On Genre Shifts

Woodrow Wilson was right in saying that "If you want to make enemies, try to change something." No matter what it is that you try to change, whether it be the nation's healthcare system or the channel on the television, you will probably anger someone somewhere in the process. Change is, by its very nature, a polarizing process. Those content with the status quo do not generally take kindly to those attempting to alter it, whereas others may see value in that change.

A potent example of the divisive power of change is when a band changes their sound, whether as the result of the infamous forces of executive meddling or as a decision of the band members themselves. This change in sound can either be abrupt or subtle, permanent or temporary, extremely controversial or barely divisive at all.

Let's look at some examples of genre shifting in action. Perhaps the most radical shift in genre I have ever seen was by the band Apocalyptica. They went from playing chamber music versions of Metallica songs to being a full-fledged metal band. Evolving from a quartet of cellos into, well, a trio of cellos and a drummer, Apocalyptica is not only one of the most radical examples of genre shift, but also one of the best executed. Since their fanbase consisted of metalheads anyways, a shift from playing classical covers of metal to playing actual metal (with distorted cellos instead of guitars) didn't exactly stir up controversy among their fans.

However, often when a band changes their sound, they manage to alienate a sizable portion of their fanbase in the process. A very recent example of this is metal band Black Tide's new album Post Mortem. The genre shift here wasn't as extreme as that displayed by Apocalyptica, but it proved to be a little more alienating. With their sophomore album, Black Tide decided to stray from their thrash metal roots and move into a more modern mainstream sound. Unfortunately for Black Tide, many of their fans were attracted to their band because of their refreshingly youthful take on thrash metal. These fans criticized the band for "going mainstream" and ignoring what made them unique in the first place. As you could probably discern from bias present in this paragraph, I am one of those fans I mentioned who mourned the band's change in direction.

A shift in genre is not always a bad thing in and of itself. After all, a genre shift managed to save Bon Jovi from dying out with the rest of hair metal after the onset of grunge (well, even if hair metal didn't exactly die, it still wound up in a musical coma of sorts). It's when a genre shift changes that part of a band's sound which set them apart from the pack and gave them their own sense of uniqueness that real problems start to arise.