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Crossing The Line


Lucky

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What artists and/or recordings can you think of that have crossed the lines? Either with an acknowledged "Crossover Hit" or a song that took them completely out of thier comfort zone, so to speak? Which artists specifically have blurred the lines in music? It always interests me when something is outside the box.

(Y'all thought this was going to be along the lines of Beating a Dead Horse, didn't ya?? :) )

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Here are a few that I like:

A Tribe Called Quest (rap and jazz)

Big and Rich (country and rock and, um, sideshow antics?)

David Bowie (can't even think of enough genres for him)

Flogging Molly (celtic and punk)

Funkadelic (funk and rock)

Garth Brooks (country and pop)

Jimmy Buffett (country and rock and pop)

Rage Against the Machine (metal and rap)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (rock and funk)

Santana (rock and latin and psychedelic)

They Might Be Giants (like Bowie, not enough genres)

I hope I understood your initial post correctly...

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I did actually think that! :grin:

Off the top of my head... and I'll hopefully think of better ones... R.E.M.'s Monster was influenced by the entire grunge scene that was going on at the time.It emerged as a response to this new wave of music. And it sounds much 'harder' and 'rockier' than most of their material. The grunge influences are obviously stated in some cases: Let Me In is about Kurt Cobain - so guitar-heavy that there are no drums, They also collaborated with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth on Crush With Eyeliner.

Even though it's so different from their usual sound, it's my favourite album of theirs.

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The Byrds definately.

Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash from the Country side, over to Pop and Rock. David Lee Roth, and Jon Bon Jovi recently put out Country albums, and both were actually pretty well recieved weren't they?

What would be the most outrageous? Punk recording Country? Any examples of that?

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The Vandals are a punk band who occasionally dabbled in hardcore/country crossover in their early days. The recorded version of this song "The Legend Of Pat Brown" would have been a good example. If you're patient with this excerpt from some film or another, there's a rather shambolic live version, which is unfortunately curtailed prematurely.

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I don't quite get Country out of it, but I really like that! :thumbsup:

For no readily apparent reason, that band reminded me of Morphine which you cannot categorize at all. You might like this b-f.

Honey White

Sort of Jazz, Rock, Punk fusion...

Well Rev Horton Heat are perhaps a bit more rockabilly-meets-punk, but they do sometimes have some country flavours too. They are pretty splendid. Worth checking out their other stuff, I'd say.

That Morphine clip was cool. :thumbsup:

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After reading about the good Reverand, I'm looking for other recordings to check out!

Mark Sandman passed away just as Morphine was garnering a lot of critical acclaim, so they never had the chance to become more well known. The albums that they have relesed are all great though!

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There are numerous artists who meld influences from country and punk, but, on reflection, your original question was more aimed at identifying artists who "specialised" in one genre then caused a surprise by trying their hand at something paradoxically different. Or something.

The MDC "Chicken Squawk" would have been a great example: of a hardcore punk band unexpectedly playing "hardcore country", if only I knew how to link to an audio file of the original single. That live recording was pretty dross.

Anyway, I mentioned the Butthole Surfers, primarily renowned for their marriage of scorching punk-rock with wigged out acid-fried psychedelia. They do a splendid track called "TV Star"- all about a TV presenter called Christina- which sounds pretty "country" to me. If only I could find a link to it. :(

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21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson :bow:

The perfect blend of progressive rock and jazz. Although I don't know if a band can really "cross over" on their debut album - it might just be more a case of establishing the band's diversity. :)

Also, Bow River - Cold Chisel :bow:

I can't think of any other bands who, since 1980, have crossed over to record a fast paced blues rock song of this style. They did such an amazing job of it too. :bow:

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