winning children’s music.
Robert Gordon
I suspect his heart may have always been in 50’s music, but he got his big start during the NYC punk movement in the 70’s, fronting the Tuff Darts. Since then he has been performing rockabilly, and has recorded with Link Wray.
I’m curious what other acts people have come up with.