10 Rock Stars That Completely Changed Their Genre

For the longest time, it looked like Bob Dylan was going to be the next version of the wayward folkie. Much like his heroes Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, Dylan made his bread and butter with just a harmonica and a guitar, spitting lyrics that were a lot more weighty than the traditional pop schlock coming down the pipeline. Once he decided to jump into the rock world though, people started to get a bit skeptical.

After a few flirtations with a rock flavored sound on Bringing it All Back Home, Dylan shocked the entire folk world when he showed up to a major festival brandishing an electric guitar, going so far as to have one of his fans call him Judas from the stage for his betrayal of the folk ethos. This wasn't a betrayal at all. If anything, it was doubling down on the rebellious attitude.

Across Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan stakes his claim as doing rock and roll better than any of his contemporaries, as he incorporated songs that were as hectic and chaotic as they were poignant, from the beauty of Like a Rolling Stone to the troubled protagonist at the center of Ballad of a Thin Man. It didn't even feel like Dylan wanted to make the journey to rock...the rock world just happened to come to him.