10 Artists That Changed Music Genres (And Everyone Hated It)

It would be one thing if a band like Muse decided that they were going to go in an electronic direction. They had flirted with that kind of style before, so seeing them double down on it for an album wasn't anything out of the ordinary. When you bring that to one of the biggest stars of the '80s though, a lot of Billy Idol fans started to scratch their heads.

Figuring that his old sound wasn't going to work in the era of grunge, Billy decided to coat every single piece of his music in digital gunk, pulling from dystopian novels and electronic soundscapes for Cyberpunk. Although there was still some decent Billy Idol style material on songs like Shock to the System, most of the record is the polar opposite of what you normally come to Billy Idol for, trading in his larger than life persona for something that feels a lot more dated as the years go on.

It's not like this couldn't work though. From the playbook he was working with, Billy looked like he was trying to go the way of U2 and rework his sound from the ground up. He didn't want to lose his rockstar persona though, and all we're left to remember from this era is Billy at his most sterile, sanitized, and embarrassing. Just like the cyber title would imply, this is one of the few Billy Idol albums that most hardcore fans would probably like to delete from memory.