- 3 months ago
From punk rockers turned hip-hop icons to psychedelic explorers who found disco fever! Join us as we count down our picks for those bands that dramatically transformed their sound throughout their careers. Our list includes The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Radiohead, Metallica, and more! Did your favorite musical chameleon make our list?
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for those bands that started
00:26at one place, but ended up somewhere that was creatively different from their origins.
00:3110.
00:38Goo Goo Dolls
00:39Hey, did you know that the Goo Goo Dolls were actually once signed to a heavy metal record
00:51label?
00:52That's right, Metal Blade Records released two of the Buffalo Band's early efforts during
00:55a time when Goo Goo Dolls were a much louder, much heavier proposition.
01:00Hang in the car, my fucking noise.
01:05You and Michelle, I guess it's a choice.
01:08Their self-titled debut from 1987 was even more raw, embodying a punk rock spirit that's
01:14all but absent on the band's commercial outings.
01:17Granted, the transition from indie Noisenix wasn't immediate since the Goo Goo Dolls released
01:23Superstar Car Wash on Warner Bros. prior to their platinum-selling success, a boy named
01:28Goo.
01:29Still, the differences in sound here feel like a completely different band.
01:33And I won't tell no one your name…
01:399.
01:40Bring Me The Horizon
01:41The term Deathcore has meant different things to different people over the years.
01:53To some older music fans, it was the bestial mixture of black metal and thrash found within
01:59Brazilian bands like Sarcófago.
02:01The modern definition of Deathcore is far more literal, combining the breakdown-heavy sensibility
02:07of metalcore with guttural vocals and extreme intensity.
02:11How can you feel mine?
02:16Bring Me The Horizon inhabited a fairly unoriginal yet highly popular corner of this space on their
02:21debut album, Count Your Blessings.
02:24The desire to experiment with this formula soon bit hard upon the band, however, and future albums
02:29would see BMTH abandoning Deathcore in favor of a more difficult-to-categorize mishmash.
02:35Electronica, hip-hop, metal, and more would all join the party, while Deathcore made a quiet
02:41exit.
02:42So you can drive me to the world, tomorrow's time to come back, the year of the whole family.
02:508.
02:51Journey
02:52The 1970s were a halcyon decade for jazz fusion, with all sorts of talented musicians
03:01testing the limits of this musical space.
03:04One of those bands was Journey, which in those days was fronted by keyboardist Greg Raleigh.
03:09The band's sound here sort of makes sense, given guitarist Neil Sean's pedigree alongside
03:14Carlos Santana, but to compare Journey's first couple of albums to the work they did with
03:18singer Steve Perry is quite interesting.
03:28The focus on Journey's debut trinity of albums is on guitar playing, keyboard runs, and powerful
03:33dynamic drumming.
03:34The vocals are almost an afterthought, as the songs wind their way around lengthy instrumental
03:39sections.
03:40It's honestly pretty awesome, but yeah, Journey sounds completely different here, for sure.
03:517.
03:52Pantera
03:59This idea of Pantera as a hair metal band doesn't really seem so far-fetched, given the Abbott
04:05Brothers' well-known love of Kiss and Van Halen.
04:08Still, the band's legacy as one of the heaviest bands in the land, made the availability of
04:12their 80s period reside primarily within the worlds of grey market releases and bootlegs.
04:18This is a shame, too, because Pantera's debut LP with vocalist Phil Anselmo, Power Metal,
04:23rocks from first note to last.
04:25Meanwhile, the band's three albums with former singer Terry Glaze also have their fair share
04:37of guitar hero rippers, including I Am The Night and Taking My Life.
04:41We'll say it with pride right here and now.
04:44Justice for Pantera's glam days!
04:46No.6 Beastie Boys
04:55Sure, they weren't a rock band for very long, but the uncompromising spirit of punk never
05:07really strayed too far away from what the Beastie Boys achieved over the course of their career.
05:12It's the Poliwog Stew EP that serves as the main recorded legacy from the Beastie's days
05:17as a hardcore band, however.
05:18A short and furious slice of wax… from the early years.
05:22The Beastie Boys would eventually transition into a sort of hip-hop-rock crossover before
05:33firmly embracing a new and exciting career path.
