Growing the Beard/Music


 * The Beatles had the most iconic, both literal and figurative, beard-growing in rock history.
 * George Harrison had one by himself. While not, strictly speaking, actually bad, his early works tended to lean a bit to the saccharine side of things, and most of his best performances were on songs written by John and/or Paul. However, he eventually became an accomplished songwriter in his own right, even managing to hold his own in a solo career after the band broke up. (Like Riker, he also grew an actual beard in the interim).
 * In a reversal, Paul McCartney literally growing the beard during the "Get Back" session signaled the end of The Beatles.
 * While recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, arguably their best but certainly their most influential album, all The Beatles actually grew mustaches.
 * Arguably, Ringo Starr joining the band could be a signature event, as this marked their break into the mainstream. Unlike the others, Ringo (the oldest of the Beatles) was already a well-established musician and along with manager Brian Epstein introduced a note of maturity to the band. Ringo also not only grew the beard, but has kept it to this day.
 * R.E.M.'s fifth album, 'Document'. As music writer Garry Mulholland puts it in This is Uncool: "the moment Michael Stipe stopped mumbling gibberish into his fringe over tinny old Byrds riffs". A bit harsh perhaps, but undoubtedly the record that made them mainstream.
 * Green Day's 'Dookie', the third album. The first two records are respectable but very lo-fi. They even re-recorded 'Welcome to Paradise' for Dookie to make it sound a bit less tinny.
 * Quite a few people also agree that they grew the beard again with American Idiot, where they got more thoughtful, deviated a bit from the pop-punk formula and started taking themselves seriously. This beard-growing process probably started with its two predecessors, Nimrod and Warning.
 * David Bowie was in the music business for five years before "Space Oddity"...and even then, his most iconic "early" (glam) songs (most of them actually Vindicated by History after "Ziggy Stardust" brought him back into the public eye) didn't come until his partnership with Mick Ronson. It is Bowie's fourth album, Hunky Dory, that is usually regarded as his first great one.
 * Bruce Springsteen released two critically acclaimed albums in 1973, called Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ and The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, but popular success eluded him. His third studio album was essentially his last chance - it had to do well, or he was out of the music business. That album? 1975's Born To Run, one of the greatest albums of all time, which also signified a shift into more down-to-earth songs about relatable experiences. The rest is history.
 * The three original members of Rush were Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and John Rutsey. They were a decent if generic rock band with some definite promise. Then Rutsey left the band because he could not handle the rigors of the touring schedule. The next album, Fly By Night introduced the new drummer Neil Peart. Not only is he pretty much the consummate rock drummer, but he wrote the band's lyrics. Goodbye cutesy songs like "I Need Some Love", hello prog rock history. Rush became famous for their concept albums, their evolutionary style and their incredibly deep lyrics.
 * While none of the member of Genesis are well known for their beards, it's generally agreed that the introduction of Steve Hackett and Phil Collins boosted the band from a largely forgettable pop and folk group to being one of the giants of prog rock. If there are any literal examples, then Phil's beard during the Trick of the Tail and Wind and Wuthering tours would have to count, given that Seconds Out (recorded during those tours) is generally considered to be their best live album. And after he shaved it off, the band really began to change direction and lost a lot of their progressive rock prestige.
 * Atomic Kitten's early music was in the typical bubblegum style of the Spice Girls and 90s pop scene and their record sales were not good. They released one more single "Whole Again" which was their first number 1 and their style changed for the better after that. Also Kerry Katona left the band and was replaced by Jenny Frost. The group's most famous songs "It's OK", "The Tide is High (Get the Feeling)", "Be With You" and "If You Come To Me" were all released after Kerry left the band.
 * Silverchair, with "Diorama", once they grew up, stopped whining, and brought in Van Dyke Parks.
 * Silverchair's problem was that the band's musical and lyrical content had become hijacked by the skeletons in its lead singer's closet. The CD booklet for "Neon Ballroom" had an upbeat front cover which concealed some extremely disturbing imagery, and the themes in the songs (and some of the filmclips) were worse.
 * Take That are actually better now that they have reformed in their thirties than they ever were when split up as a manufactured boy band.
