I was listening to Japan which is one of my favorite 80s bands.  They released two glam/punk albums in the late 1970s where David Sylvian's voice was raw and punk-sounding.  They were also guitar-driven. Then in 1980, they changed their style to New Wave and released Gentlemen Take Polaroids.  The most interesting thing is that David Sylvian changed his voice from the raw punk to a smoother Ferryesque over-the-top style.  Their songs became keyboard driven with lush soundscapes and included horns and saxaphones as well.  They are known as a precursor to Duran Duran.

Not including singers/groups maturing and softening up with age, are there any other groups or singers in the 80's that made such a dramatic change in musical style?  Was this a good thing or a bad thing for their music.

Sometimes a change in lead singers can cause a slight shift in a band's musical style - a couple of examples for me are The Doobie Brothers and Van Halen:

When Tom Johnston was fronting the Doobies, their sound was more bluesy-country rock - when he was replaced by Michael McDonald they became more soft rock/adult contemporary (I know this is more of a 70s group but they had some stuff in the early 80s too)

And Van Halen started as mostly hard rock when David Lee Roth was in the group (with the possible exception of the 1984 album), then when Sammy Hagar joined they started sounding more mainstream pop.

Sorry to go pop on everyone, but Five Star went from bubbegum pop to funky rock in less than 12 months. The result was a steady decline in the charts and the departure of many fans. :(

Needless to say the image changed drastically too.

1987

http://www.fivestarforever.nl/jpeg/fivestarfoto/5col.jpg

1988

http://www.fivestarforever.nl/jpeg/fivestarfoto/rockword.jpg

Sorry to go pop on everyone, but Five Star went from bubbegum pop to funky rock in less than 12 months. The result was a steady decline in the charts and the departure of many fans. :(

Needless to say the image changed drastically too.

1987

http://www.fivestarforever.nl/jpeg/fivestarfoto/5col.jpg

1988

http://www.fivestarforever.nl/jpeg/fivestarfoto/rockword.jpg


In the second picture they are trying to look like the band Heart, lol. I liked Five Star back in the day. Oddly enough up until 1988 . . .

I think Paul Weller changed styles drastically when he moved from 'The Jam' to 'Style Council'.

Paul Weller of The Jam (punk, new wave highly influential band) went on to form The Style Council (very smooth R&B sound).  I happen to like both of those bands.  I believe he also got into some electronic music well into the 90's and caught a bunch of crap for it. 

Ministry also springs to mind.  They started out as a new wave band and then were like a metal/grunge outfit.  I only really appreciated the older stuff and think Al Jourgensen is an a#@.

Ministry also springs to mind.  They started out as a new wave band and then were like a metal/grunge outfit.  I only really appreciated the older stuff and think Al Jourgensen is an a#@.


Oh man.... you got that right. I was at the show where they recorded part of their live album "In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up" (Reptile House, Grand Rapids, forget the exact date and year) and that guy was the most strung-out, self-important POS I have ever met. After I put my hand out to shake his and he stuck his hand in my face as to say "I'm too good for you to shake your hand", I told him to go F himself and just walked away. Haven't bought or listened to that band ever since.

Someday I'll tell y'all about Rob Zombie  >:(

It's because of morons like those two that my attitude towards "celebrities" is, "Here's my money, now entertain me, loser."

Sorry if I got offtopic...

Alanis Morissette, though she was forced to be a pop princess though later became an alternative singer/songwriter in the 1990's

Good ones....

Weller/Style Council
Alanis /Pop and Rocker
Van Halen - they did get pretty sappy with Sammy Hagar.

I am not familiar with Five Star.  I will have to check them out.  In 1988 they all look like Janet and Latoya Jackson wannabes.  Though the later is not much to aspire to.

Just found a Five Star song in my itunes called The Slightest Touch.  I am guessing it is from the cute pop group not the tough leather group.  Sounds okay.

I saw an episode of E True Hollywood Story about The Village People where their manager tried to reinvent them as a New Wave act for a while after disco fell out of favor.

One thing about Eighties music in general that I've noticed is that it seemed like the idea was to get as many people into it as possible. Like "poppifying" your sound and getting on MTV was the main thing. Lots of bands and singers had a more clean cut image and sound, and used lots of keyboards, synthesizers and guitar solos. Music was very mainstreamized from about 1982 to 1990, and I think that's what I like about it the most. That's what I've always tried to tell people. Regardless of the style or the type of songs, it was basically ALL catchy!

