10 shameless attempts by rockstars to create pop music
It’s no secret that rock and roll isn’t the most popular genre across every generation. Although most fans had to fend off concerned parents thinking that it was the devil’s music back in the 1960s, there are just as many rock stars trying to compete with pop starlets for chart positions to this day. When the guitar riffs don’t work anymore, though, acts like Queen and Def Leppard thought it’d be better to change with the times.
Although every artist is free to go in a direction that suits them, some of the biggest names in rock went through their transformation just to make a paycheck. While there are definitely some creative risks taken on each record, it’s easy to spot some songs that are a bit too formulaic, with the artist just hoping they can magically turn into the next pop star for the younger generation.
Though every artist might have gotten a decent payout, what mattered was how their fans took to the drastic change. While some may have found musical strengths they would have never considered before, some of these records led to severe pushback from fans, unwilling to accept a version of their favourite artist that had to cower to the mainstream.
From the wild genre experiments to some of the most questionable moments in rock history, every artist took the mechanics of their sound and drastically rewrote them throughout one album of material. No matter if it was considered a betrayal or a bold new reinvention, something definitely felt different once the record started.
10 rock stars who turned to pop music:
10. Somewhere in England – George Harrison
Of all of the former Beatles, George Harrison would always play what suited him. Having been through the slog of trying to get a word in between John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the ‘Quiet Beatle’ set out on a solo career because of how much he kept under wraps. Once the label started breathing down his neck, Harrison turned in one of the most compromised visions in The Beatles’ canon.
Although half of Somewhere in England provides sparks of the Harrison most fans know, a handful of songs were written to try to get on the radio. Despite the power behind the John Lennon tribute ‘All Those Years Ago’, Harrison didn’t seem to like working on the album because of the compromises, with lyrics making him sound more like an old man than the spiritual musician he had turned himself into.
The biggest headscratcher comes on the final track ‘Teardrops’, which sounds as if someone was trying to make a joke recording of a song that captures everything that the ‘80s were in three minutes. For all of the great sage wisdom Harrison imparted to his listeners throughout his lifetime, the only lesson learned here is compromise doesn’t always work.
9. Pop – U2
At the end of the ‘90s, it was only natural for U2 to switch things up again. Since they had started the decade immersing themselves in irony with Achtung Baby, the changing landscape should have been a prime time for them to cultivate another style of music. Or, more specifically, Bono cultivating every piece of shoddy recording equipment he could.
While the sonics of an album like Pop may have seemed novel then, it also marks some of U2’s lowest points as songwriters. Although their knack for melody hasn’t gone anywhere, it tends to be hidden behind some of the most dated production elements from the late ‘90s, as if they were trying to turn themselves into both The Chemical Brothers and The Beatles at the same time.
For a band of U2’s calibre, it’s a giant step backwards seeing them throw their old sound out the window, trying to sell themselves as the older, wiser version of themselves with some of the fartiest synthesisers to be released that year. While they did play it up for comedy in the video for the song ‘Discotheque’, it’s hard not to see them desperately trying to get something to stick from this album.
8. Hot Space – Queen
For most Queen fans, selling out has never exactly been a bad word. From day one, Queen had loved catering to the pop market, and some of their best material showcased Freddie Mercury as one of the premiere pop singers ever to live. The rock side of their sound was always balanced, though, and Hot Space is where the balance started to fall towards the pop side too much.
Fresh off the success of their breakout single ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, the first half of this record is all about dance music. Although a dance version of Queen worked for one song, tracks like ‘Staying Power’ and ‘Body Language’ mark some of the lowest points in their recording career, as if Mercury was trying to get by on the strength of his charisma and a random synthesiser lying around the studio.
While elements of dance and disco music from the ‘70s have seen a reappraisal in recent years, Hot Space is still one of the lower tiers in the band’s catalogue, with even some of the members bad-mouthing it before it had time to resonate with the public. Queen has always been known to experiment, but considering they threw on the song ‘Under Pressure’ towards the album’s end speaks to the lack of faith in the rest of the material.
7. Dynasty – KISS
Of all the mainstream rock bands that saw success in the early ‘70s, there was no greater nightmare for parents than KISS. As opposed to the bluesy tunes coming out of Led Zeppelin and Aerosmith, the original shock rockers looked like they had come to life out of a comic book, with Gene Simmons playing up his role as ‘The Demon’ a bit too much for the conservative side of America. So how do you make that more accessible? How about disco?
For all of the red flags in front of their faces, KISS went the route of dance music on Dynasty, with songs like ‘I Was Made For Lovin You’ adopting the four-on-the-floor rhythm and Paul Stanley sporting a falsetto that feels suited to Donna Summer. While disco had its fair share of classic tunes, the fit is a harder sell coming from a hard rock band, especially when said hard rock band has a man who breathes fire and spews blood from his mouth midway through the performance.
The rest of the band could not connect to the disco era, with Ace Frehley’s songs sounding like they should belong on a completely different album due to their sheer muscle. Considering that the band themselves even do a revved-up version of ‘Lovin You’ live these days, it’s clear that they don’t necessarily have fond memories of their glamorous period.
6. Uno – Green Day
Towards the end of the 2000s, Green Day had become one of the few ‘90s punk bands that still had their dignity intact. Instead of rolling over with the same old sound on each album, their drastic changes on American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown brought new scores of fans interested in the softer approach they brought to the table. While the next trilogy of albums promised to be even more ambitious, the band stumbled out of the gate with the very first record.
