Re: From that to this? Whoa!

Kay's post last month about hearing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on Muzak made me think of this.

Most of you probably remember that, years before Bonnie Tyler had a big mainstream smash hit with that appalling, overblown song, she'd found some success with more of a pop/country sound in the '70s. "It's a Heartache" was a Top Ten hit for Tyler in the US, and in many other countries ... and it sounds absolutely nothing like "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Who else can you think of, who found significant success with one style, then ended up transforming their sound (or getting it transformed for them) and found comparable success again?

John Waite having a big pop hit in the 80s, then a big country hit in the 'aughts...with the same song.

Too many to list. It has happened so often it's easy to forget all the examples. Beatles went from rock & roll covers to pop to ballads to parody music to musique concrète to blues to...you name it, sometimes all on one album. Bowie has had huge hits in several distinct genres. Both Chet Atkins and Les Paul did country standards and solid jazz works. Even Gene Autry did popular country music as well as mega-hit christmas tunes I still hear on Muzak every December.

Eric Clapton went from blues to hard rock to melodic rock to pop to whatever the hell you call what he's doing now. Elvis Costello does country duets now. The Rolling Stones waded through several genres with varying success producing hit songs. Although mainly due to changes in personnel, Fleetwood Mac changed its style entirely between its early "Albatross" Peter Green incarnation and its late "Rhiannon" McVie-Nicks-Buckingham lineup. I'm sure others can come up with plenty more.

And it's now common for hit country artists to cross over into pop music just to broaden their appeal and widen their audience. Similarly, many older rockers and pop artists will adopt more country-tinged tunes as their audiences mature (and the artist can't hit the high notes he or she used to). They're just recalibrating their output to account for differences in the market and in what they can deliver to satisfy the audience.

Not sure how successful she actually was when she was the "Canadian Debbie Gibson" but Alanis Morissette would fit the bill, at least to Canadians.

not A big fan of his music but nontheless darius rucker really did A GREAT job of reinventing himself as a country musician and has had great sucess.
few other guys.
danny elfman-oingo boingo
dan zane- children music
i will mention guys like mike ness, nick lowe etc. they didnt exactly totally change their music or their fanbase. they just matured or exapanded their sound.

A *lot* of former pop artists have headed over to the country charts, since that's the only place they can sell stuff, these days: Bon Jovi, Jewel, Darius Rucker (whose country stuff isn't that bad, actually), and John Waite among them. Gotta go where the money is.

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that's the only place they can sell stuff

What do you mean by that?

Attila --> Billy Joel
Katy Hudson --> Katy Perry
Stefani Germanotti --> Lady Gaga

BCE wrote:

> Attila --> Billy Joel
> Katy Hudson --> Katy Perry
> Stefani Germanotti --> Lady Gaga

I wasn't aware any of those performers had a big hit in their earlier incarnation.

I think the answer to all topics on here is Danzig.

My friends and I got Danzig's 1st solo album and were horrified to hear blues rock. Of course we warmed up to it but at the time it was a crazy change in style.

Second careers of musicians who left music (which is probably a thread we've done before):

Kate Garner (Haysi Fantaysi) - photographer (shot the cover of Sinead O'Connor's debut album amongst other things)
Bryan Adams - very well regarded celebrity photographer these days
Greg Norton - Chef
David Fenton (the Vapors) - Lawyer
Jackie Fox (the Runaways) - Lawyer
Miki Berenyi - magazine editor
Greg Kihn - novelist
Mike Heidorn (Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt) - newspaper production artist (I think he still is, anyhow. I'll have to check with my brother, who was/may still be his boss)
Kurt Ralske (Ultra Vivid Scene) - artist. I saw some of his stuff at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.
Danielle Dax - interior designer

not that big of a stretch but it was gradual. paul weller- going from the jam to the style council. prob not a1 valid answer.
robbie robertson- not a total transformation but his native american music was a big stretch from the band or even his previous solo efforts
mcartney- has done a few things including a techno album with the fireman that bares almost no resembalnce to anything he has ever done
lou reed- my dog said his last album wasnt that bad

Delvin wrote:

> Who else can you think of, who found significant success with
> one style, then ended up transforming their sound (or getting
> it transformed for them) and found comparable success again?

Tom Waits was doing OK with his folkie styled songs and entertaining hipster schtick, then the ghost of Kurt Weill smacked him upside the head while he was in a drunken stupor one night, and he quit drinking and became an avant-garde artiste.

I was thinking David Johansen would qualify, with his self-transformation to Buster Poindexter. But then I realized, David didn't find much success with the New York Dolls.

Then he went from Buster to grizzled blues man, then back to the Dolls.

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Who else can you think of, who found significant success with one style, then ended up transforming their sound (or getting it transformed for them) and found comparable success again?

Pantera and Ministry? The Cult?

...

I listened to "Rare Cult" on loan from the library the other day.

Kinda sucked, really.