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Cue shock and [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]] from parts of the fanbase, along with a whole spectrum of opinions from others.
The
Contrast [[Something Completely Different]], where the change is usually temporary, and the artist goes back to their old sound with the next album.
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* ''90125'' by [[Yes]]. The first album by a reunited band with a new guitarist (Trevor Rabin), ''90125'' saw the band reduce their song lengths and simplify their structures, while retaining enough weirdness and instrumental proficiency to remind fans that it was still a Yes album despite its newfound accessibility. It resulted in the band's only #1 hit, "Owner of a Lonely Heart". Some parts of the fanbase went straight for [[Old Guard Versus New Blood]], with the "Troopers" representing the former and the "Generators" (named after the band's followup ''Big Generator'') the latter, but the majority seem to enjoy both periods just fine.
** This was actually intended as a spinoff project (named "Cinema"), until Yes vocalist Jon Anderson liked the sound of the demos and decided to make it a Yes album.
** ''Drama'' from the same band is worth mentioning here, as it brought a new wave influence to Yes (courtesy of The Buggles' Trevor Horn, who helped define that musical style throughout the 1980s) years before ''90125''. Some critics, like Jeremy Parish of [[Game Spite]], argue that it did a better job of bringing the band into the new decade than the two subsequent albums. Not satisfied with taking Yes in ''one'' new direction, Horn and his bandmates also wrote Machine Messiah, the heavy metal-flavored lead track that would become an influence for the harder sound of neo-prog artists like Dream Theater.
* [[Blink
** Also, when frontman Tom Delonge went on to form [[Angels and Airwaves]], which was radically different in nature from Blink.
* [[Stone Temple Pilots]] started as a 90s grunge band typical of the era, but switched to 60s/70s-inspired psychedelic rock with ''Tiny Music''.
* [[Heart]] changed styles several times. Their debut album ''Dreamboat Annie'' is trippy psych-folk. The following album ''Little Queen'' abandoned the psychedelia of the debut in favor of straightfoward hard rock. In [[The Eighties]], they signed a record deal requiring them to adopt a pop sound and image and use outside professional songwriters. The first result of this was the 1985 self-titled album ''Heart''. This was followed by the very synth-heavy ''Bad Animals'' album, then ''Brigade'', which was a return to guitars, but was still very polished pop. With ''Desire Walks On'', the band regained creative control and began moving back to their traditional sound.
* Believe it or not, The Goo Goo Dolls started as a punk rock band. After 2 punk albums, with 1990's ''Hold Me Up" they gradually began to change over to the lighter pop-rock they became known for in [[The Nineties]]. Their 1987 debut album isn't even in print today.
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* [[Queen]] weren't exactly prog to start with, but were known for highly overdubbed vocal harmonies and guitar work. Starting with ''The Game'' they pushed the guitar to the background and focused more on the pop side of their personality instead of rock. This development went hand in hand with synthesizeritis and reduced songwriting quality, causing them to lose their popularity in America.
* [[Rush]] has many. The self-titled debut album (released prior to virtuoso drummer/lyricist Neil Peart joining the band) is pretty straightfoward 70s bar-band fare ala Bad Company. Enter Peart with ''Fly by Night'', and suddenly the lyrics become sci-fi and the drumming much more technical, but the overall song structures still pretty straightfoward hard rock. However, with ''Caress of Steel'', the band started to move into prog territory, with very long multi-part epics. This remained until ''Permanent Waves'', which found the band abandoning the long epics and "wail" vocals in favor of a more accessable sound. ''Signals'' threw the band into synthesizeritis mode, which lasted throughout [[The Eighties]], until ''Counterparts'', when the band shed the synths in favor of a grunge-influenced sound sound they've stuck with since. However, based on interviews and the two new preview tracks, their upcoming album ''Clockwork Angels'' may move the band back to prog.
** Some Rush fans have noticed that the album following an official [[Live Album]] would be a
* [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] did it twice. Starting with ''Revolver'' they dove headfirst into trippy, catchy psychedelic rock, and then with ''The White Album'' they went back to straightforward rock.
* [[The Who]] changed sound very frequently. Their debut album ''My Generation'' is blues-rock, similar to to what [[The Rolling Stones]] were doing at the time. They then moved into psychedelic pop with ''A Quick One'' and ''The Who Sell Out'', and then then keyboard-heavy art rock with ''Tommy'', ''Who's Next'' and ''Quadrophenia''. In contrast, ''The Who by Numbers'' is stripped down and back-to-basics. The last three albums of their inital run have a more AOR arena rock sound.
* With ''A Northern Soul'', [[The Verve]] changed their orientation from their previous spacey psychedelic rock with lots of drug abuse to alternative rock with lots of drug abuse. They continued with this style on ''Urban Hymns''.
* [[Starflyer 59]] moved from their previous shoegazing-influenced guitar-heavy sound to a synthpop-influenced sound with keyboards starting with ''The Fashion Focus''.
* [[Fleetwood Mac]] started as a moderately successful blues-rock band led by guitarist Peter Green known for hard-rockin' songs with heavy riffs such as "Oh Well" and "The Green Manalishi (with the Two Pronged Crown)". One long complicated history later, including Green and the other guitarist quitting due to mental illness and joining a cult and other replacements that didn't go much anywhere, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, now relocated to California. With ''Fleetwood Mac'' they changed to a pop/rock style inspired mostly by the Beatles, Beach Boys and the mellow Californian soft rock scene. They refined the formula and obtained massive success with ''Rumours'' and ''Tusk'', and never looked back.
** There were still a few
* [[Jars of Clay]] does one of these every second album or so.
* [[Green Day]] in [[The Nineties]] used to be a pop-punk band who wrote catchy songs about being lazy, being insane, masturbating, being bored the works. Cue ''[[American Idiot]]'' and their shift to a more complex style inspired by [[Rock Opera]] and [[The Who]].
* [[Pearl Jam]] moved towards more experimental waters starting with ''No Code'', and they eventually returned to head-on grunge/hard rock with either ''Riot Act'' or ''Pearl Jam'' (depends who you ask).
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** [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]] when the classic line up got back together in a comeback tour, Carnival of Sin, then later released the ''Saints of Los Angeles'' album. The Saints of Los Angeles album returned the sleazy hard rocking fast living sound with a bit of a modern edge, it's their best album in years.
* Muse's most recent album ''The Resistance'', which has raised cries of [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]]. Really, every single Muse album makes changes to their sound. Compare ''Showbiz'' to ''Origin Of Symmetry'', ''Origin Of Symmetry'' to ''Absolution'' and so on.
*** Frankly, it wasn't that radical departure from ''Black Holes'' at all. Other than the song with no guitar parts, which was a first. But still Muse.
* [[Arctic Monkeys]] (''Humbug''), a [[Pink Floyd]]-influenced psychedelic album, quite different from the frantic garage-rock of their previous material.
** Their latest, ''Suck It And See'' is also much softer change from their earlier sound.
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** Return to traditional acoustic folk (''Good as I Been to You, World Gone Wrong'')
** Blues rock (''Time Out of Mind'')
* [[Bone Thugs-n-Harmony]] (just about every new release?)
* [[David Bowie]] '''many''' times. In order of significant ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, his first self-titled album was 1960s British pop with touches of music hall fare, and then he moved on to...
