3 Times a Rock Band Changed Its Sound and Accidentally Made a Masterpiece

The most beautiful songs can come out of creative risk. Sure, keeping with a tried and true sound will likely maintain your popularity, but it’s in that safety that true creativity dies. The three rock bands below threw their stereotypes to the wind and decided to try on a new sound. It was in this risk-taking that they earned one of their greatest masterpieces.

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The Beatles — Saccharine Pop to Psychedelia

When you’re a band as big as The Beatles were in the mid-60s, you’d be forgiven for keeping the momentum going until it stops on its own. Prior to Rubber Soul, released in 1965, the band honed in on saccharine pop hits. Sure, there were bluesy tones throughout their early work, but appeasing a mass of listeners was certainly on their list of priorities.

[RELATED: 4 of the Most “Beatlesque” Songs by the Solo Beatles]

After this album and their subsequent efforts, The Beatles decided to say “to hell with Beatlemania” and risk it all in pursuit of creativity. They leaned into their drug use, left their conventions behind at the studio door, and decided to start anew. Rubber Soul is a masterpiece that shone a clear light on the path the rock band would follow throughout their career.

Radiohead — Guitar Rock to Synth Art

OK Computer was the last of Radiohead’s guitar-heavy albums. Clearly exhausted by doing the same thing over and over again, Thom Yorke decided to drop the instrument for synth avant-garde on Kid A. This move shocked fans at the time, but now it’s considered one of the most pivotal, masterpiece-fuelling moves in alt-rock history.

Kid A stands as a shining example of what experimentation can earn you. Radiohead fans know the power of this album and the guts it took to make it. If any musician is thinking of dropping their sound for something fresh, Kid A is their license to do so.

Metallica — Thrash Metal to Streamlined Rock

It’s not every day that a metal band makes the mainstream. Metallica themselves struggled to do so until their self-titled record. Leaving their complex, loud thrash metal behind, the band decided to make something sleeker and streamlined.  

Their self-titled record is not only considered one of the greatest metal records of all time, but a true crossover success. This record was the product of innovation, and it was undoubtedly a trajectory-changing work.

(Photo by Dave Simpson/WireImage)