10 Musical Shifts That No One Saw Coming
4. 5150 - Van Halen
Most rock bands can only dream of a superstar frontman like David Lee Roth falling into their lap. For the first few years of Van Halen's existence, the live show almost lived and died on the charisma of Diamond Dave, giving the fretboard pyrotechnics of Eddie Van Halen a run for their money every now and again. After the band severed ties with Roth after 1984 though, 5150 proved that rock and roll resurrections are still possible.
Going for a completely different sound than before, the new iteration of Van Halen with Sammy Hagar had a lot more dynamic range than they could have ever gotten with Roth. Since Hagar wasn't a Dave clone and had a lot more vocal range, that gave Eddie a lot more to work with in terms of melodies, even breaking out the keyboards more often on songs like Love Walks In and Dreams.
Even when they played some of the Dave era songs live, the whole band had a renewed sense of energy, as if they finally rediscovered the spark that made them love playing together in the first place. While you could argue that they just swapped one form of dad rock for another, this is the kind of rock and roll that still feels inspiring years after the middle age sets in.