** Psychedelic folk (''Space Oddity'')
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** Industrial/electronica (''1. Outside'')
** Mainstream alt-rock (''Reality'')
* [[Electric Light Orchestra]]'s ''Discovery'': Compared to their previous work, it's well, [[Significant Anagram|very disco]].
* Jewel. One example would be ''0304'', the synthesizer heavy dance pop album she put out after primarily being known for acoustic adult alternative. Strangely averted with her country album ''Perfectly Clear'', which differed only in that John Rich wrote some of the songs and others had hints of steel guitar.
* [[Linkin Park]] - After wringing out the last bit of life from [[Nu-metal]], ''Minutes to Midnight'' led the band in a new direction. What direction that was, [[Genre Roulette|I'm not even sure they know]].
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* [[Radiohead]] - ''Kid A'', ''Amnesiac'', ''In Rainbows'' and ''The King of Limbs''.
** They reached extreme critical acclaim in 1997 with [[Magnum Opus|OK Computer]], an album featuring spacey rock with recurring themes of globalization and alienation. The massive hype and the highly positive reception gave them much popularity and attention, but the amount of touring and inter-band strife forced the band to re-think itself.
** ...Eventually creating Kid A. The album featured more electronic sounds than guitars (as Thom Yorke was allegedly bored of guitars by that point), distorted vocals and much more abstract lyrics and experimental instrumentation, splintering their massive fanbase (many of whom had expected a straight-up continuation of OK Computer) and becoming a highly polarizing album. 2001 saw the release of Amnesiac, which was recorded alongside Kid A and was just as confusing as its predecessor, but both albums would receive much praise.
** With 2007 came ''In Rainbows'', which was a much [[Lighter and Softer]] version of Radiohead (but just as Radiohead as it could be) and much more accessible than one could say about their previous work.
** 2011 would bring ''The King of Limbs'', which is way too hard to categorize as a whole.
* [[The Decemberists]] - ''The Hazards of Love'': Kept the folk influences, but replaced the baroque pop influences with prog.
** Followed up with ''The King Is Dead'' in a way that proves that labels can be deceptive. Both their previous work and this album could be described as indie folk, but before this the "folk" element was Old World folk songs, particularly English and Irish ones. The folk in ''The King Is Dead'' is pure Americana, and a fair assessment of it would be "[[Bruce Springsteen|The Boss]] gone [[Country Music|Country]]".
* [[Crash Test Dummies]] - ''Give Yourself A Hand'', which is a radical departure from their earlier folk rock. The album mixes Funk Rock, [[Rn B]], Chillout, Trip Hop, Drum & Bass and even includes a string ballad. Brad Roberts tries new vocal styles - in addition to his original baritone, he pulls off an impressive falsetto and even unleashes his inner Mike Patton/Anthony Kiedis on some of the funkier tracks, which have very raunchy lyrics. Ellen Reid, previously the backing singer, has lead vocals on a few songs. It is hard to believe this is the same band who did "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" a few years before.
* [[Tori Amos]] - Her three albums ''The Beekeeper'', ''American Doll Posse'', and ''Abnormally Attracted to Sin'' depart from her signature piano-based sound. ''The Beekeeper'' is a mixture of baroque pop and blue-eyed soul, ''American Doll Posse'' is alternative rock, and ''Abnormally Attracted to Sin'' is a mixture of electronica, baroque pop, and alternative rock. May fans dislike those albums (especially ''The Beekeeper''), but [[Your Mileage May Vary]]. Also, her last three albums from the '90s count too. ''Boys for Pele'' is very minimalistic; the majority of songs on the album lack a bassline and a drum beat. ''From the Choirgirl Hotel'' is a mixture of electronica and alternative rock. ''To Venus and Back'' is even more electronic. These albums however, are ''way'' more popular with fans that her more recent albums.
* [[Village People]] ("The Renaissance Album")
* ''5150'' by [[Van Halen]]. After 6 albums defined mostly by the combination of Eddie Van Halen's guitar wizardry and [[Large Ham|David Lee Roth]]'s comic persona, Roth left the band. He was replaced with Sammy Hagar, Eddie started including more and more synths, and their songs became poppier. Cue [[Broken Base]], which endures to this day despite Roth having returned.
** Also the largely forgotten ''Balance'' album, Van Halen's rather misguided attempt at grunge.
* [[Napalm Death]]: ''Harmony Corruption'' onwards, when they started to take on death metal influences (and later industrial and black metal).
* After two albums of generic R&B, [[Prince]] finally took the gloves off for ''Dirty Mind'', the album which codified his now-famous style of New Wave-funk-pop-rock with highly sexual lyrics. He has had several others over his career:
** ''Purple Rain'' emphasised the rock and pop parts of the equation with a slight influence from psychedelic rock and represented the debut of The Revolution.
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* [[Primal Scream]] shifted their sound repeatedly throughout the 1990s, first moving from the indie jangle sound of their '80s albums to house rock with ''Screamadelica''. After a brief dip into a more traditional sound with the bluesy ''Give Out, But Don't Give Up'', the band closed out the decade with the dark, claustrophobic ''Vanishing Point'' and the angrily-political ''XTRMNTR''.
* [[REM|R.E.M.]] has a lot of these, especially experimental ''New Adventures in Hi-Fi''. ''Monster'' to an extent too, as it introduced a louder, more grunge-influenced sound, coming after two popular albums emphasizing orchestration and acoustic guitars. Don't forget Up, the first album after Bill Berry's departure. It introduced drum machines and synthesizers to their sound.
* [[U2]] evolved from post-punk on ''Boy'' to a more straightforward rock sound by ''War'', then they looked into blues and country for ''The Joshua Tree'' and ''Rattle and Hum''. With ''Achtung Baby'', they had a complete [[Genre Shift]] to a more modern alternative rock sound and added more electronics, culminating in the largely electronic ''Pop''. After that, they pretty much went back to their ''Joshua Tree'' sound with ''All That You Can't Leave Behind''.
* It's hard to tell exactly ''what'' [[Tom Waits]] became after ''swordfishtrombones'', but it's nothing like what he was before. And it made him a legend.
* Subversion: Chinese band Silver Ash had one single New Sound ''song'' in 2007. It was pop- a long way from their previous goth/glam rock style, and in the PV they were dressed casually- unsual, as they had up until then considered themselves China's first Visual Kei band. It seems the change was brought about, not because the band fancied a change, but because they had finally been forced to comply with the Chinese government, who had been making life very tough for them for years. However, after the release of this song, the band disappeared into the wilderness, and very little news has been heard of them since. There is a lot of speculation, but nobody really knows whether they are going to [[Genre Shift|continue with their new pop sound]] or are [[Out-of-Genre Experience|planning to return to rock and VK as best they can]]- under the assumption that they are returning at all, of course.
* [[Judas Priest]]. They simplified their sound (but still sticking to metal) with ''Killing Machine'' and ''British Steel'', and continued to get more commercial throughout the decade, culminating in the synthesizer-laden pop-metal of ''Turbo''. They returned to speed metal again with ''Painkiller'', and during the Tim "Ripper" Owens era they took on a bit more of a late-80's thrash influence. With ''Angel of Retribution'' and their reunion with Rob Halford, they basically went back to their pre-''Killing Machine'' sound.