 * Bob Dylan grew a mustache with "Blowin' In The Wind", where he finally learned that he didn't need to cover the same folk songs as everyone else; he could write original songs and make more timely statements. Then he finished out the rest of the beard three years later with "Like a Rolling Stone", where he figured out how to combine his main influences (folk, rock, blues, Beat poetry) into a single unified whole. Then after his motorcycle accident he literally grew a beard.
 * The Offspring's first 2 albums (their self-titled and Ignition) were such generic punk rock albums that most non-fans don't even know they exist. Smash on the other hand was just that- a smash-hit success with iconic tracks such as 'Come Out and Play' and 'Self Esteem' taking them to the top of the punk scene. The band arguably did it again when their concept album Americana let them break into the mainstream, especially the phenomenally popular (and Trope-naming) 'Pretty Fly for a White Guy'.
 * Pantera was originally a glam metal band during the 80s. Then came their 1990 album Cowboys From Hell, where they started becoming much heavier and screaming the lyrics.
 * For their first two albums The Monkees simply provided vocals to songs written by outside writers, with music by session musicians (except Michael Nesmith, who was allowed to write and produce his own songs). Then, after music coordinator Don Kirshner got fired, they got to record the albums Headquarters and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd., where they played their own instruments, wrote a good portion of the songs, and demonstrated that they really had some talent. And if you look on the back cover of Headquarters, they literally grew beards as well (though they shaved them off in time for the second season of the TV show).
 * Arguably, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have grown the beard three times in their career. The first time was with The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, their first solid album after two previous ones struggled with inter-band tensions that often verged on Executive Meddling. The second time was on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, where they first united with producer Rick Rubin and broke into the mainstream. The third was Californication, which started a revival of their career after half a decade of stagnation.
 * Well, except for the fact that there is a pretty large contingent of fans who think Californication was the beginning of the end for the band.
 * Some music connoisseurs would mark One Hot Minute, particularly the song "Aeroplane", as the apex of RHCP's Era of Beard, with a somewhat quick falloff with the success of Californication as its cause.
 * Though many believe that Queen was awesome from the very beginning, it is widely accepted that their moment of glory that started them on their track to becoming legendary was their fourth album, A Night at the Opera, the album that gave us the legendary song Bohemian Rhapsody.
 * It's also fairly well accepted amongst fans that the beard growing process began with the previous album Sheer Heart Attack, moving from a heavier and proggier sound to a more commercial and varied output. (And it had both Killer Queen and Now I'm Here, fan favourites)
 * Everyone's opinion of the quality of The Smashing Pumpkins' music is different (for those who don't instantly dismiss the band). But the general consensus is that, while Siamese Dream was an improvement over Gish and the point the band really took off, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was a wonderful album that really showed what the band could do. Just don't ask people about what happened after that.
 * Of course, there are some who say if you don't like their future output, you're not a real fan.
 * Tom Waits was always pretty good, but "Small Change" was the album that convinced him that he would be doing this professionally for the rest of his life.
 * Arguably so. However, it was Swordfishtrombones, his first album after marrying Kathleen Brennan, that began his massive shift from classy crooner to the legendary rambling, storytelling, weirdo king he is now. And all the better for it.
 * In the case of the seminal English punk band The Clash, many critics - including Allmusic Guide - believe that the band grew their beard in a case of Executive Meddling Gone Horribly Right, the US version of their self-titled debut album which replaced five filler album tracks with singles such as "White Man in Hammersmith Palias" and "Complete Control".
 * Belgian indie band Vive la Fête released three or so albums which mostly consisted of swing music and mellow electronica. Then came their 2003 album Nuit Blanche, which managed to be not only Darker and Edgier but all the more fun because of it.
 * With Blackout, Dropkick Murphys moved toward a more melodic, folk-influenced sound, more distinct from the rest of the Boston hardcore scene. This is the album that cracked the American market at large, after years of local fame.
 * Their real popularity started when the mainstream heard Dropkick Murphys later on because of I'm Shipping Up to Boston, featured in The Departed and now a trope in itself in Boston sports. This popularity had nothing to do with the musicianship beard they had started with Blackout.
 * At the start of their recording career, Iron Maiden released a couple of albums with Paul Di'Anno on vocals. While the opinion of these varies wildly among fans, it was the release of Number of the Beast, combined with the introduction of Bruce Dickinson to form their most well-known lineup, that really propelled them into notoriety.
