Coldplay
Coldplay’s journey to the pop side has been a rather gradual and nearly tumultuous one, but when they ditched their original signature gloomy alternative rock sound, they did it with a bang. It’s like as if their 2014 album Ghost Stories was filled with anthems saying goodbye to their “Yellow” days, because 2015’s A Head Full of Dreams came out as a full pop album. Unfortunately, it may be Coldplay’s last… for now.
Maroon 5
The moment Adam Levine became more famous than his band Maroon 5, it was only natural that the band would head down the pop road, from their earlier funk-inspired alternative rock days that pushed them to fame. But long before that, the original four members – Adam, Jesse, Mickey and Ryan – were called Kara’s Flowers, where they did garage rock that would have fitted right into the likes of late 1990s teen rom-coms.
Skrillex
Now known to many as the populariser of dubstep, Skrillex’s dark, long hair and pasty complexion doesn’t just stem from only coming out at night to play his party music. Way before he started winning Grammy awards, Skrillex – whose real name is Sonny John Moore – was part of the post-hardcore, screamo band From First To Last, where he was on the lead vocals and guitar.
Snoop Lion
Just when you thought XP only upgraded you in video games, Snoop Dogg levels up into Snoop Lion. This was way back in 2012, but Snoop Dogg’s transformation didn’t just come out of nowhere. It is reported that a Rastafarian priest rechristened him as Snoop Lion, but this reincarnation probably had a lot to do with the rapper’s first reggae album titled Reincarnated. By the time 2015 rolled around, his music went back to hip-hop, but the name seems to have stayed.
Gwen Stefani
Every other girl in the 1990s probably wanted to be Gwen Stefani. The frontwoman of phenomenal ska punk band No Doubt, Stefani was not only really cool – she sang about girl power and all that jazz. The band’s hiatus and Stefani’s solo career is widely known, as Stefani went on to record two equally phenomenal albums (with a third set to come out this year) that were full-blown pop, filled with ethnic pop culture and lots of polished glam.
Katy Perry
Long before Katy became a “Perry,” she was Katy Hudson, a young American singer-songwriter debuted a Christian gospel music album. That is all we have to say.
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado is a name that fades in and out of the commercial music scene, but that’s because she’s probably in the midst of another reinvention of some sort. Many of us who are in our late 20s onwards would remember her fluffy, vanilla tune “I’m Like a Bird” flooding the airwaves. Her sophomore album Folklore was no different. But when 2006 rolled around and she Loosened up with “Maneater,” Furtado turned into a prowling hip-hop femme fatale that hasn’t quite gone away yet, at least since we last heard of her from 2012’s The Spirit Indestructible.
Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray may be a name from the past, but we’ll always remember them for the likes of all the teenage rom-coms in which many of their happy-go-lucky vanilla rock tunes appeared. Turns out they had began their career as a punk rock band. However, the change of genre was probably a good move, as their albums following their debut managed to produce some rather memorable singles such as “Fly,” “Someday,” and “When It’s Over.”
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