* [[Soulwax]] has shifted over time from alt-rock in the 90s to "Dance-Punk". Their album ''Any Minute Now'' marked the start of the change, as it was an electronic-influenced rock album, and the remix/re-creation of Any Minute Now in the album ''Nite Versions'' sealed the deal (rock-influenced electronica album!). This has been largely seen as a good thing, as well as somewhat of a natural progression, as Soulwax's alter egos, 2 Many Dj's, have been electronica-ing it up for a while now.
* Metalcore band In This Moment went for a less heavy sound in their second album ''The Dream'', diitching most of the growling vocals and [[Metal Scream
* Summoning went through a pretty dramatic change in ''Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame'' (and subsequent albums), switching from black metal to a much more relaxed, epic style.
* Quite common with Brazilian rock:
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** Los Hermanos went into the mainstream with a pop-rock album. Then they went for a mixture of rock and Brazilian rhythms such as samba and choro in their next album, and so it went.
* The third [[Gorillaz]] album 'Plastic Beach' has a larger pop element to it than the previous albums,and also features more collaboration with other artists, ranging from Mos Def to Mick Jones. This album was originally said to be their last, but things seem to be going differently.
** With ''Demon Days'', they went from the more hip hop influenced first album towards a more alternative direction, but still including some hip hop.
** The new album, ''The Fall'', ranges from techno to trip hop to nobody knows. It's awesome, still, and it has the touch of Gorillaz.
* [[TNT]] evolved from straightforward metal on their self titled album and Knights of The New Thunder, to somewhat of a fusion of [[Hair Metal]] and [[Hard Rock]] on Tell No Tales and Intuition, with some touches of more traditional metal. Then in 1992 we got Realized Fantasies, which completely shifted to melodic glam metal. In 97, we got Firefly, which somewhat cashed in on the grunge/alternative metal trend that was occuring at the time. Then in 2004 the classic lineup was brought back and the return to melodic rock was made with My Religion. In 2007, new singer Tony Mills was brought in and the new album The New Territory was released, coming in with a sound similar to that of 70s bands fused with the classic TNT sound. Cue [[Broken Base]].
* Although they'd released a couple of dance floor classics already such as "Everything's Gone Green" and "Tempation", and of course "Blue Monday", [[New Order]]'s album ''Power, Corruption and Lies'' was where the band fully dived into their alternative dance persona. Their previous album, ''Movement'', sounded rather similar to [[Joy Division]].
* The [[Beastie Boys]] have done this a few times. First with ''Paul's Boutique'' they moved away from their more rap-oriented sound into eclectic genre hopping. ''Check Your Head'' and ''Ill Communication'' saw the band return to their roots as a late 70's hardcore punk band, resulting in a more alternative rock sound. ''Hello Nasty'' returned the band to rap, but added influences electronica and club dance music. ''To the 5 Boroughs'' featured a return to a more alternative rap sound. From what little that's been heard of their upcoming ''Hot Sauce Committee'' album, it seems that they're continuing with a more stripped down version of what they were doing on ''To the 5 Boroughs''.
* [[Depeche Mode]], at least six times. When main songwriter Vince Clarke left after the first album ("Speak and Spell") and Martin Gore (who had contributed a few songs) took over, the second album ("A Broken Frame") was much more "moody" sounding than Clarke's work while they were oddly marketed as a "boy band." For the next album ("Construction Time Again"), the classically trained Alan Wilder, Clarke's replacement at live shows as a keyboard player, became an official member while Gareth Jones engineered and later produced, and they helped shape what we know now as the band's sound as they started using samplers and the songs took a more dark and industrial turn, epitomized in ''"Black Celebration"''. After 3 albums together, DM and Jones had an amicable split and the next album, "Music For the Masses" had a similar sound but was largely self-produced with Dave Bascombe engineering. The biggest change may have been when Flood (who made a great team with Wilder) came in to produce "Violator," which introduced guitars as a staple and gave the world "Personal Jesus" and "Enjoy the Silence." With grunge becoming huge and drug addled leader singer Dave Gahan immersing himself in the local music scene after moving to LA, "Songs of Faith and Devotion," the second album with Flood, was full on rock, while still recognizably Depeche Mode with the recognizable songwriting and layered arrangements. Wilder left, and while "Ultra" was billed as a return to the "Violator" era sound, "Exciter" was essentially "the soft and sensual side of Depeche Mode." "Playing the Angel" went back to the more "Violator" style sound, and then in 2009, they released "Sounds of the Universe," which was yet again completely different from all of their other albums as they used old analog synthesizers that Gore bought on eBay in new and bizarre ways. That's it so far. Whew.
* [[Pet Shop Boys]] albums are pretty
** Ditto for Erasure's ''Union Street'' album.
* Speaking of [[Erasure]], the 2000 album ''Loveboat''. It can best be described as "Erasure goes indie", with a lo-fi, "basement-y" feel, heavier bass, and much greater use of acoustic instruments. in stark contrast to their typical campy, danceable synthpop. Fans ''[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|hated]]'' it because the style was so different. A sizable majority of the fanbase consider it [[Fanon Discontinuity]] and the end of classic Erasure. It sold terribly in both the UK and the US and it didn't get released in the US until 2003 because Maverick Records dropped them like a hot potato when they refused to remix a good portion of the tracks. Even lead singer Andy Bell [[Creator Backlash|panned it]] [[Old Shame|years later]]. The worst part? Critics tended to like it, and it's a well-written album with a subdued, personal sound to it.
* [[Beck (musician)|Beck]], on '''every''' '''single''' '''album'''.
** From ''Guero'' onward, he's no longer been radically changing his sound on each release: but maybe it only seems that way, because (by now) he's ''already'' explored '''every possible''' genre.
* [[Kamelot]] started as a standard power metal band with a god-awful [[
* [[Led Zeppelin]], with their third album. The first two are mostly heavy blues-rock material; the third features only one blues song and an entire side of acoustic folk songs. Later albums would continue to explore different styles, but with hard rock being dominant.
* [[Franz Ferdinand]] executed one of these with ''Tonight: Franz Ferdinand'', breaking with the fairly typical (if well-executed) guitar-driven post-punk revival sound of their first two albums for a synthesizer-driven, dance-y sound. It works well, and they remain recognizably them.
* [[Sister Machine Gun]] is an odd case in which every album can be considered to be a
** In the later years the shifts happened a bit less often, for example the 5th and 6th albums had EPs come after them that were each in the same style as the album they followed (for example the album ''6'' was followed by the EPs '6.1' and '6.2') but then the next album release would be another
* [[Panic! at the Disco]] did this with their second album 'Pretty. Odd'. They dropped the ! from their name and produced the album with a folksy 60's classic rock sound heavily inspired by The Beatles and The Kinks, a radical and very unexpected departure from their emo debut 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'. Understandably this divided the fan base into two groups: People who liked the fast pace and clever lyrics of 'Fever' and the new fans who liked 'Pretty. Odd'.
** Third album 'Vices and Virtues' is pretty much a combination of both.
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* [[Talking Heads (band)|Talking Heads]] had a few; ''Remain In Light'' was filled with repetitious, dense African rhythms that sounded way different from their previous albums (Although it was hinted on in "I Zimbra" from Fear of Music). Three years later, they had ''Speaking in Tongues'' which was a more funky, synth-poppy album. Two years after, ''Little Creatures'' had more Latin influences, with some Americana which their next and final two albums both took inspiration from.