 * It can be said that they have done this twice. When Bruce and guitarist Adrian Smith returned in 2000, many fans considered the accompanying album "Brave New World" to be a return to form for the band.
 * Prog-power-something band Kamelot started off in the interesting experimental genre of abominable in the middle of the 90s, after which the departure of (I have to use this word in its loosest possible sense) "singer" Mark Vanderbilt and his replacement with Roy Khan signalled the start of their evolution into a mature power metal sound. Whether this happened on their fourth or fifth album is debatable, but with each release leaning more and more away from power metal it's possible that they're still growing a very big beard that will be complete at some point in the future. (Relatedly, said new vocalist Roy Khan appears to sport a slightly stupider beard each time an album's released. Could this be a coincidence?)
 * Finnish power metal band Nightwish started off with generic power metal fantasy lyrics (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), but by the album Century Child, their lyrics had shifted more towards themes of tragic romance, sin and temptation, betrayal, and personal growth and struggles, generally considered more mature than their previous work.
 * The beard literally being that of then new bass player and part-time vocalist Marco Hietala.
 * Similarly, Sentenced was an unremarkable doom/black metal band until Love & Death, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * Dutch Goth Metal band The Gathering started out as a fairly generic Death Metal band, with bog-standard music, uninspired lyrics, and stereotypical growling vocals. Their second album did change things up a bit, but was inconsistent, lacking focus and direction. With the addition of incomperable vocalist and lyricist Anneke van Giersbergen came a major change in tone; and their third album, Mandylion, became a landmark of Goth Metal, practically defining the genre and achieving substantial critical and popular acclaim.
 * Ludwig Van Beethoven did this twice. Musical historians divide his career into three profoundly different periods: Early, middle and late. Transition from early to middle coincided with the death of his teacher, Haydn (whose shadow he had been trying to escape) as well as the discovery of the deterioration of his hearing, and middle-to-late transition came about after he learned to deal with the complete loss of his hearing.
 * Musical historians note a similar effect in Haydn's music as when he entered his "Sturm und Drang" phase. The compositions become a lot more expressive, and minor keys are a lot more prominent.
 * Cat Stevens was a talented but not too exceptional teen idol singer in the 1960s. Then, after almost dying of tuberculosis, he literally grew a beard and made the album Tea For the Tillerman, which first showed him to be a brilliant and mature musician.
 * Thin Lizzy were always a cut above their Irish rock contemporaries, but even with the presence of a hit single (1972's "Whiskey in the Jar") and a solid album (1973's Vagabonds of the Western World) the band never found its feet until its fifth album (1975's Fighting), by which time it had exchanged its single guitar player Eric Bell and its wishy washy folk-rock quality for duel lead guitarists Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham and a hard rock ethos. Their very next album was Jailbreak, best known for "The Boys Are Back In Town", beginning a streak of five (or possibly eight, depending on whether you like the Snowy White/John Sykes era) high quality albums that brought them fame and fortune.
 * While Stone Temple Pilots were never critical darlings, it was generally accepted that their second album, Purple, showed a more mature and experimental sound than their debut album Core, which was blasted as a derivative ripoff of Grunge bands such as Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam.
 * Florida metal band Cynic started out as a pretty straightforward death metal band. They eventually began incorporating jazz and prog elements into their music, culminating in their debut full-length album Focus, which was a prog metal masterpiece.
 * Unfortunately, the band broke up soon after. Until they reunited and released Traced In Air in 2008, which was more than a worthy comeback in the eyes of fans.
 * Talk Talk started out as a typical cheesy, New Wave-y 80's synth-pop band shamelessly ripping off Duran Duran. They grew dramatically over their careers, getting more experimental, culminating in their fantastic final album Laughing Stock, which pioneered the genre of post-rock and really showed off what they could do. Unfortunately, they broke up immediately afterwards...
 * Finnish folk-metal band Korpiklaani broke out of relative obscurity as the synthesizer-heavy, predominantly folk-sounding Shaman; when frontman Jonne Järvelä's work with similar folk-metal band Finntroll inspired him to change the name, drop the synthesizers in favour of more standard Metal-style guitar work and traditional instruments such as the jouhikko, accordian, fiddle, and bodhran; while replacing the Saami-language lyrics with more accessible English and Finnish. Not only did this result in a larger audience for the band itself; but also made them instrumental, along with fellow Finns Ensiferum, Finntroll, and Moonsorrow, in the rapidly-growing popularity of the folk-metal genre as a whole.
