Something Completely Different/Music: Difference between revisions

* Pat Boone's 1997 album, ''In A Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy'' was completely composed of covers of heavy metal songs, as opposed to his usual fare of R&B, country, and gospel (though they were still done in his milquetoast Big Band/Lounge-style, of course). The CD cover featured the normally clean-cut Boone in leather and chains, an outfit he would also wear at the 1997 American Music Awards. He looked ridiculous, but it didn't do him any favors with the [[Moral Guardians]] that make up his primary demographic, who thought he was being serious.

** [http://www.allmusic.com/album/r246706/review This review] proves that, amazingly, even some critics didn't get that ''it was a joke''.

* Almost every single [[Beck]] album does this. There's [[Genre Roulette|country, hip-hop, funk, folk, anti-folk, rock, metal, rap, contemporary, balladry, pop, disco, jazz]]... What with this being Beck, sometimes half of those are in the [[Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly|same song]].

* Neil Young put out three such albums in a row, much to the consternation of his label (Geffen famously tried to sue him for delivering "unrepresentative material"): First there was the heavily synth-filled ''Trans'', then [[The Fifties]] rockabilly throwback of ''Everybody's Rockin''', and finally the country album ''Old Ways''.

* By 1993, [[REM|R.E.M.]] had 2 massively successful albums with ''Out of Time'' (Shiny Happy People, Losing My Religion), and ''Automatic for the People'' (Everybody Hurts, Man on the Moon). Both albums, especially the latter, were relatively slow, emotional albums, with string and acoustic instruments everywhere. In 1994, however, they released ''Monster'', with loud, grunge-y, distorted guitar on every single track.

** Incidentally, those two prior albums fit the trope as well, as the band's major label contract was triggered by the success of the 1987 album ''Document'' (It's the End of the World As We Know It, The One I Love), which consisted almost entirely of songs that were, by the band's standards, real rockers. The interceding album, 1989's ''Green'', seemed to be following that pattern, with just a few acoustic songs between upbeat rock songs like "Stand," "Orange Crush," and "Pop Song '89."

** Minor example: ''A Day in the Life'' is a soft, sad-esque song about a guy who reads in the newspaper the story of an unlucky man, the war, a car crash, a suicide, etc. By the middle of the song, it starts an upbeat ballad about going late for work.

* [[Hardcore Punk]] band The Bronx, after releasing three self-titled albums, released an album of mariachi music under the name "Mariachi El Bronx" in 2009, followed by another in 2011. Both albums are critically acclaimed.

* Bob Dylan's been known to do this from time to time and has had many different genres but ''Empire Burlesque'' stands out being a uncharacteristic (though not for [[The Eighties]]) heavily produced synth pop affair (with one song even leaning slightly towards disco) and then he does it again in the same album by having it end jarringly with the quiet "Dark Eyes" a simply structured track that features only Dylan, a guitar and a harmonica without any studio embellishment whatsoever.

* [[Da Yoopers]]' 1992 album ''Yoopy Do Wah'', the last full album to feature original guitarist Joe Potila, was also the only album after their first not to include comedy skits between the songs. It also included "When One Love Dies", their first serious song since the [[Early Installment Weirdness]] of their debut.

* [[Alan Jackson]] did this twice in 2006: first with a gospel album called ''Precious Memories'', then a few months later with ''Like Red on a Rose'', a smooth, ballad-heavy AC album that was a radical departure from his neotraditionalist country sound. The latter was also the only album of his career which Keith Stegall did not produce (bluegrass singer [[Alison Krauss]] produced).