artists who moved from maistream or pop to much more experimental realms

classic example- Scott Walker

Liz Phair

Talk Talk

Miles Davis

Play 2 degrees of separation with Robert Fripp and you'll hit a lot of them. Brian Eno, David Sylvian, Ryuchi Sakamoto, Peter Gabriel, arguably Kate Bush ...

the Beatles

briteny speers

Marianne Faithfull

John Coltrane

Slowdive with their last album

Does it count if they waver back and forth? I'd have to say Neil Young.

Souvlaki & JFAD not exactly maistream or pop tho

xp

Justin Bieber

^

Ministry, even tho by doing so they became immeasurably more popular

Don't think Scott Walker can really be beaten at this game.

I guess Tom Waits would be another?

jerry lewis?

90s Prince

I'd argue that Prince actually got LESS experimental. so much so that by the time the 00s rolled around he was downright conservative.

So his muso wankery was more trad than his innovative pop albums? Pretty sure u are otm.

Radiohead

I'd say Peter Gabriel went from 'progressive' to 'pop', albeit quirky pop. but I mean "So" had Sledgehammer and Big Time as singles!

if we're including the Genesis period only, though.

Björk!

I guess half of Sleigh Bells, maybe.

Blur!

the monkees

So his muso wankery was more trad than his innovative pop albums? Pretty sure u are otm.

kinda - stuff like Rainbow Children and N.E.W.S. were not experimental in terms of form or content, they were just Prince dabbling in already well-established forms he'd previously ignored (i.e. quiet-storm level "jazziness"). by the time you get to Musicology or One Night Alone he's basically just doing cover band homages to previous r&b styles - reverent James Brown recreations, etc.

David Sylvian
Sly and the Family Stone

Oops - Sylvian already mentioned upthread

http://www.virtualubbock.com/Images/NelsonGhostyhead.JPG

good one

Lil B

grace jones?

Nico

jesus

lou reed

if the beatles count so do the beach boys. i don't think they do, though, 'cause all they did is go from pop to CRRRRAZY pop.

Revolution No. 9 is not CRRRRRAZY pop

and the distance between I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Revolution No. 9 - which came out 5 YEARS apart from each other - is immense

alex chilton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMnwyAiy3W8

Revolution No. 9 is not CRRRRRAZY pop

well this is one track, not even a song, on the white album, which is a complex piece of work but not, i think, "experimental;" i was referring to abbey road, where the entire second half is just as crazy as rev 9.

i mean not really but you know.

U2 went there and back again

"there" = offending us?

http://vvoice.vo.llnwd.net/e10/all-that-you-can-t-leave-behind.1366565.40.jpg
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/img/review/011214/lord_l.jpg

that is the first time I have ever seen a picture of the Edge's hair

well this is one track, not even a song, on the white album, which is a complex piece of work but not, i think, "experimental;" i was referring to abbey road, where the entire second half is just as crazy as rev 9.

"Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" both at the time seemed like they had gone completely out of their minds. It worked commercially though....

U2 have never been mainstream pop, but they are probably currently more mainstream rock than they have ever been before.

I guess Terence Trent D'Arby did, although the audience didn't like the result.
OMD went completely "Out there" for one album before becoming more mainstream pop than ever before from 1984 onwards.

that is the first time I have ever seen a picture of the Edge's hair

― glitter hands! glitter hands! razzle! dazzle! (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, August 18, 2010 5:22 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That may be the last time he had any.

Oh... And.... Joe Jackson...

I'd say Peter Gabriel went from 'progressive' to 'pop', albeit quirky pop. but I mean "So" had Sledgehammer and Big Time as singles!

Surely, except for "From Genesis To Revelation", the stuff Gabriel did with Genesis in the 70s was more experimental than his solo work.

that is the first time I have ever seen a picture of the Edge's hair

"it might get loud" is worth it just for the super-early footage of u2 on irish tv, which in about 20 seconds shows you a lot of things you have never seen before. (i think the rest of the movie's worth it, too, but that's another thread.)

I've been avoiding that movie specifically because I *don't* want to have to watch the Edge

said it before and will say it again: 'passengers' is the best U2 record

I've never heard that Billy Joel classical record before -- the above-posted piece has some surprisingly skilled counterpoint work. Not sure what's experimental about writing composition class exercises though.

Robyn

Simon Fisher Turner

Mel Powell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv7-WF0dikw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aDo6MF7HCw

Coleman Hawkins
Duke Ellington
Mary Lou Williams
Dexter Gordon

I'm not sure if the early Who records count as "mainstream pop," or if the term even means anything in 1965/66. They certainly got more experimental as they went along, peaking with Who Sell Out and then getting worse.

