Rock bands/artists who went pop

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by seed_drill, Feb 13, 2018.

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  1. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    The most obvious examples I can think of are Queen, Rod Stewart, Brian Adams and Genesis.

    It seems like there was definitely a cutoff where rock stations no longer played new music by Queen, Rod or Adams, despite the fact that they may have still been charting singles. That persists today, in how these acts are represented on classic rock stations.

    I don''t really recall when "rock" stations stopped playing Rod, but I seldom hear anything from the 80's or later on classic rock stations. Maybe some stations program "Young Turks. Locally, "Tonight's the Night" is the latest that gets played.

    With Queen, Under Pressure seems to be the cutoff for classic rock stations, though I do remember "I Want It All" getting rock airplay when it came out, which was probably the first Queen song since Under Pressure to do so.

    Genesis is the odd man out, as their Gabriel and quartet stuff was really too esoteric for much radio play at all. Meanwhile the Collins led trio "rocked" enough that they were able to garner both rock and pop airplay.

    Other examples, other thoughts?
     
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  2. Sondek

    Sondek Forum Resident

    Queen stopped getting airplay in america due to Freddie's personal manager Paul Prenter insulting and being rude to radio stations and payola issues with their record company. But things carried on as before around the rest of the world. You still hear Hammer To Fall, One Vision, I Want It All, Innuendo on classic rock stations. That stuff came along after Under Pressure.
    They never completely strayed from rock either, even on Hot Space - their least-rock album of the lot - you've got Action This Day and Put Out The Fire.
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2018
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  3. Scooter59

    Scooter59 Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Shore, MA
    Journey

    The first three albums have strong prog/fusion elements, and Infinity even keeps things interesting, but pure AOR pop after that.
     
  4. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    So are you saying that when Gabriel left the band, the odd man was out?...

    :)
     
  5. Spaghettiows

    Spaghettiows Forum Resident

    Location:
    Silver Creek, NY
  6. cboldman

    cboldman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hamilton, OH USA
    Clapton, perhaps?
     
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  7. Eleventh Earl of Mar

    Eleventh Earl of Mar Somehow got them all this far.

    Location:
    New York
    Talk Talk was the reverse and the only time I think that happened.
     
  8. DPK

    DPK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeastern U.S.
    Bruce Springsteen (for a while)
    Wire (for a while [assuming you can call their 80s stuff "pop"])
    The Clash (sorta)
    Paul Weller (for a while [assuming you can call his Style Council stuff "pop"])
     
  9. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    But AOR is still "rock." However, it does seem like Frontiers was the last album to get AOR airplay, while Raised on Radio was pretty much a top 40 only affair.
     
  10. Andersoncouncil

    Andersoncouncil Forum Resident

    Location:
    upstate NY
    The biggest offender IMO: AEROSMITH. They didn't just jump on the pop bandwagon in 1987, they got run over by it!
     
  11. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Yes had a pop phase in the 80’s
     
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  12. Scooter59

    Scooter59 Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Shore, MA
     
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  13. Andersoncouncil

    Andersoncouncil Forum Resident

    Location:
    upstate NY
    I guess you could argue Bowie with "Let's Dance" in 1983. However, Bowie has always been so much more than just a rock artist anyways.
     
  14. Mellencamp started as pop when to rock
     
  15. SurrealCereal

    SurrealCereal Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    David Bowie crossed that line back and forth many times throughout his career.
     
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  16. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    The Sweet started out as pure pop and became more progressive.

    Anyway, not what the OP asked for so I’ll have to think some more.
     
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  17. DPK

    DPK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southeastern U.S.
    Well, if you can consider Pantera's early glam-metal stuff as being "pop" then I'd say that's another example of going from pop to rock.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  18. Yeah, Bowie definitely went pop with Let's Dance straight through to a general 90s pop blandness with a bit of a 2 album pullback before his recent canonization
     
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  19. Zoot Marimba

    Zoot Marimba And I’m The Critic Of The Group

    Location:
    Savannah, Georgia
    Chicago in the 80s

    KISS went pop with Unmasked. Granted, they didn't have much success with it, musically or commercially, but still.
     
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  20. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    Would Santana count?
     
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  21. ZZtop during the 80s
     
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  22. Yeah, he had a messy late 70s, 80s, 90s, etc.,
     
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  23. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    There's a lot of difference between US and UK radio. Album oriented "rock" stations had their own playlists which were quite different than top 40 hit stations, though there used to be overlap. Radio Ga Ga hit #14 on the Top 40 charts but only 22 on the rock charts, a lower placing than "Calling All Girls". I Want It All, by contrast, hit #3 on the rock charts but only made it to 48 Top 40.

    American Classic Rock stations are generally so ossified in their playlists that Queen is basically reduced to Another One Bites the Dust, Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure, We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions.
     
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  24. Duke Fame

    Duke Fame Sold out the Enormodome

    Location:
    Tampa, FL
    I think Motley Crue might give them a run for the money.

    They went from "Live Wire" and "Piece of your Action'' to ''Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)'' and 'Without You'.
     
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  25. delmonaco

    delmonaco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    Elvis is the most obvious example, IMO, but almost any rock act that became really popular gone to some pop direction (pop as a term covers wider palette of genres/styles). The Beatles also gone far beyond the limitations of rock.
     
    Greenalishi likes this.
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