10 Hard Rock Bands That Completely Changed Their Sound

It's never fun to play the same power chord riff forever. For as much as artists want to define their own sound, more often than not a band wants to explore into different territory. While some bands add subtle touches to their music, others take nosedives into other styles with varying degrees of success.

That's not to say that experimentation is bad though. Many artists have made an entire career out of throwing caution to the wind and making whatever music suits them at the moment. They may have crunchy guitars on one record, but could have a pillow of synths on the next outing. As these musicians continue to flesh out their sound, fans get more and more excited for what artistic direction the band will go in next.

On the other hand, there are also times when bands stray too far outside of their classic sound. These instances can leave fans feeling dissatisfied, causing the artist to do a bit of course correction for their next records. Regardless of how it fared commercially, let's take a look at a few artists in the rock world who took major chances and see how well they played out. You might need to brace for impact on this one.

Ever since the band's debut singles, Queen's sound always had a size to it that made it instantly recognizable. Regardless of what singer took the lead or which genre it crossed into, there was no one who was going to mistake for anyone else when they came on the radio.

At the same time, the band found a way to switch up their sound while still keeping their core identity. There are probably dozens of casual music fans who just see the group as a pop band, but Queen's catalog goes much deeper than just the epic rock song. The band's early years saw them dabbling in more progressive material, with frontman Freddie Mercury even creating his mythical music universe of Rhye.

Once the band went operatic, the band found ways to incorporate showtunes and jazz styles into their songs as well. Even when the more hard rock approach became less commercial in the early 80's, the band showed what good musical interpreters they were by taking on funk on "Another One Bites the Dust." With four distinct songwriters steering the charge, Queen managed to have the best of both worlds by having an identifiable sound that could be incorporated into countless different styles.