 * Country music artist Jamey Johnson's first album, The Dollar, was fairly well-received among critics, never mind that he wrote the reviled Trace Adkins song "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk". Due to Executive Meddling, this album had only one chart single before he got kicked from the label and his life completely unraveled (despite Trace Adkins recording another one of Jamey's songs and George Strait doing the same). After he cleaned up, he released his next album, That Lonesome Song, independently before Mercury Records picked it up. The result was a Top 10 hit with "In Color" and a gold album, as well as a Grammy nomination and an album that is being heralded as one of the best country albums of the 2000s. Keeping with the theme, he literally grew his beard out longer between the first and second albums. And to think that his third album, the Distinct Double Album The Guitar Song, has been just as critically acclaimed as That Lonesome Song.
 * Canadian death metal band Cryptopsy started out as a fairly standard death metal band with traditional song structure and some progressive elements. By their second album, they had become one of the most innovative and technical bands on the death metal scene.
 * Sugarland's first album, Twice the Speed of Life, was fairly well-received by music critics, but still seemed a tad formulaic. After Kristen Hall left over Creative Differences, the group was reduced to a duo composed of Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush. Their first release as a duo, "Want To," became their first #1 hit, and their two duo albums (Enjoy the Ride and Love on the Inside) have been met with even stronger critical acclaim, including a Grammy and several Academy of Country Music and Country Music Association awards. These latter two albums were also produced by Byron Gallimore, who has been commended for taking a more stripped-down approach to the duo's music (most evident on "Stay"). This sound seems to be carrying over to album number four, The Incredible Machine.
 * Faith No More really picked up in terms of quality and popularity when Mike Patton took over as the singer and primary songwriter.
 * Mike Patton grew an extra-long beard through his work with Mr. Bungle.
 * The Flaming Lips' In A Priest Driven Ambulance: Though they'd begun gradually growing into their signature sound for the previous three full lengths (after a psychedelic garage rock EP with Wayne Coyne's brother Mark on vocals), it's generally considered their first cohesive album. It's also the first time long time producer Dave Fridmann worked with the band, and when Wayne Coyne started using his trademark higher pitched vocal style much more.
 * It took 9 more years until they've released the widely acclaimed magnum opus The Soft Bulletin. Their NINTH album.
 * U2 had arguably grown the beard several times during their career, depending on who you asked. But people universally agree that War was superior to their first two albums: the good-but-rough-round-the-edges Boy, and their pompous, repetitive October. War showed some heavy militaristic drum beats, strong riffing, and some of their finest anthems ever written (New Year's Day, anyone?).
 * General consensus in ABBA fandom (if such a thing is possible) places this moment somewhere around the third and fourth albums, ABBA (1975) and Arrival (1976). The band members themselves pin this more firmly on ABBA and the release of "S.O.S." as a single, when the public stopped dismissing them as one-hit wonders and they settled on a pop style. (Waterloo, their second album, is a mix of attempts at different styles as they tried to find their place. Ring Ring is just... um... yeahhh.)
 * Of Montreal started life as folky, hippie pop rock kind of band and kept up the style for numerous albums. It wasn't until Aldhils Arboretum that their music started to become the more danceable, funky synthpop that people know the band for today, with each album up to the present getting better and better.
 * Their live shows are also Growing the Beard. Around the time Sunlandtic Twins was released the most ridiculous part of the show was Kevin Barnes opening the concert wearing a wedding dress. After Skeletal Lamping came out, their show has expanded to include costumed performers, light displays, and video displays more or less on par with the Flaming Lips.
 * German power metal band Blind Guardian goes through a sort of extended beard growing process starting on their third album, Tales from the Twilight World. While their debut and sophomore albums were fairly typical speed metal fare, Tales from the Twilight World saw the introduction of a number of new trends in their otherwise straightforward blend of fantasy lyrics and fast guitars.