* [[Boards of Canada]]'s first two main releases, ''Music Has The Right To Children'' and ''Geogaddi'', which were laden with warm synthesizer sounds, were both greatly adored and critically acclaimed albums. Their third release, The Campfire Headphase which utilized guitar and a more pastoral sound, was released to a mixed reception.
* The Doobie
* Every one of Falling Up's five records sounded generally different from the rest, as they moved more and more in the direction of experimental rock. They took it to a new level with "Fangs!" though, which saw a complete restructuring of their sound and how the band performed and recorded. Unfortunately it was also their last album.
* The [[Foo Fighters]], after their [[Post-Grunge]]-heavy first two albums ([[Self-Titled Album]] and ''The Colour and The Shape''), have decided to explore different styles - including an all-acoustic disc for their double-disc set, ''In Your Honour''.
** The Colour And The Shape is also their only album with a notable emo influence, which was caused by the band's bassist and then drummer (who had both been in Sunny Day Real Estate) contributing to the songwriting process. My Hero is the primary example of this, though so are the verses of Hey Johnny Park. Awkwardly, it remains the band's most popular album despite the fact they rock much harder these days.
* Few bands have pulled off a radical [[Genre Shift]] more successfully than [[Ministry]]. Their first two albums were ordinary, if slightly pessimistic, [[New Wave]] 80's pop (one reviewer dubbed them "The Human League's surly little brother"). On their third album, ''The Land of Rape and Honey'' they revamped their lineup and completely changed their sound, abandoning pop for a [[Trope
* Rap superstar [[Lil Wayne]] decided to follow in the footsteps of his friend [[Kid Rock]] and record a [[Rap Rock]] album entitled ''Rebirth''. [[Your Mileage May Vary|It sucked hard]]..
* BT has changed sounds several times. His first album ''Ima'' was deep/progressive house, then he changed to drum&bass/trance/ambient/trip-hop for ''ESCM'' and ''Movement in Still Life'', then ''Emotional Technology'' was pop-trance, electro, and rock ballads. ''This Binary Universe'' was a complete [[Genre Shift]] to experimental ambient and new age material (influenced by [[Creator Breakdown]] due to his equipment being stolen and his daughter's kidnapping), then ''These Hopeful Machines'' ventured back down the ''Emotional Technology'' route, as well as incorporating elements of IDM and glitch-hop.
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* [[Talk Talk]] started out as a [[New Wave]] band that already experimented with their sound as soon as during production of the second album. By the fourth one - titled ''Spirit of Eden'' - they may have became a [[Ur Example]] of [[Post Rock]].
* After helping define Melodic Death Metal in Sweden, In Flames began changing their style with ''Colony'' and to a greater extent with ''Clayman''. Then they released ''Reroute to Remain'' which is now considered by fans where "Old" ''In Flames'' ends and "New" ''In Flames'' begins. Each album after that has had its own distinct sound. This has lead to one hell of a [[Broken Base]]. Just check the comments on any of their music videos.
* [[
** Mostly due to heavy [[Executive Meddling]] in her first albums. The ones with her pink hair.
*** Well, to clarify, her first album was R&B/Hip-Hop, due to [[Executive Meddling]] (P!nk was supposed to have fronted an R&B girl-group, but was then offered a solo deal). She fought for more creative control with her second album, deciding to sing music in her preferred style. Each album reflects the people she worked with closely during the writing process (Linda Perry on "Missundaztood", Tim Armstrong of [[Rancid]] on "Try This", Max Martin for much of "I'm Not Dead"). The albums are also pretty good reflections of different periods in her life ("Missundaztood" dealt with much of her childhood, "Funhouse" was written during the time she had separated from husband Carey Hart).
* When [[Black Flag]] started they were a regular 2-minute [[Hardcore Punk]] band (all of their early singles/extended plays and the ''Damaged'' album); when they broke up they had 10 minute free style jazz jams (''The Process of Weeding Out'' instrumental EP) and a more heavy metal/hard rock sound (the ''Loose Nut'' and ''In My Head'' albums in particular).
** The bands second LP, ''My War'', released a little more than two years after ''Damaged'', featured three 6 minute songs on the B-side that later influenced the sludge metal genre.
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* Trentemoller was originally minimal dance / glitch house / neo trance, but <s>they</s> he seems to have mostly abandoned dance beats for <s>their</s> his second album, ''Into the Great Wide Yonder''.
* When their original vocalist was swapped out for one with a much softer voice, Destroy the Runner went from hard-hitting [[Christian Rock|Christian metalcore]] on their debut album ''Saints'', to melodic [[Not Christian Rock|ambiguously-spiritual metal]] on their second album, ''I, Lucifer''. Many fans were not pleased.
* Indie band TV on the Radio had a more organic, experimental post-punk sound on their album ''Return to Cookie Mountain'', which was a critical darling. Following that one was ''Dear Science'', which has a more electric sound and is more accessible in general. That one was rather well-liked as well.
* Freaky Chakra shifted from the trancy acid techno of ''Lowdown Motivator'' to [[Darker and Edgier]] [[Cyberpunk Is Techno|cyberpunk-esque techno breaks]] with ''Blacklight Fantasy'', then to [[Lighter and Softer]] electro/tech house with ''Moonroof Operator''.
* Better known for funky house, Funkstar De Luxe had a total [[Out-of-Genre Experience]] with ''No Man's Planet'', which consisted of techno-industrial/EBM and dark ambient. He appears to have switched back to more familiar sounds as of late.
* [[Pink Floyd]]. Listening to ''Piper at the Gates of Dawn'', then ''[[Dark Side of the Moon]]'', then ''[[The Wall]]'', then ''The Final Cut'', it's like four different bands ([[Justified]] for Piper, as their lead singer/songwriter became a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] shortly after it was finished.)
** More like five if you take into account their experimental albums like ''Ummagumma'' and ''Atom Heart Mother''.
** However the transitions are so gradual that in many cases it's difficult to pinpoint ''exactly'' which one is the
* [[Dream Theater]] does this quite often, the most notable one being when [[Executive Meddling]] forced ''Falling Into Infinity'' to take on a more mainstream rock sound than the [[Progressive Metal]] of their earlier albums.
* Bloc Party's debut album Silent Alarm was well received and known for its heavy use of guitars and was generally considered an example of a good indie album. As the band's career progressed they released A Weekend in the City and Intimacy, two albums with increasingly dancier music and less emphasis on guitars and other standard indie fare. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on the extent of their change.
* [[The Offspring]] became popular as a punk rock band with catchy upbeat songs. Their recent album ''Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace'' has only two songs in their signature style with the rest being slow and more thoughtful. [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether this counts as [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].
** There breakout album, 1994's ''Smash,'' is itself a
** To be fair, they often had slower, "more thoughtful" songs and interludes on almost all of their albums (except maybe ''Smash'') and they worked quite well, at least in counterpoint to the harder material - some of my favourites being album tracks where they skillfully blended the two (''Gone Away'' or ''Gotta Get Away'' (despite the similar titles, two quite different songs), for example). They diced with the powers of suck with ''Conspiracy of One'' but just about made it, however I'll admit ''RAFRAG'' didn't hit my local market with any kind of fanfare so I missed it... would be well worth trying out and seeing which side of the line it falls.