So yeah, there's lots of poppier songs in the 1980s by '60s and '70s artists (or even current ones who weren't pop per se) that I probably never would've gotten into otherwise, so that's a good thing.

That's what I've always tried to tell people. Regardless of the style or the type of songs, it was basically ALL catchy!


That's what I miss most too!

Usually, when the big change turns out to be "bad", it is often the point where the artist has "jumped the shark".

This even applies most recently with the auto-tune/electrotechnopop trend with former Nu Metal group Linkln Park, who jumped on the bandwagon on their latest album and critics/album sales have fared poorly.

Sometimes the change is gradual, such as Chicago, which gradually phased out it's jazz/rock/funk hybrid in favor of MOR pop, starting with If You Leave Me Now from their Chicago X album, and by the time Chicago 16 came out, the band had fully converted to an Adult Contemporary sound filled with your typical '80s production. Sometimes this can be an "at first it's okay, but now it's crap" kinda thing as well. After Peter Cetera went solo, Chicago's sales went into decline and the critics ratings kept getting worse and worse.

Usually, when the big change turns out to be "bad", it is often the point where the artist has "jumped the shark".

This even applies most recently with the auto-tune/electrotechnopop trend with former Nu Metal group Linkln Park, who jumped on the bandwagon on their latest album and critics/album sales have fared poorly.

Sometimes the change is gradual, such as Chicago, which gradually phased out it's jazz/rock/funk hybrid in favor of MOR pop, starting with If You Leave Me Now from their Chicago X album, and by the time Chicago 16 came out, the band had fully converted to an Adult Contemporary sound filled with your typical '80s production. Sometimes this can be an "at first it's okay, but now it's crap" kinda thing as well. After Peter Cetera went solo, Chicago's sales went into decline and the critics ratings kept getting worse and worse.
"Chicago" still had a couple hits in 1989 which was after Cetera went solo but once the decade of the 90's hit their sales tanked of their albums.

I like it. It keeps bands exciting. I can't stand bands that stick with the same style album after album (cough ACDC)


A good recent example is Panic! at the Disco. When they arrived on the scene in 2005 they were your pretty typical emo act, guyliner and all (remember "I Write Sins, not Tragedies"?). Around 2008 or so the guitarist/main songwriter (Ryan Ross) suddenly became obsessed with classic rock, and they completely transformed their sound and image to 60s-influenced classic rock. Needless to say they have a pretty divided fan base.

Also, a notorious example is Heart. In the 80s, they signed a record contract that forced them to use outside proffessional songwriters and doll themselves up for MTV, effectively turning what was once a hard rock band into a manufactured pop act. Luckilly, they changed back in the 90s.

Rush used to be known for this too, although they havn't had a radical style change since 1993. The two new songs they recently released for download have synths though, which had been missing from their music for quite a while.

It's because of morons like those two that my attitude towards "celebrities" is, "Here's my money, now entertain me, loser."



  Nice... ;D

In the case of Alanis, it worked because she was getting older and couldn't be doing teen pop music, forever.

The best cases, are the ones slowly changing their styles, gradually over the period of time.

The worst or least successful, are like the attempts by Garth Brooks.

Another modern example I could think of now is Usher hopping onto the electropop bandwagon this year.

Another modern example I could think of now is Usher hopping onto the electropop bandwagon this year.
Yeah I don't like Ushers stuff from the past few years. I liked his songs that he did from 1997-2004.

The 80's/90's band "Go West" they were synth-pop when they first hit the US Charts in 1985 with their hit song "Call Me" and than by 1990 they were A/C with their hit "King Of Wishful Thinking".

"Go West" was probably a key band that transitioned music from the 80's to the 90's but will probably never get the credit for it.

It depends on how good the artist is at a given style.

Linda Ronstadt, 1980: Hurt So Bad *
Linda Ronstadt, 1984: Lush Life **
Linda Ronstadt, 1988: Grey Cloud Over New York  ***

*Randazzo/Wilding/Hart
**Strayhorn
***Philip Glass, "1000 Airplanes on the Roof," performed with the Philip Glass Ensemble

Ronstadt was good at all three styles.