 * As far as beards go, "Tales" was but a thin goatee compared to the long and bushy beard Blind Guardian would grow with their 1998 album "Nightfall in Middle Earth." Though the two albums following "Tales" saw further evolution in Blind Guardian's musical style, it was "Nightfall" which took their carefully written fantasy lyrics and studio wizardry to new heights and set the stage for their brilliant later material.
 * Pink's 2000 debut Can't Take Me Home was met with lukewarm reviews. It wasn't bad, but critics labeled her as Fiona Apple SINGING R&B! She took the hint, and her next album combined her tough-girl appeal with a more appropriate rock flavoring, while retaining her R&B roots, and the rest is history.
 * Disturbed's debut album The Sickness, despite making waves thanks to the popular hit Down wih the Sickness, didn't go far beyond the simple drum-lines and repetitive riffs present in most nu-metal of the time. A short two years later after an extensive touring cycle the band recorded Believe, a significant leap both lyrically and musically, currently the band's best critically recieved work to date. Ten years after their debut, the melodic focus remains and the band is still going strong.
 * The first two Metallica albums showed a growing musical identity almost track by track (Compare "Hit the Lights" on Kill em All to "Fade to Black" on Ride the Lightning), but most fans agree that Master of Puppets solidified Metallica's legendary status.
 * Dave Grohl. In his first band, Scream, he was just a regular drummer. This was the case with his first album with his next band (Nirvana's Nevermind), but his songwriting contributions increased by In Utero. Upon Kurt Cobain's death, Grohl started his own band, Foo Fighters, who became better over the years, culminating with the critical and commercial smash Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace. Oh, and he also literally grew a beard.
 * One may wonder if Foo Fighters had a period of beard-shaving during the movie soundtracks and There is Nothing Left to Lose period, due to too much soft-rock poppishness, began to accumulate stubble during the harder One by One, and then returned to beardy goodness by the time Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace was released.
 * The consensus is that the band really hit their stride once Taylor Hawkins joined the band, as he was the first drummer who not only could play as well as Grohl, but stood out as a charismatic musician in his own right. These days he is considered the second Face of the Band.
 * This trope can also apply to Nirvana itself. The band's first album, Bleach, was far grungier and less cohesive than their later, more critically and commercially successful albums. Bleach was rather boilerplate Grunge, much to the chagrin of Cobain himself, who struggled with his love of pop music in the face of the unforgiving and critical grunge scene. Only the Beatles inspired song, "About a Girl" provided hints towards Cobain's predilection for combining a heavy riffs and poppy songwriting.
 * Pink Floyd admit that they spent most of their early career not knowing what they were doing. They started off covering songs, experimented with psychedelia, then Syd Barrett joined and was able to front the group and write singles, then he left, and group had to go back to doing "long stuff", as they put it. Then, during production of Meddle, they managed to get their heads around the whole process of having ideas and turning them into albums. The next album, Dark Side of the Moon, stayed in the charts for 741 weeks, and subsequent releases and tours were correspondingly bigger. Of course, this change was not universally popular with the fans - some preferring the older, lighter psychedelic stuff - and Roger Waters soon developed mixed feelings about the larger, mainstream audiences.
 * Radiohead definitely grew the beard when they put out their second album, The Bends. They went from a generic rock act to a promising one and, from there, one of the biggest bands in rock.
 * One could argue that Radiohead finally merged their years of experimentation with their old pop savvy, creating a lean, mean, music machine in In Rainbows, resulting in much beard growth.
 * My Bloody Valentine grew the beard when their second album, Loveless, propelled them from an influential shoegaze band to the influential shoegaze band.
 * While they were always good, many fans agree Steely Dan grew the beard with The Royal Scam, when their music became less commercial and more experimental, not to mention a lot more sardonic. Pretzel Logic is also a popular choice.
 * Katy Lied is considered this by many fans because it has a notably laid back sound to it that the band would make their trademark later on.
 * The Runaways, despite the success of their single "Cherry Bomb", were commonly derided as merely a gimmick band, and their amateurish early performanced did little to help their image. Internal tensions and Kim Fowley's poor management prevented them from ever really growing their metaphorical beard. However, members Joan Jett and Lita Ford went on to grow their own beards with highly successful solo careers. Also of note, vocalist Micki Steele was briefly a member before going on to major mainstream success with The Bangles.