* Solar Fields was initially experimental ambient electronica, but shifted to trance for his ''Earthshine'' album, then returned to his former style for ''Movements'' and the ''[[Mirror's Edge]]'' soundtrack.
* [[Black Sabbath]]'s first six albums were based on huge heavy riffs with bits of sophistication sprinkled on top. Their sixth album ''Sabotage'' features arguably the heaviest Black Sabbath song, "Symptom of the Universe", [[Ur Example|which is often considered to be the first thrash song.]] Their seventh album, ''Technical Ectasy''? A great deal of the heaviness was gone, as well as the general apocolyptica that was dominent in Sabbath's earlier work and set them apart.
* ''Carnival of Carnage'' sounds very little like later [[Insane Clown Posse]] albums; it makes little reference to circus tropes and is much more a "[[Political Hip Hop|Fuck the rich]]" album. ''Ringmaster'' introduced the Dark Carnival, but the group's sound didn't codify until ''Riddlebox''.
* [[Feeder]] seem to have a habit of changing every two albums. Swim and Polythene are pretty heavy grungey style stuff, Yesterday Went To Soon and Echo Park are more straightforward rock albums, with a bit of punk influence, Comfort In Sound and Pushing The Senses are much softer (but still with some straight up rock songs, like Godzilla and Helium). Their newest albums, Silent Cry and Renegades, seem to be if you shoved all their previous albums into a blender, with the softer stuff on Silent Cry and the heavier stuff on Renegades.
** Indeed, putting Echo Park on a christmas / birthday list one year and receiving Swim instead (when a confused relative couldn't find their then-unavoidable chartbuster) was a heck of an eyeopener. I had to fire up the 56k modem to go double check it was actually the same band. Then again they've done this in a miniature way with just ''one version of a single''. The world gets to know Just A Day through the Gran Turismo soundtrack's perfectly formed edit. What's released to market is a set of increasingly different and overly busy-sounding mixes with the original nowhere to be seen, other than by recording it from the console's optical-out.
* [[Bad Religion]] did this in ''Into The Unknown'', then went back again to their old style, progressing into a new sound in a more subtle way. They made another big change in ''The New America'', and their fanbase still argues if it's a great record or if it's a case of [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks]].
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* [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]] had ''Blood Sugar Sex Magik'', abandoning heavy metal riffs for full-fledged funk rock. It proved to be their breakthrough album. To see how much they changed, listen to ''[[Greatest Hits Album|Greatest Hits]]'' and compare "Higher Ground" (the only song from before ''BSSM''<ref>because EMI, their previous label, licensed it in exchange for "Under the Bridge" in their compilation ''What Hits?!''</ref>) to the rest of the tracks. ''One Hot Minute'' (after guitarist John Frusciante departed) and ''Californication'' (when Frusciante returned) kinda count too.
* Cathal Coughlan. To begin with, his duo Microdisney played post punk that consisted of him yelling political rants over an uneasy backing track (evidenced by the compilation only track 'National Anthem'). By the time they had released their first record, they had acquired a minimilalist indie sound, with melodic synths, jangly guitars and drum machines, the vocals despairing and cynical. Come their second album, they had acquired a proper backing band including a drummer and bassist. He also changed his vocal style so that it was louder and more positive sounding. The resulting album almost sounds like adult orientated pop music, but there are still traces of the old sound in there. The next album was an even greater change, the band adding violins and female backing singers. The following album, their last, was far more lyrically biting, and with less of a chart orientated sound. The music was still fairly upbeat though. When Microdisney broke up Cathal went on to form The Fatima Mansions, who played a combination of American influenced noise rock, grunge and electronica with a mostly completely different vocal style, many songs shouting instead of singing. After that band broke up, he recorded some somber solo albums. His latest album however is far more reminiscent of the music he used to make in the mid 80s, suggesting that some things come full circle. As he is somebody who has never been after a hit, the return to form seems all the more remarkable.
* [[Blur (band)|Blur]] started as a roughly Madchester-style band with ''Leisure'', before transitioning to Britpop with ''Modern Life Is Rubbish''. Their later career basically consisted of three of these: ''Blur'' took inspiration from American indie rock and lo-fi bands such as [[Pavement]], ''13'' continued into more experimental territory, and ''Think Tank'' was kind of like ''13'', but with more electronic influences.
* While [[Oasis]] roughly kept the same "Beatlesesque songs" style through their whole career, their albums from the third to fifth fall into this: ''Be Here Now'' focused on [[Epic Rocking]], ''Standing on the Shoulder of Giants'' was psychedelic and ''Heathen Chemistry'' had a crude sound.
* [[The Rasmus]] did this with the release of ''Dead Letters''. Possibly a case of [[Executive Meddling]], maybe just a bad change of direction whilst trying to [[Break America]] / Rest-of-English-Speaking World, but... Energetic and thoroughly enjoyable (if not particularly special) Finnish pop-rock band tries for some strange pop-goth-electronica vibe, falls spectacularly flat, ends up generally derided by the English-Speaking-World goth rock-listening public and having one single, solitary, not very representative song played to death on commercial rock radio. Shame, a couple of the album tracks that hark slightly back to their old sound (which would likely have done well in the pop charts) are excellent, but the rest of it is a pretty forgettable dirge. - YMMV, naturally. They made 2 future albums in a similar genre.
* "A" went for a similar trend-chasing shift from unique melodic punkiness to full on Offspring / [[Green Day]] style pop-punk... and subverted it by actually being quite good, recognisably the same [[Beach Boys]] -inspired band that made ''How Ace Are Buildings'' and ''A Vs Monkey Kong'', and scoring some commercial success. Then subverting it even harder by sticking with a slight refinement of the same theme for ''Teen Dance Ordinance'', somehow getting nowhere with anyone, and splitting out of frustration.
* While each of [[Pulp (band)|Pulp]]'s albums progress from the last, ''His 'N' Hers'' shows a marked difference from their more introspective, artsy records of the 80s, and is generally considered a vast improvement. ''We Love Life'' could also be considered this to a lesser extent, as it sounds much more naturalistic and organic than the albums that preceded it.
* Speculative: Paul Simon, with ''Graceland''. Being too young at the time to know anything much about what was going on, I do wonder what longterm Simon & Garfunkel fans made of Paul's seminal solo album. Wildly popular, but notable in history because of how much of a stylistic shift it was. Though it is one of my own favourites, not everyone who liked his earlier work and collaboration must have dug the African rhythms and acapella.
* [[Me Without You]]- It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All A Dream! It's Alright! contained more acoustic than electric, a highly folky campire sound, and actual SINGING by Aaron Weiss.
** The album arguably contains the most specific Christian (A Stick, a Carrot, and a String) and at the same time ''Sufi and Buddhist'' (Allah! Allah! Allah! and Cattail Down) influences so far, confusing some Christian fans unaware of Weiss's Religious history.
* [[Nirvana]] with the [[Creator Breakdown|depressive]] ''In Utero''.
