Quote:
Originally Posted by YorkeDaddy
You’re even wrong about that. Fleetwood Mac’s 1968 debut was pretty much a straight blues album, and it “reached No. 4 and stayed on the charts 37 weeks, despite the lack of a hit single”. Sounds like a big success to me and being the #4 album in the whole UK definitely means you’re famous. Their sound changed pretty dramatically in the 70’s and that’s the Fleetwood Mac everyone thinks of.
|
Eh, not to discount the UK but on the globe it's a very small region. Being successful in one isolated area isn't synonymous with being known. They sold less than 150,000 copies of their debut album from then to now in the US . Only most hardcore fans are aware of their blues era (I think it's their best era but only worked in their favor because pop and rock was in its infancy).
No one sounded like Fleetwood Mac or even The Beatles at that point. FM didn't reach WW exposure until Stevie Nicks joined and they became huge by the mid-70's. What popular bands/singers today could switch styles like that and get away with it? The genres and musical landscape are too realized. They would be destroyed by their fans.
The only two I can think of that switched styles in the past decade or so and did it successfully are Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. Mainly because country is currently nothing more than watered down pop with a hint more of "dusty dirt roads" and something about "truck beds". Ughh!!! Hate modern country!