 * "Live To Tell", aside of a huge Tear Jerker, is generally considered the turning point in Madonna's career as it was the song that had her go from the mall rat teenybopper critics loathed to a young adult who was capable of singing soulful ballads about serious issues of human survival and courage.
 * Beginning as an R&B "Mod" band, then doing Power Pop, The Who grew the beard with the recording and release of Tommy. This isn't to say that their before then didn't have great moments, but that's when things really started to click and they became popular in the States.
 * Although progressive death metal band Between the Buried and Me never had a truly hated album, it's commonly stated that they really start to reach greatness with the album Colors. It's where they started some of the genre mixing that is one of their trademarks at this point. The Great Misdirect, which is the follow-up album, is also considered about on par with Colors.
 * The band Brand New can be said to have done this with their album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. Where before they sounded like another Blink 182 clone, with The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me you can see a definite attempt at doing something personal and original, as well as Darker and Edgier.
 * Others could argue for Deja Entendu being the point where they grew the beard, as it was much more well-received by critics than their first and more typically Pop Punk album as well as being Darker and Edgier (though not so much so as The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me).
 * ZZ Top in the 80's, who also had grown literal beards by then.
 * The Moody Blues: what the heck happened between Go Now and Days of Future Passed?
 * Denny Laine and Clint Warwick quit, and Justin Hayward and John Lodge replaced them.
 * Most fans of the band Skillet would like to forget that their first few albums existed, given their garage-quality recording and general lack of creativity. After the band underwent some substantial lineup changes (only one original member is still in the band), experimented with new styles and sounds, and signed to a bigger label, fans generally consider their album Comatose to be when they grew the beard. Some stubble may have been visible on their previous album Collide, and some would say the beard hadn't fully grown in until their next album, Comatose, which is when they started touring with the likes of Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin and getting significant radio airtime. Still other fans feel that the band grew its beard with Collide, and that the changes that came with Comatose signified the band beginning to Jump the Shark.
 * TNT started off as a generic Hard Rock outfit with 1st singer Dag Ingebrigtsen but grew into a Hair Metal outfit with Progressive Rock tinges around the time Tell No Tales was released with 2nd singer Tony Harnell.
 * The Dutch symphonic metal band Within Temptation started out with epic-sounding music, a great singer, and unremarkable fantasy-themed lyrics, but after their album Mother Earth, which had two noteworthy songs but was otherwise forgotten, their next albums The Silent Force and The Heart of Everything show a remarkable jump in quality of lyrics and a much more deep and mature sound in general.
 * The Sugababes cover of Freak Like Me was very well recived by critics and fans.
 * Blue Cheer's first album, Vincebus Eruptum, was a heavy, and sometimes silly, take on Jimi Hendrix's blues style. However, their second album, Outsideinside, began showing the band injecting their own personality into their music while retaining their heavy edge, resulting in what is probably their best album. Sadly, further beard growth ended when original guitarist Leigh Stephens left and the band turned into an average, hard rock group.
 * Hank Williams, Jr. figuratively and literally grew the beard (the literal growth was done intentionally, to hide facial disfigurement that resulted from him falling off a mountain) around the time that he started moving from being an Expy of his dad to forging his own sound by combining the best of Southern rock and the then-prevalent "outlaw country" movement. Unfortunately for him, the sound was pretty much passé by 1990.
 * Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band grew the beard sometime during the summer of 1967 in which their basic blues music showcased on their debut, Safe As Milk, took a turn for the weird, eventually resulting in the avant-garde outings that they became famous for.
 * Yes began growing one when guitarist Steve Howe joined in time for their third album (The Yes Album), where his presence led to the band to delve further into longer compositions such as "Yours Is No Disgrace" and "Starship Trooper". It continued into sessions for the fourth album (Fragile), with Hammond Organ addict Tony Kaye being replaced by synthesiser wizard Rick Wakeman, who was also experienced in longer compositions. It was then topped off by a change of image directed by their record company, abandoning off-the-wall graphics and gurning mug shots in favour of a more chilled and mature presentation, including gatefold sleeves, printed lyrics, and pictures of their homes, families and instrument collections. The band’s original sleeve concept for Fragile (a broken china plate with the title on) was rejected, and they were introduced to artist/designer Roger Dean, who designed the iconic "fragile planet" sleeve along with their logo and many of their subsequent album sleeves and stage sets.
