Bands that dramatically changed their sound for the better?

[Robot.G]

Daughters. Spastic Mathcore to interesting Post Punk.

 

[Craig Orndorff]

Please, only bands that changed dramatically -- enough to be considered a different genre….,.

I would argue that SUB-genre is enough. With Pantera for example, their sub genre change very significantly—hair-ish metal to groove metal—“Cemetary Gates” is a world away from “Walk”—but it’s still metal.

 

[Craig Orndorff]

Mr.Bungle started as a thrash/death metal band with their demo Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny.

Turned into a weird cartoony funk/ska-metal group with their self titled debut album.

Then turned into an avant-garde jazz noise band with occasional dips into metal, lounge, and middle eastern music with Disco Volante.

Then got really poppy with a strong Beach Boys/Burt Bacharach influence on California.

Then went back to death/thrash metal with The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Re-recording.

Definitely a wild ride.

I should also add that I thought Bungle got successfully better musically with each release, with the possible exception of the Easter Bunner re-recordings.

It’s almost as if they were saying “F you for signing us” to the record company. Kind of reminiscent of St Elsewhere ending their second to last season of a cliffhanger, then they were renewed and they completed upended the show, including the infamous final scene.

 

[Craig Orndorff]

Define "better."

Plenty of Genesis fans (me included) feel their 80s output was terrible compared to their progressive era stuff. On the other hand, Supper's Ready did exactly burn up the charts and would not have filled stadiums worldwide. I'd say Phil, et. al. feel their bank accounts are much better now than they would have been.

Bands evolve all the time and you either like it or you don't. So what?

Am in the minority in enjoying “Attack of the Giant Hogweeds” and “Invisble Touch”?

That said, you can still hear echos of their prog roots on “Duke” or a song like “Land of Confusion”, IMO.

 

[Craig Orndorff]

Two of my favorites.
Spinal Tap - Listen to the Flower People 1967 Music Video HD - YouTube

Spinal Tap - Big Bottom 1984 Music Video HD - YouTube

The Tap is a perfect satire of this entire concept.

 

[Craig Orndorff]

While I prefer Bon for sure, the Back in Black album was full of great songs and Brian was a perfect replacement for that band.
But as far as the band changing, nothing changed, the sound, the singing, the recording, the songwriting, the look.
Billy Gibbons and Angus Young should each find a great blues band in need of a guitarist and record some straight electric blues/boogie records.
They both still play really well and both badly need to break out of the corners they've painted themselves into.
Neither of them need to make more money, so they have a freedom to make changes, they might enjoy the change, I sure would.

At this point, Young and Gibbons will both be dead before they change….

 

[Craig Orndorff]

I think Jefferson Starship is one band that changed their sound for the better.
Started out as folk rock group Jefferson Airplane, had some hits with White Rabbit and Somebody To Love, changed their name to Jefferson Starship in the seventies, became a soft rock act, fires everyone except Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and Marty Balin.
Then Marty Balin left in the late seventies and was replaced with Mickey Thomas.
They became the AOR corn fest known as Starship by the late Eighties and the rest is history.

On the other hand, Red Octopus is one of the best records ever made.

I read all the way to here for somebody to bring them up. “We Built This City”……what a sad yet glorious “end.”

 

[Craig Orndorff]

I haven't read all 10 pages ("who's got the time...?"), but just about every long-running band has gone through some level of transformation.

As was mentioned up front, there are bands who have perfected their style (AC/DC, ZZ Top, etc.) to the point that you recognize the band's signature within seconds….

But even Top adapted with Eliminator (before overstaying their welcome with Afterburner).