Ten Makeover Artists
10) The Beatles: First off, they started off wearing leather jackets and acting tough and then management got them suits and suddenly they were all the rage. Then they spent the next eight years growing up in public in ways no one could have anticipated.
9) Alanis Morissette: Once a happy little teen dance diva, Alanis re-emerged as an angst-ridden alternative rocker who just had to tell us it wasn't fair and that we oughta know. Then she got weirder and her lyrics kept turning to more gobblygook. But those teen years were long in the rearview.
8) Tori Amos: Who would have ever expected that the lead singer of Y Kant Tori Read would one day be a unicorn-riding free spirit with several concept albums under her piano?
7) Blur: Brit-Pop band decides Brit-Pop is dead and becomes the new Pavement instead. Did it work?
6) John Hiatt: This guy tried everything to stay in the game. Early to mid-70s: singer-songwriter. Late '70s: New Wave rocker. '80s: big FM rocker then finally turns towards neo-conservative rocker with heartland tugs and lots of adult-alternative possibilities. Wrote a song for everyone along the way. Never really changed his style as much as his productions.
5) Doobie Brothers: Can be broken down into two distinct categories: band as biker-stoners singing about "Black Water" and then the falsetto-driven dudes who took it to the streets with what a fool believes and a guy--Michael McDonald--who didn't own a restaurant franchise but sounded like he was thinking about it.
4) David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust, The Thin White Duke? It was like Bowie was auditioning for film roles in his spare time. But he kept changing the music around as well. If it wasn't for Tin Machine, he'd practically have a perfect record.
3) Journey: Jazz-rockers? Are you kidding me? You use a keyboard player to sing? Who do you think you are, the new and improved Doobie Brothers? No, you get Steve Perry on board and start learning to power ballad your way to the top.
2) Genesis: Start with a creative wildman in Peter Gabriel and then eventually hand the vocal seat over to the drummer who looks harmless enough but turns out to be Phil Collins and the rest is middle of the road, album-oriented rock history. Until Collins decides he needs a solo career, which still sounds like latter-day Genesis. But you don't have to "share" the money the same way.
1) Fleetwood Mac: Blues is ok but you'll never make a living at it? Well, it isn't quite like that, but the English blues band did find incredible success once they brought Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and her assorted stuffed animals on board. Suddenly they were a pop band selling millions of records. They must've hated that.
Dr. Dre went from goofy to gangsta.
And no one mentioned all of the jumps to country music. Bon Jovi, Darius "Hootie" Rucker, Even Jessica Simpson. {Gag}. Sorry ..... I have to go floss my mind now.
Jefferson-Whatever...
Rod Stewart changed completely after Tonite's the Night, and was commercially successful although the biggest sell out in history. His early stuff with the Faces and Jeff Beck really rocks.
On the less successful side, DeeDee Ramone decided to be a rapper with predictable results.
Add it up and they single-handedly kept a dying genre going through the 90s, or at least were at the forefront anyway.