** Arguably they did it with every single album of theirs. ''Bleach'' was a mix of sludgy hard rock/metal based off bands like Green River along with some more pop rock and punk fare. ''Nevermind'' was polished, glossy produced (for them, commercial) hard rock much more similar to The Pixies and Mudhoney along with the acoustic song Polly. ''Incesticide'' was a hodge podge mixture of Bleach era songs, straight punk rock covers, and covers turned into pop rock such as the song Son Of A Gun. ''In Utero'' was more of a hodge podge of heavy metal, heavily distorted hard rock like Sonic Youth, straight punk, and acoustic ballads such as the song Dumb. Finally ''MTV Unplugged'' was acoustic rock with more of a progressive focus such as the inclusion of the Cello on several songs and the addition of a second guitarist in Pat Smear. If anything, Nirvana managed to constantly revolve around certain elements within each album (metal/hard rock focused songs, an acoustic song or two, and a straight punk song or two.)
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* Chiodos has done this multiple times. Their first few [[E Ps]] were emo-tinged pop rock with some post-hardcore influences, with the first full length album ''All's Well That Ends Well'' going straight into post-hardcore territory. The second full length ''Bone Palace Ballet'' had more influences from classical music (with some gothic tinges in certain songs). 2010's ''Illuminaudio'' is alternative rock with electronic influences.
* [[REO Speedwagon]] was a hard rock band for the entire duration of [[The Seventies]], but transformed into pop with ''Hi Infidelity''. Although initially sucessful, this move caused the band to lose credibility and dissapeared off the radar after the 1980s.
* [[Styx]] started as a hard rock band with prog influences. They abandoned the prog element relatively early on, and then went completely pop with ''Cornerstone''.
* Alan Vega initially produced proto-industrial avant-rock with the group [[Suicide (band)]] in [[The Seventies]], but in [[The Eighties]], he switched to [[New Wave]], then more recently went back down the [[Darker and Edgier]] path to [[Industrial]].
* With ''Discouraged Ones'', Katatonia shifted from death/doom into alternative metal, using exclusively clean vocals. ''Viva Emptiness'' was another one, Returning to it's heavier roots towards a Gothic/Doom sound with the progressive ambient guitar work of the early career making a return.
* [[Yeah Yeah Yeahs]] practically went alt. dance with "It's Blitz!", an album that still sounds like them (largely because of Karen O's unmistakable voice) but is vastly different than "Show Your Bones", and DEFINITELY different than "Fever To Tell".
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* Celtic Frost started out as a straight-up heavy metal band of the black/death style, with a Venom look. Then they incorporated electronica into their sound, a heresy at the time. Then they came out of nowhere with 'Cold Lake', which had them looking like a hair metal band and with a glam rock sound. Then they came out again with a new school black metal sound, their current incarnation, with a different band member singing and a more Rob Zombie-esque visual look.
* [[The Doors]]. The first two albums contained the brand of organ based psychedelic rock that they're known for. ''Waiting For The Sun'' was more eclectic based, having pop tunes, ballads and other oddities. ''The Soft Parade'' has a more big band sound, ''Morrison Hotel'' goes over the styles of the previous albums and ''L.A. Woman'' showcased the band during barroom blues.
* If [[HIM|Screamworks]] isn't a new sound album, I don't know what is. It diverges from their ''long-''standing sound of dark goth with...something more pop and upbeat. The ''lyrics'' are still quite dark, although they too have taken quite a change. Venus Doom, their previous album began off as incredibly metal, so it too was a bit of a new sound
** Basically, going from the incredibly messed up song "Gone With the Sin" (Razorblade Romance) from all the way back in ''1999'' to "Scared to Death" (Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice) may leave people wondering just who the hell they're listening to.
* Backseat Goodbye and ''The Good Years''. It diverges from his previous sound of pop-folk to a more solid folk-country (with pop elements). Some people [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|thought it sucked,]] some were like [[Growing the Beard|"cool,]] [[Broken Base|whatever."]]
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* Mike Mareen's 1988 sophomore album, ''Let's Start Now'', started to shift from his Italo-Disco/Hi-NRG roots to more contemporary dance/synthpop, as well as being somewhat [[Darker and Edgier]].
* Pretty much every Dead or Alive album.
* Enter Shikari's first album, 2007's ''Take To The Skies'', was more or less screamo with some synthesizers. Their second full-length, 2009's ''Common Dreads'', aimed for a less heavy but more experimental sound and also made the lyrical change from singing about more or less anything to highly political, anti-capitalist lyrics. 2010's one-off single ''Destabilise'' went even heavier on the synths and also added some hip hop elements. [[Word of God|According to the band]], the forthcoming album is going to include influences by both [[Sigur
* [[Deftones]] have had something of a shift in sound with every album. ''Adrenaline'' was pretty much straight-out [[Nu-metal]], while ''Around the Fur'' had a similar direction, but included electronics and an overall slightly more experimental sound. ''White Pony'' was the biggest shift, switching the band from nu-metal to experimental rock with heavy use of samples. Their self-titled album had Frank Delgado using keyboards instead of turntables, and had a very eclectic sound (but overall heavier than ''White Pony''). ''Saturday Night Wrist'' and ''Diamond Eyes'' are the second big shift, being a lot more melodic and positive than their previous work.
* When The Cult started out, they were playing trippy psychedelic post-punk. With their third album, ''Electric'', they suddenly started playing [[ACDC|AC/DC-esque]] hard rock.
* [[Def Leppard]] went with a more organic sound with darker lyrical content in 1996 with the ''Slang'' album. Their rationale at the time was that, with [[Hair Metal]] being [[Deader Than Disco]], they may as well make the most "Un-[[Def Leppard]]" album they could (Though one member said that, in hindsight, they probably included some of those ideas a little too eagerly, without doing proper quality control beforehand), because they were going to get slammed no matter what they did. Reaction was mixed, the album wasn't very successful in the USA and the band returned to their trademark sound with 1999s ''Euphoria''.
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* [[Death Metal]] band [[Autopsy (band)|Autopsy]] did this constantly. The debut ''Severed Survival'' was [[Thrash Metal|fast and thrashy]], while ''Mental Funeral'' was much more [[Doom Metal|slow and doomy]]. Third album ''Acts of the Unspeakable'' moved more in the direction of [[Grindcore]] and Shitfun was basically [[Hardcore Punk]].
* [[The Crystalline Effect]]'s sound is generally electronic/trip-hop, and doesn't tend to have very heavy beats. Their latest EP, ''Industrial Re-Evolution'', sounds very much like industrial and does.
* [[No Doubt]]'s second big album, ''Return of Saturn'', was a different sound from that heard in the wildly popular ''Tragic Kingdom'', but it was more an evolution than any sort of sudden shift. But ''Rock Steady'' was a drastic change, so drastic that (for better or worse) it barely sounded like [[No Doubt]] at all. Ska/punk had morphed into a pop/dance sound.
* Chicago is well known for their transition from being an experimental "rock band with horns" in the '70s to a ballad-heavy and synth-heavy band in the '80s, with the transition point being ''Chicago X'', with [[Throw It In]] ballad "If You Leave Me Now" becoming their first number 1 hit.
* Assemblage 23 has shifted from aggro-EBM to a lighter Futurepop sound with his recent albums.
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** This was possibly influenced by Rolling Stone's completely false 1969 article about the supposed lost Beatles album ''Hot As Sun,'' which was wiped from existence in the same manner.
* [[Deep Purple]]'s sound changed with every new line-up, starting off as hard-edged psychedelic rock and moving to progressive rock by their third album, at which point they changed line-ups and shifted to straight hard rock/heavy metal until they changed line-ups again, playing more blues-rock and funk-flavored hard rock. Their sound has stabilized nowadays to a classic-flavored hard rock, however.
