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It's not uncommon for bands or individual musicians to change up their sound, look, etc over time, but naturally this always comes with it "either fans will love it or hate it."

So basically post examples of bands or musicians you like or used to like who changed over time and whether or not if you found it to be for the better or for the worse.

I'll just start off with one example: Dir En Grey

Dir En Grey in 1999: visual kei rock band (think "glam rock meets anime cosplay") that looked like this:

And did songs like this:

Dir En Grey in 2015: experimental metal band that has dropped much of its old visual kei roots in favor of doing anything ranging from metalcore, doom metal, and deathcore, that looks like this:

And now does songs like these:

In my opinion Dir En Grey's switch to being more experimental was a change for the better. I like pop/rock just fine, but I like how their more experimental metal songs range from either aggressive deathcore, to more melodic slower songs, giving a decent amount of variety in their output.

The Who

1965

1978

Pink Floyd

1967, with original frontman Syd Barrett

And… well… as a Floyd fan, I would deserve the death penalty for posting an individual song from the legendary era. So if you haven't heard Meddle, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals or The Wall yet… please do. But needless to say, it's very different.

Papa Roach, which went from Nu-Metal in their first 3 albums

To a more mainstream hard rock sound onwards,and they brought back some Nu-Metal elements back in The Connection

I honestly prefer the Nu-Metal songs over the Hard Rock ones. As a matter of fact Getting Away With Murder is the only one I like.

Here's the song from Chumbawamba's last album.

Does that band sound familiar?

Here's one of their earlier works.

Radiohead changed a lot from the 90s to the 2000s. The most obvious sound change was the release of OK Computer (An hour or so long alt rock album) in 1997 and then the release of Kid A (An almost 30 minute, mostly electronic album) 3 years later. After Kid A, they released Amnesiac, which was also an experimental electronic album, though most of the album was unfinished projects from the Kid A recording sessions.

Their next 2 albums, Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows were mostly rock orientated, although a few of the songs in Hail to the Thief were more electronic focused (not surprising, since some of HTTT's songs were also leftovers from the Kid A sessions), while In Rainbows was made mostly without electronics.

The most recent album of their's is The King of Limbs, a more electronically focused album opposed to Kid A, which had a few rock tracks, a piano ballad, and a violin heavy track. TKOL was almost all electronically produced (besides 2 songs) and unlike Kid A, TKOL was not an experimental album, according to Thom Yorke in an interview with NPR

It's something common in music business: or you stay in a certain time with a certain music style or you go all for it and try to adapt to the new times and music trends. Queen had to deal with it, Madonna had to deal with it, Metallica, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, and mostly bands and musicians had to deal with it. But of course some of them succeed to make the transition and some…not very well.

This is the case of Chicago:
You can go from this:

And then, 16 years later, you got this:*

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Blondie if one of those cases that I find hard to believe:**

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But there's another option and it's keeping trying and be experimental as hell: Primus, Bjork, King Crimson, Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Zappa, are only a few names of bands and musicians that do not like to be "labeled" as rock/pop or whatever the hell they play:***

Bjork:

Frank Zappa:

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NOTES:
*Unlike of certain music critics, like Todd in the Shadows, I do not hate Chicago but I never was a fan of the 80's sound. Their first albums are wroth listening IHO.
**I like "Heart of Glass", plz dont kill me. But I wouldn't say this change that Blondie made was for better of for worse…
***That doesn't exclude genres like classical, rap/hip-hop, jazz or EDM (specially EDM). Since there's musical exponents who like to experiment with their music and their musical style can change.

Four words: RED. HOT. CHILI. PEPPERS. Here's them in 1987, as an always-high factory of funk rock party jams.

Now here's them in 1991, where they hit it big and started doing slower ballads. Also, Anthony got clean.

1995: John leaves the band because It's Popular, So It Sucks. They get Dave Navarro in his place and start to do darker, but funkier stuff than BSSM (to be fair, Dave used to be in Jane's Addiction, so it makes sense).

2002: This is around the point where the Chilis are a good contender for the "Biggest Rock Band In The World" title. They started to get considered for it around Californication and pretty much cemented it with Stadium Arcadium. Anyway, they lost a lot of the funk around this time. While there were still your Throw Away Your Televisions and By The Ways, we got a lot of stuff like this:

2012: They're certified legends by this point, and are doing a lot of everything on I'm With You. Case in point, here's a funky track and a ballad:

And remember, everyone: change is not bad.

DJ Shadow

His first 2 albums, Endtroducing… as well as The Private Press were more in the style of plunderphonics and turntablism, as he managed to change the style of instrumental hip hop as well as create 2 (well, mostly Endtroducing, but you get the idea) of the most fascinating records of not only the 90's, but in Hip-Hop, and equally larger.

And then uh..

He started creating hyphy. He went back to making instrumentals in his last album, but he hasn't returned to what he had.

Pearl Jam got a lot "Pop"-ier.

Then:

Now:

They're still decent I suppose.

@Jimmy
Its an even bigger change then that. They started out with stuff like this.


They changed their sound up a bit every album which means there's stuff for almost everyone.

darker, but funkier stuff than BSSM

OHM was definitely darker but absolutely not funkier. Aeroplane was funky as hell but other than that most of the album is hard rock or psychedelic rock. BSSM on the other hand had very few songs that weren't funk. The only funkier album they did was Freaky Styley.

Obligatory
2004

2007

2010

2013

An easy example would be Gorillaz.
Originally the group was focused on experimentation and what Damon Albarn couldn't do with Blur, such as reggae, dub, hip-hop, trip-hop, etc, due to the band having the "Britpop" label on them. The visuals were also a lot more whimsical and carefree in comparison.
A clear example of this "phase" would be the song "19-2000", both visually and musically.

