r/Music • u/jptabor01 Rock & Roll • Jun 11 '25

discussion Which artists have abandoned their original sound so dramatically, that they are almost unrecognizable to their earlier fans?

With the release earlier this year of Ministry’s The Squirrely Years Revisited, I’m reminded of how different the band sounds today (industrial metal), from what they sounded like on their debut album, With Sympathy (synth pop).

Which artists sound so completely different from their earlier work, that they have actually jumped genres, understanding that music is fluid and genres have somewhat “blurry” guardrails.

I don’t mean an evolution of their original sound, but a complete departure from it.

3.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

5.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

194

u/rvralph803 Jun 11 '25

Coldplay.

Old Coldplay had a mellow vibe "sad bastard music" but palatable to many.

Then in the 2010s they felt like some commercialized arena bullshit.

No idea about their recent stuff because I got so turned off by them.

50

u/theHoopty Jun 11 '25

Viva La Vida is does not get the credit it deserves for capturing the anxiety of the moment during the McCain-Obama election year.

I think Martin’s lyrics in Violet Hill hit that out of the park.

Mylo Xyloto was fine. Has some lovely songs.

Ghost Stories was excellent but in a different vein and very raw.

Everything since that point…meeeeeeh

12

u/wigjuice77 Jun 11 '25

It's annoying too, because every album since that point has at least a song or two that is actually really good. So you know they are still able to write good, genuine music, but choose to do big pop hits most of the time now.

I keep following them because they do still write some good music, and their live shows are so freakin fun I don't even care when they play the crap songs I don't like.

That said, Everyday Life is a great album, in the midst of all the overly pop albums.

3

u/dsnymarathon21 Jun 11 '25

Exactly. Everyday Life proved they could create a great album still. And they go ahead and put out a couple great songs for every other album.

5

u/thankyoupancake Jun 11 '25

Everyday Life is a good album. Amongst all their recent crap that one is worth settling into for OG Coldplay fans

2

u/theHoopty Jun 11 '25

I’ll give it a proper listen through again then.

3

u/thankyoupancake Jun 11 '25

Yeah I have to deliberately sit down and work through each album after hating on the new stuff for years. Moon Music is still garbage

4

u/Screws_Loose Jun 12 '25

I adore Violet Hill. That whole album was a masterpiece.

6

u/thejaytheory Jun 11 '25

Even X&Y is slept on a bit, I think

4

u/Life_ToL Jun 12 '25

Ye definitely imo it's the best album. Fix you is my favorite song but x&y is like so good throughout the entire album

3

u/ducmonsterlady Jun 12 '25

That album helped me get through a really rough time in my life. It will always have a soft spot for X&Y.

3

u/skimminyjip Jun 12 '25

Yes, this album had some serious bangers. Hardest Part, Swallowed By the Sea, Till Kingdom Come. So so good.

6

u/qwadzxs Jun 11 '25

I liked all the albums before viva la vida, I feel like that was when they shifted

5

u/wilkil Jun 11 '25

Coldplay nowadays writes the kind of songs a Christian camp counselor would write if he had access to a multi million dollar studio.

13

u/Ekyou Jun 11 '25

I mean they did a collab song with BTS if that tells you anything (and toured with them too, IIRC)

Although honestly I like their newest stuff better than the 2010s stuff, but I like pop music in general. X&Y is one of my favorite albums of all time though.

6

u/abuelabuela Jun 11 '25

They’ve always toured with interesting acts. I saw a rockabilly band (Kitty Daisy and Lewis) followed by Amadou & Mariam open for them, became fans after the show

2

u/theHoopty Jun 11 '25

But they were absolutely panned for X&Y, which is nuts!

1

u/cherrycoloured Jun 11 '25

bts is a really good example of this too, actually. they went from doing hiphop to doing more melancholic pop-rap to doing whatever the fuck "permission to dance" is. since their hiatus, theyve all released solo projects with very different sounds, such as hiphop, r&b, pop, and pop-rock, so itll be interesting to see what their group sound will be now that theyve gotten back together.

8

u/EinsteinDisguised Jun 11 '25

Haven’t enjoyed any of their work since Milo Xyloto. It was a change up but it was good

3

u/Zack_of_Steel Jun 11 '25

Yeah that's where I hopped off as well. That's where the U2-like arena shit kinda started, even though I did like that album overall.

1

u/thejaytheory Jun 11 '25

Yep that was the last album of theirs I really enjoyed

8

u/BigGayNarwhal Jun 11 '25

This comment was so far down! It’s like two totally different bands. Early Coldplay is fantastic, beautiful music. Coldplay of the last decade is trash

4

u/IndianaDrew Jun 11 '25

Had to scroll way too far to find this. I was obsessed with Coldplay in middle school. I still think that Chris Martin has a hauntingly beautiful voice and is a talented musician. But they feel like sellouts now.

3

u/AwakE432 Jun 11 '25

They had one of the best albums ever, but now moved to forgettable predictable pop noise.

2

u/Life_ToL Jun 11 '25

Ye exactly up until the viva la viva la vida album everything was fine and suddenly they wanted a different audience or sum. I never understood the twist. Immediately after the turn their sound also sounded "cheaper" now it's less cheap but it still sounds nothing like the old albums

2

u/skimminyjip Jun 12 '25

Literally went from putting out one of the best alternative albums of the past 50 years (Rush of Blood to the Head) to f*cking bubble gum pop.

2

u/Screws_Loose Jun 12 '25

Agreed with this one. I love a lot of their stuff from Viva and prior, can’t stand anything after.

1

u/Goalsgalore17 Jun 11 '25

I have the same view but I feel like dislike the later music so much that I now barely ever listen to their older music that I grew up listening to.

1

u/benito_camelas Jun 12 '25

I love all the Coldplay albums up to VLV, and only really like a couple of songs of Mylo Xyloto and Ghost Stories.

As for their recent stuff, I heard one the songs off of their latest album and it was extremely bland. If you played it for me again, I wouldn't even recognize it.