10 Musicians That Saved Their Careers By Changing Genres

There was a certain generation of rock listeners who really needed something like Green Day's Dookie in the mid '90s. While still being very much a product of its time, this pop punk juggernaut was a refreshing alternative to the morose songwriting coming from acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam a few years prior. As time went on though, you start to wonder whether that three chord punk has diminishing returns.

Though records like Insomniac and Nimrod had their more adventurous moments, Green Day's star seemed to wane when other acts like Blink-182 started to reach for the pop punk crown. Instead of just doubling down on what made them great in the first place, Billie Joe Armstrong stepped into the big leagues of songwriting with American Idiot, proving that they were more than just your regular power pop act. Going full experimental, the entire record reinvented Green Day from the ground up, being a rock opera about living in post 9/11 America.

Becoming one of the biggest global smashes of the '00s, Green Day turned into one of those rare acts that managed to actually have a second wind, going so far as to double down on the operatic style on 21st Century Breakdown. For as juvenile as the pop punk sound may seem at the best of times, Green Day proved that even when the punk kids grew up, the music could still kick ass.