The next phase of Gorillaz is a lot more darker and serious in tone, in comparison to the first phase, with the visuals being a lot more grim and the music being less experimental and much more focused on messages.
An example of this phase would be "Feel Good Inc."

And for the last phase of Gorillaz, this one is musically the most "poppiest" and "upbeat", almost ditching the guitar usage of the last two phases and using synths in its place, with the visuals being lighter than Phase 2 but darker than Phase 1, and also the usage of 3D animation is more prominent then ever than the other phases. It also has the most convoluted storyline out of all of them, imo (and this is already with a band that has fought demons, exorcised people and more).
An example of this phase would be "On Melancholy Hill"

I'm going to say Incubus. In the late 90s, they were a hard alternative rock band during the Certain Shades Of Green era. When they became more mainstream in the mid-2000s, they became softer and were more of a pop alternative rock band with songs like Love Hurts and I Wish You Were Here.

Another example is Fall Out Boy. In the mid-2000s, they were an alternative rock band that was guitar and bass orientated with songs like Sugar, We're Going Down and Dance Dance. Today, they're more popish and less guitarish. Songs like Light Em' Up and Centuries involve electronic mixing in their songs.

I know I bring them up a lot, but Supertramp's another great example of this.

Their first two albums, Supertramp and Indelibly Stamped, are best described as easy listening and sound more like late 60's rock than the progressive stuff they got known for later. There are some songs on these albums that sound NOTHING like their more popular stuff, especially songs like Potter which don't feature Hodsgon or Davies singing the lyrics. Honestly that guy sounds like a wannabe Mick Jagger.

Crime of the Century, usually considered their best album, is a progressive rock/art/concept album, and in my opinion, one of the most underrated classics in the genre. It tells an interesting and poetic narrative which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. I usually interpret it as a single person's descent towards madness due to social pressures. If you're a Pink Floyd fan, you'll love this album, although there is a bit of weirdness here too (such as Dreamer).

Crisis? What Crisis? is completely different. In my opinion it's the most coheisive of their albums. I would consider it mainly soft rock.

Even in the Quietest Moments… lives up to its title. It's a quiet, relaxing album that shares little in common with its predecessor (outside of possibly the song "The Meaning"). It's an art album but this feels more like Davies's jazz influences have spread more here as opposed to Hodgson's psychedelic rock influences found scattered through Crime. Outside of "Give a Little Bit" and "Babaji" most of the songs are slow paced and based on narrative rather than standard rock faire.

Breakfast in America is first and foremost a pop rock album, sounding almost nothing like Crime of the Century 5 years prior. Still a great album though. You can still see the progressive side of the band coming through on a few songs, especially The Logical Song.

I'm not a huge fan of Final Last Words, I think it's best described as a pop rock album but it doesn't really have the integrity that BiA has in general.

After Hodsgon left in 1983, Rick and the boys put out Brother Where You Bound, which, in my opinion, is the last great Supertramp album. Here they return to a fiery political narrative through heavily progressive rock sounds. It's only 6 songs but it's very clearly art/progrock.

Free as a Bird is a sell out album. Haven't listened to Some Things Never Change.

Slow Motion, their last album and a somewhat obscure album, is pretty jazzy, although it does return to some of the roots of the band. I kind of feel this is what Supertramp would sound like if Roger never got involved.

All in all the band bounced quite a bit around with their production. While they did make a temporary return to progrock, they basically bounced between rock genres every album or so. Listening to "Aries" on Indelibily Stamped is so weird in comparison to "The Logical Song" on BiA or "Hide in your Shell" on Crime.

Also, I can't really give any samples because this band is one of those bands where you do have to listen to the whole album in a row and because of copyright bullshit I can't really share them from youtube.

Interestingly, Roger really doesn't sound that much different from his stuff in BiA in his solo career outside of the mess that's Hai Hai. Both Open the Door and Eye of the Storm basically sound like Supertramp if Roger just wrote a whole album and didn't use keyboards.

Job For A Cowboy, the prioneers of deathcore was it for their Demo and the Doom EP, which I actually like


To regular death metal from their debut album Genesis to Demoncracy. And I think it's good.

To technical/progressive death metal with their latest album, Sun Eater. And I think that album is really good.

Interpol. I feel there sound got softer between 2002 and 2014.

2002: PDA

2014: Everything Is Wrong:

For those of you who don't know, Filter is an industrial rock band where the sole remaining member since its inception was singer/guitarist Robert Patrick (brother of the T-1000, no kidding), who was a touring member of Nine Inch Nails from 1989 to 1993. After that, he went and formed Filter, and they released a song called "Hey Man, Nice Shot".

This is from Filter's latest record, "The Sun Comes Out Tonight".

Just some interesting things I wanted to share. Not many people know about Filter nowadays, and that's pretty sad IMO.

Skrillex. Not in a physical way as in appearence, but definitely in sound.

Some of his earlier stuff.

Minor changes, but slightly harder sounds and drops (2010-2011).

A few more changes. A bit more "dubstepy", yet similar to the previous song (2011-2013).

Random soft songs made with his ex-girlfriend (2013-2014).

"Disappears" temporarily and reappears with this.

Creates a few more songs a year later (2014-2015).

Now listen to the last two and the top two. Tell me if you'd ever think it's the same person.

If you want to even take stuff a step further with Skrillex, remember he used to be the lead singer for From First to Last for their first two albums, meaning he technically got his start doing screamo.

Maroon 5

I'd have to say Pendulum. Not really their image that changed but their sound from drum and bass to a more rock oriented sound which can be seen in their later two albums. And if we include Knife Party (of which 2 of its members are a part of) then that's a whole new sound that those two tried out with, such as dubstep, electro house, and other club oriented music genres.

2003:

2005:

2008:

2011:

2011:

2012:

2013:

2014: