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This is when a band becomes notable for a constantly changing lineup, with musicians coming, staying for only a few years (or even less than a year), then leaving.
 
The musicians' time spent with the band is important; just because most (or even all) of a band's lineup has changed doesn't automatically qualify it for this Trope--evenTrope—even if all those changes occur within a short time.
 
Here's a clarifying non-example of this trope: in less than a decade (1997-2005), all but one (Abdul "Duke" Fakir) of the Four Tops died or became too ill to stay with the band and were replaced (they were even a trio from 1997-1998). But during their entire run, they've had only ''seven'' members: the original four singers, and the three replacements (who are still with the group.)
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* Asleep at the Wheel. Ray Benson is the only original member.
* Blackhawk was founded by Henry Paul (lead vocal/mandolin), Van Stephenson (guitar) and Dave Robbins (keyboards). After Van Stephenson left due to skin cancer, he was replaced by Randy Threet (who was previously in their backing band), then Anthony Crawford, then Michael Randall. Robbins left and John Coleman replaced him. Threet rejoined. Coleman left. The backing band got assumed into the main band. Robbins rejoined. Is your head spinning yet?
* Shenandoah had a hard time keeping its members together after the mid 1990s. Keyboardist Stan Thorn left and Rocky Thacker replaced original bassist Ralph Ezell. They broke up in 1997 after lead singer Marty Raybon formed the [[One-Hit Wonder]] Raybon Brothers and then went solo. Three years later, Thacker re-established the band with original guitarist Jim Seales, original drummer Mike McGuire, rhythm guitarist Curtis Wright, new keyboardist Stan Munsey and new lead singer Brent Lamb. Lamb left early on and Wright took over lead vocal duties. Thacker left and Ezell rejoined. Wright left and Jimmy Yeary took over on lead. Ezell died and Mike Folsom replaced him. Yeary left and was replaced by Doug Stokes, who was eventually replaced by a returning Raybon. Folsom left and was replaced by Chris Lucas, who has since been replaced by Paul Sanders followed by Brad Benge.
* Highway 101 also had a hard time sticking to one lineup. [[wikipedia:Highway 101#Members|This chart]] on their Wikipedia article says it all. And no, your eyes don't deceive you; the lead singer post alone really did go Paulette Carlson, Nikki Nelson, Paulette Carlson, Chrislynn Lee, Nikki Nelson.
* Dave & Sugar consisted of lead singer Dave Rowland and a revolving door of female backing vocalists, some of whom sometimes shared the lead vocal.
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== Jazz ==
* The Sun Ra Arkestra. Sun Ra would fire a musician by gathering the band together--minustogether—minus the fired musician--andmusician—and skip town, leaving the musician stranded. The U.S. State Department finally had to order him to at least ''bring musicians he fired back to the United States instead of leaving them stranded in a foreign country.''
* The [[Squirrel Nut Zippers]]
 
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* [[Cradle of Filth]]. The longest-lasting lineup lasted only two years. [[I Am the Band|Dani Filth is the only constant member.]]
* [[Trope Maker]] of [[Grindcore]] Napalm Death are an extreme example. The founding duo split up before recording their first album; the remaining founder member lasted until the end of ''side one'' of the band's debut album before leaving, at which point the entire band had been replaced. The only bandmember who appeared on both sides of the group's debut album was blast-beat drummer Mick Harris, who left two albums later, at which point the entire band had been replaced ''again''.
* [[Iron Maiden (Music)|Iron Maiden]], as the documentary ''The Early Days, Part 1'' has shown. There were many lineup changes before the first album in a 5-years span. After their first album the band had many other lineups which included three singers, four guitar players, and two drummers. The only constant members were Dave Murray (guitar) and the [[Lead Bassist|bassist/founder]] Steve Harris.
* [[Therion]] consists of Christofer Johnsson and whoever he's convinced to work with him on the latest album. [[wikipedia:Therion (band)#Members|See for yourself.]]
* [[Van Halen]] did this with lead singers. The original (and current) lead singer was David Lee Roth from 1974 to 1985. Then Roth left and was replaced by Sammy Hagar from 1985 to 1996. Though a reunion with Roth was teased in 1996, Hagar was ultimately replaced by Extreme front man Gary Cherone for three years and one album. Hagar reunited for a tour and three new songs on a [[Greatest Hits Album]], and then Roth finally rejoined the band for a tour in 2006 (an album is expected).
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** Gorgoroth are also an example.
* No one really know what the glue is that keeps the name [[Zao]] going on, but albums keep getting made.
* [[Warrant (Music)|Warrant]], the band that made ''Cherry Pie'', has had around 2 dozen musiciance since 1984, and no lineup has lasted more than 2 years. Only guitarist Erik Turner and bassist Jerry Dixon have been around since the beginning.
* Lordy, Lordy, ''[[Lordi]]''. The longest-lasting lineup lasted only 3 years.
* Friggan Otep. Otep herself is the only remaining member, and they have not had a consistant lineup that has lasted more than a year.
* The Dillinger Escape Plan: They usually work as a five piece, and have had three rhythm guitarists, one vocalist,<ref> Not counting [[Mike Patton]] and Sean Ingram, who were never official members to begin with</ref>, one bassist and two drummers leave over 13 years or so. Lead guitarist Ben Weiman is the only current member of the band from the original lineup, and even he very briefly quit once. In two separate cases, members have been forced to leave due to medical injuries rendering them unable to play their instruments: Original bassist Adam Doll was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident, while guitarist Brian Benoit suffered nerve damage in his left hand. Benoit may or may not end up returning to the band - he's able to play guitar again, but can no longer play it at the technically-demanding level required by most of the band's material.
* [[Anthrax]] has been like this. Since releasing their first album, the only two members who've been in the band the whole time are guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante. They've had four singers, two bassists (one left, and came back, with the other filling in on live performances while the first was gone), and two lead guitarists, plus several guitarists who recorded in the studio but were never official members of the band.
* Rose Funeral have been a band since 2005. In that time, 18 members have joined and left. Very few have anything good to say about the personalities of the core members.
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== Punk ==
* [[Andrew Jackson Jihad]], which has only two ''constant'' members.
* [[The Fall (Musicband)|The Fall]] are well known for line-up changes, the only constant being Mark E Smith, who once said of the ever-changing line-up "if it's me and your granny on bongos, it's a Fall gig."
** A man wrote a book about trying to find all of the ex-members (there were fifty). That said, the dynamic duo of Craig Scanlon and Steve Hanley held down the fort from 1979 'til 1995, which is ''damn'' impressive.
* The lineup of Black Flag flip-flopped so much that they'd occasionally have random audience member join the band because someone quit on extremely short notice.
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** Purple was originally conceived as a project called "Roundabout", a band which would allow musicians to "get on and off" as they pleased.
* [[King Crimson]] is the [[Incredibly Lame Pun|King]] of this trope. In the 41 years they've been around, they've had 19 members (not including recording/touring guest musicians, with which the number would climb to about 30) pass through, around, and back to the band, only one of which being Guitarist Robert Fripp; he's the only member who is still with the band (and he didn't start making major songwriting contributions until the band's fourth album)- it's so complicated that [[The Other Wiki]] [[wikipedia:King crimson#Personnel .2F album chart|resorted to using a table]]. Now he's [[I Am the Band|become the band]], but only partly by default, as by his words "King Crimson is a way of doing things" (of course by this point his influence on the band's writing is undisputable).
* James have had somewhat of a revolving door lineup; Glennie, Gilbertson and Whelan were first up, then Booth came in, Gilbertson left, Gott came in, Whelan left, Baynton-Power came in, Davies, Diagram and Hunter came in, Diagram left, Gott left, Kulas and Oxxal came in, Booth left, Booth came back, Booth left, ''everyone'' left, Glennie and Gott [[Putting the Band Back Together|restarted the band six years later]], Booth came back, then finally Baynton-Power, Davies, Diagram and Hunter all came back (yes, that does make a lineup that already happened at one point). And I'm sure I'm missing somebody. Jim Glennie--theGlennie—the bassist--isbassist—is the only relatively constant member.
* [[Yes]] has had a rotating cast of musicians in all positions, except bass (which has always been Chris Squire).
** It got so ridiculous, Wikipedia actually has not one, but two ''charts'' for tracking the ever-shifting lineup.
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* The [[Grateful Dead]] certainly had a revolving door when it came to keyboard players.
* [[The Sisters of Mercy]]; Andrew Eldritch is notoriously hard to work with, and he's the only original member left.
* The [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]. 14 members in 27 years, and only briefly did the band tour with more than 4 members. Although, in all fairness, two of the four members (Anthony Kiedis and Flea) were founding members who never left.<ref>Well, except for a few months in the late 1980s when Anthony Kiedis was fired from the band</ref>. And current drummer Chad Smith has played with the band since 1989.
* [[Emerson Lake and Palmer]] are a unique example. The original trio lasted from 1970 to 1978. After a several year period, keyboardist Keith Emerson and vocalist/bassist/guitarist Greg Lake and [[Rainbow (Musicband)|Rainbow]] drummer Cozy Powell as [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Emerson, Lake & ''Powell''.]], from 1986-1988. Lake & Powell would leave, Palmer would re-join, and Lake would be replaced by vocalist/guitarist Robert Berry (not, as you might expect, as Emerson, Berry & Palmer, but as ''3''). by 1992, the original ELP would reunite, break up in 1997, and return in 2010 for reunion shows in the UK and Europe.
* Likewise, Crosby Stills And Nash. They began as CSN, added [[Neil Young]] in 1970, broke up in 1972, and would semi-reunite in splinter groups (Crosby-Nash, and briefly the Stills/Young band), and appear on each other albums through the 1970's. CSN would reunite in 1977, disband in 1984, then return in fits and starts as CSN, CSNY and occasionally Crosby-Nash from 1988 to the present day. :)
* [[Jethro Tull]] has had bandleader Ian Anderson from the beginning, and guitarist Martin Barre since 1969. Much of the band's history has revolved around Anderson, Barre, and various keyboardists, bassists and drummers (and recently occasional female violinists for live work) ever since.
* In its nearly 40-year history, [[Journey (Musicband)|Journey]] has chewed up and spit out six lead vocalists, six drummers, three keyboardists, and three bassists, with several of those revolving door personnel lasting less than a year. The only person who has been ever-present since the band's founding in 1973 is lead guitarist Neal Schon, although keyboardist Jonathan Cain has also been a constant since 1980.
* The Little River Band has replaced ''all'' of its members ''multiple'' times. In fact, the original lineup got in legal trouble in the mid-2000s when they wanted to tour under the name "Little River Band" and the current lineup wouldn't let them.
* [[Thin Lizzy]]. The only constant members were [[I Am the Band|Phil]] [[Face of the Band|Lynott]] (vocals, bass and songwriting) and Brian Downey (drums). After Phil Lynott died in 1986, who will be touring under the name next time it appears is anyone's guess, but if you're lucky it'll at least have one of the members that were in the band whilst Phil was alive (since 1991 that's usually Scott Gorham). Ex-members include Gary Moore, Snowy White and Midge Ure. Their door revolved so much the issue has [[wikipedia:Thin Lizzy band members|its own page]] on [[The Other Wiki]].
* Sloan subverts this: they regularly change who plays which instruments--eveninstruments—even during concerts. However, the ''members'' have always been Chris Murphy, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson, and Andrew Scott.
* The Melvins have had a serious problem with keeping a bassist. While the two founding members have been around since the band's inception they have gone through six official bassists and multiple stand-ins/auditions. Kurt Cobain even auditioned but was rejected because he got so nervous he forgot all of their songs.
* [[Hawkwind]]. They've had about 8 bassists, 8 keyboardists and 8 drummers, and they've gone from 7 members to 3 back up to 5 again, but always revolving around co-founder Dave Brock.
* Rainbow were notorious for frequent changes during their lifetime; founder and only constant member Ritchie Blackmore never retained the same line-up for two successive studio albums. On one occasion he hired and then fired a bassist before he even got the chance to record on the album they were working on!
* [[The Alan Parsons Project (Music)|The Alan Parsons Project]], centering around songwriters Parsons (also producer/engineer) and Eric Woolfson while the musicians rotated regularly. Woolfson sang and played piano from time to time; Parsons almost never sang (he talked through a digital vocoder on their first album).
* Seminal death-rock group Christian Death has had 49 different members in the past 30 years; they're not a big band, mind you, they only ever have 4-5 people in the band at a time. They just rotate in and out like mad. They sort of have a [[Face of the Band]], but it's changed hands several times: Rozz Williams, Valor Kand, Rozz Williams again, Valor Kand again.
* Industrial rock group, Pigface, has had a total of 72 different members since its founding.
* The only member of [[Queens of the Stone Age]] that has appeared on all their albums is its founder, Josh Homme. Homme's side project, Desert Sessions, is the same way.
* [[Whitesnake (Music)|Whitesnake]] were infamous for their constant personnel changes during the mid-80s. Infamously, David Coverdale fired all his band members who played on their best-selling album ''Whitesnake'' after the album's sessions finished, even though they had only played on that album. The current post-2003 lineup enjoyed relative stability for a while but in 2010 not one, not two, but THREE members left. [[wikipedia:List of Whitesnake Band Members|The Other Wiki]] has a page dedicated to the various Whitesnake line-ups over the years.