05:36But not before actually revisiting this punk-rock era with a 1995 EP titled, Aglio e Olio.
05:43This latter release served as a nice way of connecting the Beastie Boys' past with their
05:47present.
05:545.
05:55Metallica
06:03The 90s weren't exactly friendly to the commercial profile of heavy metal.
06:07The lion's share of the old guard seemed desperately trying to streamline their sounds, while most
06:13of the most extreme stuff burrowed its way deeper underground.
06:17Metallica remained the biggest metal band in the world throughout this time.
06:20But, well, mistakes were made.
06:22The Load and Reload album saw Metallica cutting their hair and writing more rock songs than
06:34anthems of speed or thrash metal.
06:37Meanwhile, St. Anger from 2003 was even worse, an ill-advised musical experiment without guitar
06:43solos that also featured quite possibly the worst-sounding snare drum sound in the history
06:49of recorded music.
06:51Metallica eventually righted the ship, but these albums certainly sunk the dreams of many fans.
06:57It's the only one who's got to play, but it's the only one who's got to play, but it's the
07:09only one who's got to play.
07:10These proudly progressive indie mavericks are almost certainly happy to be rid of the post-grunge
07:16identity that was largely given to them by critics back in the day.
07:20Radiohead emerged with a certified hit on MTV with Creep, a song taken from their debut album
07:25Pablo Honey.
07:35The band never felt quite comfortable being commercial darlings, of course, and soon expanded
07:40their songwriting with the epic, critically acclaimed LP OK Computer.
07:44But Radiohead weren't done.
07:46Future LPs like Hail to the Thief, In Rainbows, and Kid A were becoming even more uncategorizable,
07:52as Radiohead bid a not-so-fond farewell to the pop star life.
08:033.
08:04Bee Gees
08:10They may have been synonymous with Saturday Night Fever and the disco nightlife scene,
08:15but the Bee Gees actually possess a long and interesting recorded history.
08:19Their early LPs are very much cut from the pop, psych, and Baroque movements that were emerging
08:32during the 1960s, with the Bee Gees actually releasing a dozen albums before the words Funky,
08:38Night, or Fever would enter their cultural lexicon.
08:42Of these, it's the period between 1967 and 1969 that's probably of the most interest to
08:55prog and psych rock historians, since it's here where the Bee Gees do the most experimentation.
09:01Albums like Idea, Burst, and Horizontal remain quite interesting talking points when it comes
09:06to the Bee Gees' lengthy discography.
09:172.
09:18Fleetwood Mac
09:26Never underestimate the power of injecting some new, fresh, creative blood into a band.
09:32Fleetwood Mac were no strangers to writing, recording, or touring prior to joining up
09:36with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
09:38They enjoyed plenty of cult fame with their hard-edged and psychedelic-play-fueled brand
09:43of British blues rock.
09:45Talented members like Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Bob Welch, and Danny Kirkwin all spent
09:50time in Mac during this time and created some true musical magic.
10:02It would be Mac's collaboration with Buckingham and Nicks, however, that would result in a
10:06new Fleetwood Mac, one that embraced commercial pop songwriting right alongside their heavy
10:11blues roots.
10:12And the rest, as they say, is rumors.
10:15Err, we mean history.
10:17Never break, never, never say you don't let me die.
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10:36Number 1.
10:39The Beatles
10:48Some bands love to play it safe, refusing to break things that aren't broken.
10:52Still, others, such as The Beatles, grow restless with the pop charts and desire to play around
10:58in the recording studio.
10:59This desire to push their music ever forward essentially meant that the short and simple
11:03love songs of their youth were out.
11:05Strawberry fields, nothing is real.
11:13Long and winding roads of tape loops, sound effects, odd chords, and introspective songwriting
11:18were in.
11:19Beatles fans thankfully followed along, eager to hear what their idols would come up with
11:23next.
11:24Meanwhile, these lads from Liverpool wound up not only making themselves happy, but they almost
11:29single-handedly helped shift market focus away from 45 RPM singles and into the LP album
11:34as an art.
11:35Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.
11:40Do you celebrate your favorite band's entire discography?
11:44Or do you pick and choose where to drop off?
11:47Does an artist's whole career matter?
11:49Let us know in the comments.
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