David Bowie? Tim Buckley? I guess "mainstream" and "pop and "much more experimental" are all relative things.

oh god Paul Weller

Kevin Rowland

jungle brothers

Meshell Ndegeocello

Suzanne Vega

Tiger Woods

Oooh, Simon Fisher Turner is a good one, and possibly better than Scott Walkier. Kicking myself for not posting that first...

Walker.

Justin Bieber

― acoleuthic, Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:15 AM (Yesterday)

WINNAR

Mike Patton!

tahd rundgren

Van Morrison

Sorry, but Matt2's got it. Talk Talk stomps the shit out of pretty much anyone in this category.

Chris Gaines

john lydon!

also isn't the chick from marine girls in the raincoats.

Don't think Scott Walker can really be beaten at this game.

I guess Tom Waits would be another?

― emil.y, miércoles 18 de agosto de 2010 17:17 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Scott's got to be the most extreme example of this, but my first thought was Todd Rundgren. That dude had the potential to be a megastar in the early 70's and tossed it to release a series of albums that were bizarre and increasingly impenetrable. Come to think of it his breakout album Something/Anything had a lot of rather odd stuff on it as well.

Revive and reverse.

I've been thinking about the inverse manoeuvre to this lately, whereby artists move from experimental, niche areas, self-producing and often self-releasing albums, and slowly circle and then penetrate the 'mainstream' - whatever that is in 2015 - not by 'selling out' or 'compromising' (add in imago-friendly anti-mainstream rant here, if you like) but purely by focusing and honing what they do.

I'm thinking particularly of Grimes and Julia Holter, but also, I guess, to a degree, Panda Bear. I'm sure there are others.

Is this a thing? Has the former route - from pop to experimental once you've got 'permission' to indulge, a la Radiohead etc - been eroded by changing industry patterns and technologies?

i just don't think there's a clear dividing line anymore. i'd say look at somebody like beck, who started out doing the fluxus kind of anti-folk thing and now puts out mainstream rockist sort of stuff. but at the same time he's doing that he's also doing no wave versions of yanni and really interesting glass remixes under the radar. a person can be both at once now, and the only difference between "underground" and "mainstream" is how you market yourself.

of course, that's if there ever was a difference... did ferrante and teicher "sell out", or did they "focus and hone" what they do? did kraftwerk?

I wonder what's more common? I'd be tempted to say the Experimental -> Pop thing was at least once more common (Genesis etc?). The Weeknd is a more common example.

I would think film composers like Danny Elfman and Cliff Martinez would also fit such a list as this one.

Shia LaBoeuf!

dawn richard, wynter gordon

I'm not a big fan, but I feel like Boris has done really well w/r/t fucking with this dynamic (ito rock music) and playing with the space it provides

(The reverse of the thread premise I mean)

whereby artists move from experimental, niche areas, self-producing and often self-releasing albums, and slowly circle and then penetrate the 'mainstream' - whatever that is in 2015

i don't think Grimes or Julia Holter were all that experimental to begin with

i think there's a difference between music that had been previously been considered "too out there" to be accepted into the mainstream, which is indicative of some sort of aesthetic shift or at least charisma on the part of the artist, and the standard artist gets "better" at what they do and get mainstream recognition.

Pere Ubu - started weird in the 70s, got weirder in the early 80s, then had a go at going commercial in the 90s before going back to what they did best in the 2000s.

I started the reverse of this thread not long after it got going:

Artists who moved from experimental realms towards the mainstream

i think there's a difference between music that had been previously been considered "too out there" to be accepted into the mainstream, which is indicative of some sort of aesthetic shift or at least charisma on the part of the artist, and the standard artist gets "better" at what they do and get mainstream recognition.

― sarahell, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Its not that concious a move. People age, listen to more, or are able to express other sides to their personality. Bogus talk of industry patterns and technologies.

People who want acceptance aren't usually worth bothering with.

http://www.faridaguitars.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Gaz-Coombes-medium.jpg

People who want acceptance aren't usually worth bothering with

Harsh!

Nonsense.

I think is fair to say that some of the 20th Century greats (Miles, Ornette, Hill, Stravinsky idk loads more) had some of their best moments alienating a lot of their potential audience rather than attempting to sate them with more of what they wanted. They might also have had great moments driven by an urge to maintain critical respectability, but it isn't nonsense.

Hill

You mean Andrew?

... and not Benny, for example...

both of them!