* Folk rock band Fairport Convention has had almost 30 members. None have been with the band for its entire 40-year career, and only a couple have been members for more than half of its existence. Several people were members for less than a year. Even the band's only more-or-less constant member, guitarist Simon Nicol, left the band for a period (1971 to 1976) before returning.
* After drummer/singer Aaron Gillespie left in 2010, there are now ''no'' original members left in the Christian metalcore band Underoath. Between 1999 and 2003, ''every'' original member except for Gillespie quit the band.
* [[ACDC (Music)|ACDC]] was founded in 1973. Five years later, they were on their second vocalist, seventh bassist, and ''eighth'' drummer. The Young Brothers (Angus and Malcolm) are the only original members left.
* [[Wings (Musicband)|Wings]], [[Paul McCartney]]'s second band, lasted for about eight years. During this time, they had five or six line-ups, three lead guitarists, four drummers (five if you count Paul when there were only three members), and two periods when only the core trio was present.
* [[Guns N' Roses (Music)|Guns N' Roses]] took its name partially from [[The Pete Best|lead guitarist]] Tracii Guns, who was replaced in its first few months. The revolving door of guitarists, bassists and drummers accelerated after Axl took complete control. However, both of the band's keyboardists have remained ever since joining.
* [[Black Sabbath (Music)|Black Sabbath]] have never recorded consecutive albums with the same lineup since [[Ronnie James Dio]] left the band in 1982.
* [[Lynyrd Skynyrd]] are down to just one original member, lead guitarist Gary Rossington, due to the deaths, retirements and/or departures of various original and classic lineup members in the 1990's and 2000's. Not only that, but Rossington is the ''only'' member of the current lineup that played with the band before their 1977 disbanding.
* [[Jefferson Airplane]]/Jefferson Starship. [[wikipedia:List of Jefferson Starship members|Just look at this list.]] Dear god.
* [[The Smashing Pumpkins (Music)|The Smashing Pumpkins]], both incarnations (the original and the reunited).
* The same goes for [[The Yardbirds]]. In both the original band and the current reformation, Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty have been the only consistent members.
* [[Nine Inch Nails]], at least as a touring band. Trent Reznor employed 19 different musicians across eight major touring cycles, often as a four-piece band.
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* There are two categories of [[Sound Horizon]] band members: [[I Am the Band|Revo]] and people who aren't Revo.
* Prog/Pomp rock band The Enid have had numerous changes of lineup since their formation in 1975, with only keyboardist/composer Robert John Godfrey being common to all.
* Dave Grohl admits that he was afraid the [[Foo Fighters (Music)|Foo Fighters]] were becoming this. (all the first four albums have different line-ups and two bandmembers didn't even play in any of those - William Goldsmith had his drum tracks on ''The Colour and the Shape'' replaced with Grohl's ones, and guitarist Franz Stahl left after the tour for that album was finished) But since then, the only change has been an extra member.
* [[Christian Rock]] band [[Petra]] was like this throughout its career, in particular during the 80's. Rarely did two consecutive albums have the same lineup.
* [[The Cure (Music)|The Cure]] has had 12 members since 1976, but the only consistent member has been lead singer [[Face of the Band|Robert Smith]].
* What, still no mention of [[Fleetwood Mac]]?
* [[The Byrds]] from 1966 to 1969. Roger McGuinn was all that remained of the original group throughout its tenure.
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* The Hit Crew, a "band" used for all the ''Drew's Famous'' CDs that are ubiquitous at party supply and drug stores. They cover every musical genre, and some of the CDs are quite good (and others are terrible). Every single one is attributed to "The Hit Crew" - from New Age to Disco to Metal to Country. The lineup is different from album to album and even song to song.
* [[Rasputina]] - after going through innumerable lineup changes, some of which lasted for several years at a time, founder [[I Am the Band|Melora Creager]] is the only original member left and the only member to appear on every album.
* [[Lords of Acid]] has turned into this as of its most recent (2012) lineup -- Pragalineup—Praga Khan is the only member of the original left (he's credited as "Head Perv"), and DJ Mea is something like the band's fifth female lead singer.
 
== Fictional bands ==
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* [[Spinal Tap]], when it came to drummers.
** Based on Saxon's inability to keep a drummer.
* Very minor example, but apparently, [[Fan Nickname|Octavia's]] band in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''.
 
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