 * Alice Cooper was a psychedelic garage based group that didn't gain much success until hooking up with Bob Ezrin for Love It To Death, which launched the Coop's golden age.
 * The Rolling Stones were writing songs as early as their first album, though it wasn't until the release of their 1965 single "The Last Time", that the Jagger/Richards songwriting machine went into full swing, shifting their material from covers to originals.
 * And they grew a second beard in the late 60s. They did this after the very badly received Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was a blatant ripoff of Sgt. Pepper. With Beggar's Banquet they returned more to their roots and the beard really grew out when Mick Taylor joined the band for their next album, Let It Bleed, which had a heavier and bluesier sound and really took away the label as "Beatles-ripoffs". Together with the popular follow up Sticky Fingers and their Exile On Main Street these four albums are regarded as their high point in their discography.
 * Donovan grew one with he went from penning Bob Dylan-styled numbers to finding his own voice within the psychedelic movement with Sunshine Superman.
 * The Megas' Get Equipped album, although still amazing, had a sort of amateurish feel to it. Their later songs are noticeably better made although Megatainment could be chalked up to Entertainment System collaborating with them on it
 * Just compare any Get Equipped song to the acoustic album or any song on the Sparked a War single.
 * Happened with Jefferson Airplane with the release of their second album, Surrealistic Pillow, which included the hit singles "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit", a more solid set of songs and the inclusion of singer Grace Slick.
 * A two way example occurred with Jethro Tull:
 * After original guitarist Mick Abrahams was replaced with Martin Barre, the band moved away from the British blues exhibited on their debut, This Was, for a more eclectic, prog based sound. Further beard growth occurred when John Evan was brought in to provide piano and organ, giving the band more flexibility.
 * As for Mick Abrahams, he was growing his own beard when he formed Blodwyn Pig, improving on the blues formula from his previous group. Sadly, as with Blue Cheer, this wouldn't last, as Abrahams left after just two years.
 * The underrated Big Brother & The Holding Company was destined for obscurity, until they hired blues singer Janis Joplin.
 * Depending on who you ask, Deep Purple grew the beard either with their self-titled third album, which perfected their brand of psychedelia, or with Deep Purple In Rock, which shifted the band into hard rock territory.
 * While Paranoid (1970) is Black Sabbath's greatest commercial success, hardcore fans see Master of Reality (1971) as where they hit their stride, in-part due to the band achieving a heaviness the likes of which had never been seen at the time, influencing many metal bands in the process. The band would continue their artisic and commercial success, reaching a peak with Sabotage (1975), and then a Dork Age followed by a second Beard in 1980 with the arrival of Ronnie James Dio and Heaven and Hell.
 * Dream Theater reached their breakthrough with their sophomore album Images and Words, with the arrival of James LaBrie as singer to replace the rather lackluster Charlie Dominici, a more epic, progressive songwriting style, and vastly improved production.
 * After King Crimson's first line-up collapsed, Robert Fripp struggled to keep a new one afloat while trying to top the success of their first album, In The Court Of The Crimson King. Four albums and three lineups later, Fripp finally hit paydirt with the heavy jazz fusion of Larks' Tongues In Aspic.
 * While all The Move's output is quite good, Shazam could be seen as this, with the band going from late sixties pop to a heavier, more ambitious direction; one notable example being the successful transformation of "Cherry Blossom Clinic" from a three minute pop tune to a seven and a half minue epic with an extended acoustic coda.
 * When Mandy Moore's career started in 1999, she was lumped in with the pop princess craze, her first couple of CDs full of bubblegum hits such as "Candy". After a few years of nearly exclusively acting, Moore leapt back into the music scene with her 2007 album "Wild Hope", a vastly different album from her earlier work and one that received a good deal of critical praise. "Amanda Leigh", released in 2009, has received even more favorable acclaim, and even Moore's acting career seems to be improving with films such as Tangled on her resume.
 * Justin Timberlake after Futuresex/Lovesounds seems to be this, though he hasn't released any new albums since. The album helped him drop his image as "that guy from *NSYNC" and even was on Rolling Stone's "Best Albums of the 2000s" list.