* Parodied in the exhaustive fictional back-story of [[Spinal Tap]]. Their discography touches on moptop rock (the "Gimme Some Money" 45), psychedelic rock (their debut LP and ''We Are All Flower People''), extended live jams (''Silent But Deadly''), proto-metal (''Brainhammer''), progressive rock (''The Sun Never Sweats''), glam rock (''Bent For The Rent''), disco (''Tap Dancing''), and of course, heavy metal itself.
** [[Blatant Lies|Not to]] [[Don't Explain the Joke|explain the joke or anything]], but this is of course a [[Pastiche]] of several famous bands of the 60s and 70s, particularly [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]], [[Pink Floyd]], and [[Led Zeppelin]]. ''We Are All Flower People'' in particular seems to be intended to have been a mix of ''Sgt. Pepper'' and ''Piper at the Gates of Dawn''.
* [[They Might Be Giants]] moved up from "Two guys, an accordion, a guitar and a drum machine" to a full band for their fourth album ''John Henry''.
* A rather different example: [[K-On!|Houkago Tea Time]]'s songs are quite different in types of rock genres: "Fuwa Fuwa Time" is alternative rock (with some rapping at one point, even), "Don't Say Lazy" has some sort of melodic, but also a bit of post-hardcore rock feel into it. "Happy? Sorry!" is Synthpop, "Sweet Bitter Beauty Song" kinda sounds Grunge-esque due to the guitar shredding. "Shrew Way To Go" is mathrock due to the different time sculptures, and "Hello Little Girl" being no doubt their softest song. These are just the first season songs.
** Examples for the second season songs include both "Go! Go! Maniac!" and "Utauyo! Miracle", which sound eerily mathcore-esque, but is still mathrock since they don't even scream. "Girls In Wonderland" has tumpets used, "Listen" sounds quite jazzy thanks to the keyboards, "Early Summer Rain (20 Love)" sounds quite much like a radio-friendly modern rock song.
** For a slightly-straight example, the "Second" album, to this troper's opinion, however, it feels like listening through a children's album. Yui's vocals sound baby-ish for most of it. Note that songs done by Mio always seem to be the more heavier songs.
* A soundtrack example would be the ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series. The first game's soundtrack consisted mostly of scary mechanical and industrial noise tracks, with only a handful of tracks which are actually 'music'. ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' saw a much greater focus on music and acoustic tracks. The third game started the trend of tracks with vocals by Mary Elizabeth [[Mc Guinn]] and Joe Romersa. The series' sound stayed like this for years, but is changing again with the departure of longtime series sound developer Akira Yamaoka. His replacement for ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour]]'' is Daniel Licht, whose style is very different.
* ''Vinyl Confessions'' by Kansas represented a major lyrical shift towards [[Christian Rock|Christian themes]] with replacement of Steve Walsh (who quit over philosophical differences with guitarist Kerry Livgren, who was mostly responsible for their new, Christian influences) with John Elefante.
* John Cale reinvented himself several times, perhaps the first noticeable break with tradition being 1979's ''Sabotage/Live'', his response to punk and foreign policy. Then he released an awful 80's pop album, ''Caribbean Sunset''. He then released an album of classical interpretations of his previous catalogue, ''Fragments of a Rainy Season''. More recently he's into hard rock (''Circus Live'').
* [[The Veronicas]] going from typical princess pop rock to synthetic pop with a classical edge on their second album.
* [[The Flaming Lips]] kind of had a series of these after 1995, probably owed to lead guitarist Ronald Jones departing: the last time they had a guitarist leave (Jonathan Donahue, also of [[Mercury Rev]]) they replaced him with another one, but this time they expanded drummer Steven Drozd's role to include guitar and synthesizers. Thus, ''Zaireeka'' and especially ''The Soft Bulletin'' had him using synthesized strings for an orchestral effect, while ''Yoshimi Vs. The Pink Robots'' added drum machines and more of an electronic influence. Guitars were more prominent on ''At War With The Mystics'' and ''Embryonic'', but even those weren't quite the same: ''AWWTM'' felt a little like ''Yoshimi'' mixed with their earlier material, but ''Embryonic'' was actually [[Darker and Edgier]] than usual, with lots of ominous bass and more of a [[Kraut Rock]] influence.
* These New Puritans' first album, ''Beat Pyramid'', had a fairly normal post-punk revival sound. Their follow-up, ''Hidden'', was a dark and bizarre album based mostly on electronic beats, orchestral and choir arrangements and odd samples.
* [[The Veronicas]] Acoustic pop rock in their debut, eletronic classic elemental 80's pop in their second album and RNB sampled rock pop in their third.
* [[Emilie Autumn]] went from jazz pop with Rnb influences to electronic industrial power rock/metal in her second album.
* Dir En Grey started with experimental alternative rock, sometimes with a more poppy sound, and with a [[Visual Kei]] look. This was largely dropped on ''Macabre'', in favour of a simpler look and a more progressive feel. The ''Six Ugly'' EP was where they began to focus more on the metal elements of their sound, moving towards more elements of nu-metal and metalcore on ''Withering to Death'' and ''The Marrow of a Bone''. With the release of ''Uroboros'', they began gravitating back to a progressive metal style, but in a distinctly different way than on ''Macabre'' and ''Kisou''.
* [[Lights]]' second album, ''Siberia'', is more experimental and dubstep-influenced.
* Christian alternative metal band [[Thousand Foot Krutch]] did this with ''every single album''. Their first album was essentially rap-metal with a couple of pop-punk songs thrown in. Their second album was pretty straightforward nu metal. Their third album was soft alt-rock/alt-metal with little screaming and only a few heavier songs. Their fourth album was more traditional alt-rock mixed with post-grunge and heavy metal. Their fifth release is mostly heavy metal with some heavier alt-metal and some slower rock tracks of a much different quality than their others, and the album is the band's heaviest to date. Their latest album, ''The End Is Where We Begin'', is essentially a mix of everything, even the rapping.
* ''[[Rhapsody of Fire]]'' underwent a rather drastic change between ''Power of the Dragonflame'' and ''Symphony of Enchanted Lands II''. Whereas albums up until Power were more like music that told a story, Symphony II onward focused more and more on the story rather than the music, building up the cinematic feel almost to the point where the Dark Secret Saga feels more like a movie without the pictures as opposed to the story-telling music of the Emerald Sword Saga. Fan opinion on which style is better tends to be divided.
* [[XTC]] started out as a hyperactive [[New Wave]] band with punk, reggae and funk influences. These were mostly dropped after the departure of Barry Andrews and arrival of Dave Gregory, which steered them towards a more complex sound inspired by 60's pop on ''Drums and Wires'' (though still definitely [[New Wave]]). When the band stopped performing live, they produced the gentle pastoral folk rock album ''Mummer'', and expanded on this sound - by their [[Magnum Opus]] ''Skylarking'', they had evolved into full-on 60's-inspired pop rock with psychedelic, folk rock and baroque pop elements.
* [[Skinny Puppy]], while still mainly [[Industrial]], have more IDM influences on their latest two albums.