Despite promising an album in the vein of their 1994 masterpiece Dookie, half of Uno feels like the generic pop-rock normally reserved for acts that only sniff the bottom of the charts. Although there are a few hints of Green Day’s past success on tracks like ‘Carpe Diem’ and ‘Fell For You’, something like ‘Kill the DJ’ just doesn’t suit them, as if they were told to write something that sounded like if Franz Ferdinand wrote a disco song.
Though Armstrong may have been sold on the idea at the time, even he couldn’t defend some of the creative decisions later, thinking that it was just grandiose because they had no other ideas to work with. This might have been one of the worst records that Green Day had made up to that point, but fans hadn’t begun to realise how far the mighty would fall on the next instalments.
5. Invisible Touch – Genesis
With years in hindsight, some Genesis fans are still divided over what to do with Phil Collins. Although Collins was an integral part of the band’s prog-rock roots, their turn towards pop music with him as the frontman cast him as the pariah of the group, taking them away from the adventurous band they always were. If the band was already cast as sell-outs, why not lean into pop music more?
While some adventurous moments are sprinkled throughout Invisible Touch, some of its best material comes from when the band are playing to their strengths as songwriters, like the bombastic title track. Compared to the Gabriel-era Genesis, songs like ‘Anything She Does’ resemble the straight-ahead rock and roll that the band originally rebelled against.
For all of its pop sheen, Invisible Touch is still a decent album by Genesis…just not the kind of record that most original Genesis would have requested. Their knowledge of how to write a killer hook isn’t lost on anyone, but it’s also easy to tell that one of the writers behind this group would go on to soundtrack Disney movies.
4. Raditude – Weezer
There’s a common question that has followed Weezer around for decades: is this all a joke? Although the band were entirely sincere back in the ‘90s with their self-titled Blue Album and Pinkerton, the following decades saw them going for songs that toed the line between arena-rock brilliance and tongue-in-cheek humour. While The Red Album may have been a nice slice of old-school Weezer, their choice to cater to the charts on Raditude was nothing short of treasonous.
Weezer always had a pop element to their sound, but half of the songs on this album feel like Rivers Cuomo desperately trying to compete with the Lady GaGa’s of the world, complete with wordless hooks and random guest features. Although a song featuring members of The All American Rejects sounds good on principle, it’s hard to take seriously when the same band works with Lil Wayne just one song later.
When Weezer aren’t making standard pop rock, though, the rest of the lyrics read as incredibly creepy, with songs like ‘I’m Your Daddy’ and ‘In the Mall’ making the listener want to take a cold shower after hearing them. Cuomo definitely had the pop smarts to steer Weezer into the next generation, but considering his streak here, he should have listened to his own advice: “No one likes too much attention from a desperate fool”.
3. X – Def Leppard
When rock reached the 2000s, most hair metal bands felt like a distant memory. Instead of playing to their strengths during the ‘90s, half the bands that came from the Sunset Strip either fell apart or were killed once Nirvana decided to wipe them off the face of Earth. Although Def Leppard soldiered on through the changing landscape, X was the first time their genre-hopping got a bit out of hand.
Coming off of a decent reception to their album Euphoria, that tempting smell of success caused them to switch to the opposite direction. Working with some of the best producers they could find, this album reeks of the early ‘00s, with songs that feel like they’re meant to be played in the background of a boring teen sitcom on cable television.
Although there are a few great pop tunes to come out of it, like ‘Long Long Way To Go’ and ‘Torn To Shreds’, much of the album gets buried under its production, sounding like Leppard are trying their hand at becoming Avril Lavigne. Def Leppard has always thrived on having a massive wall of sound on their records, but X spent so much time trying to sound great that they forgot to ensure the songs were good.
2. Summer in Paradise – The Beach Boys
The late ‘80s were extremely kind to the old school of rock and roll. For a genre that had been on its last legs for most of the MTV generation, some of rock’s dinosaur acts had career renaissances just before grunge hit, with everyone from George Harrison to The Rolling Stones getting massive hits. While The Beach Boys had their one breezy hit with ‘Kokomo’, something terrible happened when Mike Love tried to do it again.
With songwriting genius Brian Wilson out of the equation, their next album, Summer in Paradise, was the equivalent of a sonic beached whale. Since Love had to man most of the songwriting himself, much of the album consists of covers rearranged for the group or some half-hearted attempt at appealing to kids, including a token appearance by actor John Stamos on a remake of their song ‘Forever’.
While most of the album is unsalvagable, the song ‘Summer of Love’ remains one of the biggest stains on the band’s legacy, as Love attempts to rap about California girls and inserts different Beach Boys references into the lyrics. Any band looking for a hit will have to make subtle tweaks to their sound, but Love practically defecated on the group’s legacy the minute he said the words ‘Love vacation’.
1. Just Push Play – Aerosmith
Success can always be a double-edged sword for any great rock band. As much as people might like the idea of having a huge hit, there will always be those few suits that want 20 more of what was popular to satiate the masses. While most artists would choose to stick to their guns in such situations, Aerosmith served themselves up on a platter on Just Push Play.
Finally having a hit with the success of ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’, Steven Tyler went all in on the modern trends of the 2000s, crafting songs that sounded as if The Beatles wanted to be Maroon 5. Although there is some good material to work with on the album, like ‘Beyond Beautiful’, most of the time is spent making what the kids were listening to, from Tyler getting his crooning voice out on ‘Fly Away From Here’ to whatever the hell is going on in the middle of ‘Trip Hoppin’.
Almost as an act of mercy, the song ‘Girls of Summer’ didn’t make the album’s final version, which could be considered a Steven Tyler solo track because of how little the rest of the band brings to the table. Aerosmith may have been known for their hard-partying ways back in the ‘70s, but no one christened ‘The Bad Boys From Boston’ should have any business making a song like ‘Jaded’.
