Most drastic stylistic change ever?

Likewise (although with a little more humour), the shift between the hippy goth shenanigans of LOVE by the Cult and the gloriously stoopid metal tomfoolery of ELECTRIC by the Cult probably put off a lot of folks who were expecting more music to do wavey arm dances to instead of headbanging.

Or Metallica's shift from a rabid speedmetal horde to sedate rock'n'roll/country balladeers.

And of course the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Motorhead, The Prodigy, Johnny Lydon, Burzum, Genesis, Beherit, Brian Eno...

I suppose Primal Scream does that sorta thing a lot too. Changing styles, I mean, not fucking up double posts.

Anyway isn't it relatively easy for someone like Bowie to change style as he just gets a different backing band in? Whereas a real proper honest to goodness band who play their own isntruments have a tougher time changing style. Though obviously Primal Scream made huge changes in stlke with different producers and remixers.

... but then there's Dexy's, who did it three times in three albums, with schizophrenic depth of sincerity each time.

NB ...

U2's jump to Achtung Baby was a jump BACKWARDS. In 1979 when everyone who mattered was white funk paranoid apocalyptic ironic, U2 started their sincere anthemic celtic thang, which they followed until about 1990, when they suddenly realised who had been better in the first place and came over all PiL/Pop Group!

Thompson Twins?

Unrest: punk > metal-tinged hard rock > experimental/jangle pop (with various anomalies along the way). Most drastic change - between _Kustom Karnal Blackxploitation_ and _imperial f.f.r.r_.

His Name Is Alive: it doesn't do them justice to generalize, but...ethereal 4AD > the indescribable _Mouth by Mouth_ > 60s-tinged pop > Hendrix rock > soul (with countless anomalies along the way - reggae, folk, country, noise, gospel, you name it).

andy

Bowie I think made a career out of changing styles/personnas. The man who feel to earth became Ziggy and the thin white duke and is currently making techno albums. Which may not be too big a stretch from his Station To Station album if he hadn't wound his way through Berlin and toted Stevie Ray Vaughan around.

The Rolling Stones were changing pretty bad by the end of the seventies, flirting with glam and psychedlia.

Neil Young went from garage rock with The Squires to hippie to folk singer to barber shop quartet to rock and/or roll to country, then to whatever Tonight's The Night counts as, back to country, more rock, nearly disco, doo wop, 80s pop, blues, more country, rock, another country album for good measure followed by more rock and recently funk.

Young is a good case for this thread. He seems to have always wanted to be a chameleon, but without all the Bowie art-damage baggage.