* [[Lupe Fiasco]], with his third album Lasers, due to heavy [[Executive Meddling]]. Atlantic Records saw the success the single 'Superstar' had made upon his previous album The Cool, and thus wanted him to continue going down that path. It must also be noted at the time, Lasers was heavily anticipated, due to the solid approbation of his first two albums and especially with back-and-forth rumors of Lupe going into early retirement. After molding the album accordingly, Lasers finally got a release date. While the lyricism was still mostly genuine, it featured a heavy pop-oriented slightly electro sound that a good portion of the fanbase didn't sit well with.
* [[Miley Cyrus]]' first non-[[Hannah Montana]] solo album, ''Meet Miley Cyrus'', was more traditionally [[Teen Pop]] influenced, while ''Breakout'' showed more rock influences. Her EP, ''The Time Of Our Lives'' brought a harder sound on some tracks, with hip-hop influences and power ballads. ''Can't Be Tamed'' is more electro-pop.
* Cyrus' ex-co-star, [[Emily Osment]], used an adult alternative sound on her debut EP, ''All The Right Wrongs'', while ''Fight Or Flight'' is more techno/dubstep/dance-oriented.
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* Most of [[Jean Michel Jarre]]'s albums were New Sound Albums. ''Oxygène'' made him famous. ''Equinoxe'' sounded almost the same. Then came six albums (not counting ''Music For Supermarkets'' and live albums), none of which sounded like any of their respective predecessors, especially not like ''Oxygène'' and ''Equinoxe'', because both Jarre's style and electronic instrument technology evolved. ''Oxygène 7-13'' from 1997 was a partial return to Jarre's old sound, but all releases from then to the re-recording of ''Oxygène'' from 2007 were individual New Sound Albums again.
* You may remember the group 4hero for the breakbeat techno song "Mr Kirk's Nightmare" back in the early 90's. Well, in 2007, following a six-year hiatus, they made a complete [[Genre Shift]] to downtempo and nu-jazz with the appropriately named ''Play with the Changes''.
* [[Silverchair]] were a [[Post-Grunge]] band for their first three albums, then ''Diorama'' had them change direction dramatically towards more of an art-rock sound with orchestral instrumentation. They had first started experimenting with string arrangements on ''Freak Show'' though, and ''Neon Ballroom'' could sort of be seen as a weird transition between their "old" and "new" sounds, as it had both softer, more contemplative songs ''and'' some of their most grunge-like material.
* [[Sevendust]]'s first album featured rawer production, simpler writing, harsher vocals, less melody, and a more aggressive sound. ''Home'' was more melodic, leaning a little closer to the band's signature style, but still maintaining a similar sound to their debut. ''Animosity'' brought in the real change, with much stronger songwriting and a much more melodic sound. From then on, the band has made little alterations to their music.
* [[Fear Factory]] started off with a death metal sound on ''Soul of a New Machine''. It wasn't until ''Demanufacture'' when they found their signature sound.
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* [[The Clash]] changed their sound with ''London Calling'', moving from outright punk to a heavily reggae and blues influenced sound. The seeds of this were seen on the previous album, ''Give 'Em Enough Rope'', most notably on Julie's Been Working From The Drug Squad that displayed heavy New Orleans Jazz influences. At the time it was derided for betraying "punk" but has since go on to be considered one of the best albums of all time. Later albums also experimented with stylistic, however to a lesser degree of success, although there are fans of ''Sandinista!'' and ''Combat Rock''. Most fans consider ''Cut The Crap'' (the bands final album) to be, well, crap.
* [[Gentle Giant (band)|Gentle Giant]] has seen this happen twice: a mild case occurred when Phil Shulman (who played saxophones, trumpets, and occasional other winds) left the band, and their next album, ''In A Glass House'', had a harder edge and none of the literary allusions that Phil had put in their earlier albums. This shift was nothing compared to their later album ''The Missing Piece'', released around the time that [[Progressive Rock]] was falling out of favor, and attempting to appeal to a pop audience with shorter, simpler songs. It didn't work.
* Fun.'s ''Some Nights'': Their debut, ''Aim And Ignite'', was [[Baroque Pop]]-leaning indie, not that dissimilar from Nate Ruess's previous band The Format. ''Some Nights'' still had the [[Baroque Pop]] elements, but had a much more electronic sound, with heavy use of drum machines, synthesizers, and even some vocoder. The change was reportedly due to the band starting to listen to recent hip hop, with [[Kanye West]]'s ''My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy'' being noted as a particular influence.
* Kerli's upcoming second album, which will include the electropop singles "Army of Love" and "Zero Gravity", will be very different in style from her first album, which was alternative/indie rock. She describes her current style as "bubblegum goth".
* UK thrash metal band Onslaught's album ''In Search of Sanity'' features a more melodic and complex style of thrash than the simpler, Slayer-esque sound they had on their previous release. It also featured vocalist Steve Grimmett from Grim Reaper, whose soaring and clean vocal style was a point of contention at the time of the album's release.
** On the topic of Onslaught, their first album was more of a thrash and hardcore punk hybrid than the full-on thrash they would play on their second album.
* The Butthole Surfers were initially known for psychedelic noise rock, but slowly started sliding towards more conventional alternative rock as time went on. The ''real'' big change in sound came with [[Lost Episode]] album ''After The Astronaut'' (and ''The Weird Revolution'', which had revamped versions of many of the same songs) - their sound became much more electronic and danceable, although [[Word Salad Lyrics]] and some sophomoric humor remained. The change wasn't entirely out of the blue though - their contribution to the ''Spawn'' soundtrack had them working with [[Moby]], and "Whatever (I Had A Dream)" from ''[[William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet|William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet]]'' had a heavy trip-hop influence. Their [[Black Sheep Hit]] "Pepper", often compared (or just plain [[Misattributed Song|misattributed]]) to [[Beck (musician)|Beck]], could be considered a precursor too.
* [[Mariah Carey]] is easily this. Her debut album, ''Mariah Carey'' incorporated 80s synths with slight R&B dance vibes. It switched to a 50s/60s/70s Disco/Soul vibe in ''Emotions'', which then suddenly changed into Adult Contemporary mellow-sounding ballads for ''Music Box''. ''Daydream'' started to lean more towards modern, underground music and incorporated, and fused, pop, R&B, hip-hop and AC. ''Butterfly'' later dropped the noticeable Adult Contemporary aspects and went for a heavy R&B/hip-hop sound with slight pop/AC leanings (like 75% R&B/hip-hop, 25% pop). This eventually turned into full R&B/Hip-hop with a bit of pop (90% r&b/hip-hop, 10% pop) during ''Rainbow'', where there was some pop but only because she was really popular at the time. It dropped the AC leanings completely. Then came the infamous ''Glitter'' which utilized a myriad of rappers and incorporated a bunch of 80s pop samples creating some weird 80s influence r&b/hip-hop with modern day rap. Then, during ''Charmbracelet'' she had slight r&b/hip-hop leanings and returned back to her old AC style only for her to return back to full R&B/Hip-Hop for ''The Emancipation of Mimi''. Then, for E=[[MC 2]], she adopted... [[Follow the Leader|whatever was popular]] in 2008 and used some reggae/dance hall music and returned to a more familiar pop/r&b/hip-hop/dance sound. Finally, for ''Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel'' she utilized an R&B style with heavily, electronic instrumentation which had some 80s influences. So, in short, we have:
** 80s pop with slight R&B/Dance vibes (''Mariah Carey'')
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