 * It could be argued that The Byrds grew one wih the release of their 1966 album Fifth Dimension. Although the band showed some promise on their previous albums, they were mostly known for covering various artists, including Bob Dylan, and filtering their work with the jangle sound that made them famous with "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn". Album three showcased the band focusing their songwriting ablilities and incorporating various styles shuch as folk ("John Riley"), country ("Mr. Spaceman"), and jazz-raga ("Eight Miles High").
 * Stevie Wonder around the time of Music Of My Mind. While he was already a critically hailed artist in the late 1960s, he felt constrained by the business aspects of Motown. When it came time to renew his contract, Wonder refused unless he was given free artistic control. Eventually, Motown gave in and Wonder released a series of albums in the mid 1970s that rank among the best the soul genre has to offer.
 * Polish Black Metal / Death Metal band Behemoth has undergone two points which could be called growing the beard. Their first two albums were well written, but not particularly innovative pure black metal, but with the release of Pandemonic Incantations, drummer Inferno joined the band, and they began to experiment with death metal influences. The next album, Satanica, continued to show improvements, but the beard was fully grown with the release of the acclaimed album Demigod, which featured some of the most intense Harsh Vocals in death metal. With the release of their latest album, Evangelion, it's obvious that it's here to stay.
 * Metal band Slipknot's first two albums were well-received by critics, but they were widely criticized by heavy metal fans for their generic sound and almost complete lack of creativity. Even today, the band is one of the most hated in their genre. It seems that the band heard this, because it took them four long years to make their next album, Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses), which featured much better songwriting, a heavier sound, and more polished production. If you pay no attention to the distinct voice of Corey Taylor, you would probably question if it was the same band. The album was essentially raw modern heavy metal that changed the way critics looked at the band forever. Even some of the people that hated the band began to give them a chance. Their next album, All Hope Is Gone, continued the trend. Since Paul Gray's death, they haven't been making new music, but who knows what they will do next?
 * While there's no denying the quality of The Kinks' early singles such as "You Really Got Me", "All Day And All Of The Night", and "Well Respected Man", a lot of critics feel that their albums were more or less a mixed bag until Ray Davies found his songwriting niche with 1966's Face To Face.
 * Willie Nelson was a clean-shaven, family-friendly country singer for his first decade and a half in Nashville. He both literally and figuratively Grew his Beard when he switched to the "Outlaw Country" that most people know him for, approximately around the time he recorded "Shotgun Willie".
 * Sevendust's first album featured raw production, more simple melodies, more aggressive vocals, and an overall much different sound. With Home, they experimented with more melodies, but still maintained the simple aggression of their debut. It wasn't until the band's third album, Animosity, when they found their signature melodic sound.
 * Jaga Jazzist, according drummer Martin Hornthveth's statements in an interview, were basically messing around and still trying to find themselves when they recorded Grete Stitz and Magazine EP. It was on the album A Livingroom Hush that they hit upon the jazz-rock-electronic sound that their subsequent albums would expand on; they now consider A Livingroom Hush to be their true debut.
 * Judas Priest's first album, Rocka Rolla, was a victim of Executive Meddling, and while they had more say, to much artistic success, with their second outing, Sad Wings Of Destiny, their then label, Gull Records, did little to nothing to help promote it. When they signed with Colombia for their third album, Sin After Sin, the band was finally able to gain a foothold with their music, with some of the tracks ("Sinner", "Starbreaker" and "Dissonant Aggressor") pointing the way to their later, more well known works.
 * Matthew Sweet had a pair of little-remembered, currently out-of-print major label albums in the 80's, Inside and Earth. Both albums have their defenders, but even among them the general consensus is that the glossy, overly synthesized production just wasn't a good fit and made the albums sound dated. His third album Girlfriend is where he developed more of the Power Pop sound he's known for, and remains his most critically and commercially successful album.
 * Even Kenny Chesney has admitted that he didn't really find himself artistically until he stopped copying the thousands of other "hat acts" out there — early on, he was just another clean-cut guy in a cowboy hat, dress shirt and tight jeans, and he sang in a heavy twang. He then dropped the twang and started recording more substantial songs, and gradually grew to A-list status. Since then, he's also dabbled in beachy tunes, arena rock and more introspective ballads (in that order), many of which have been marked as career evolutions in their own right.