History BrokenBase / Music

* The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame's admission choices have always been controversial, but the most persistent conflict is over whether or not non-rock artists deserve to be inducted, with particular scorn towards the inclusion of hip-hop artists. One side claims that the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame is specifically for ''rock'' musicians and that artists of other genres should have a hall of fame of their own, while the other side counters that "Rock-n-Roll" refers to popular music in general, that rock had long since evolved into its own genre, and limiting inductees to ''just'' rock would unfairly exclude the majority of black musicians.

* Music/TwentyOnePilots. Their major-label debut ''Vessel'' (2013) is widely considered their best album and 2015’s ''Blurryface'' was a huge, [[UsefulNotes/GrammyAward Grammy-winning]] pop success. Most fans agree they are excellent albums in their own right, but some miss the less polished production and less poppy sound of their self-titled album and ''Regional at Best'', both of which were self-released.

* {{Music/AFI}} seem to have a solid divide between fans of their hardcore punk period of 1994-2000 and their goth-influenced works from 2003 on, with rather ugly flamewars raging to this day. Neither side seems to like [[NewSoundAlbum Crash Love]] much, however.
* The rap group ''Music/BoneThugsNHarmony'' has such a varied and diverse style that they ended up creating a varied and diverse fanbase. This diverse fan base always ends up in heated flame wars over what direction the group should take musically. The debates (or arguments) range from style, subject matter and whether or not to have guest features. The group even has a problem maintaining the small but loyal Broken Base that they do have, due to the fact there are more fans of certain individual members than the actual group as a whole. There's also a very contentious debate regarding what caused the group to lose popularity. Some say it's because [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks their music changed]]. While others say it's because of [[LighterAndSofter changing trends in the Hip-Hop industry]], [[MusicIsPolitics and the music industry over all]]. Quite a few say all of the above. The beef with Music/{{Migos}} has kinda unified most of the fanbase, but there's still some dissent in regards to the beef as some Bone fans are apparently Migos fans.

* Music/TwentyOnePilots. Their major-label debut ''Vessel'' (2013) is widely considered their best album and 2015’s ''Blurryface'' was a huge, [[GrammyAward Grammy-winning]] pop success. Most fans agree they are excellent albums in their own right, but some miss the less polished production and less poppy sound of their self-titled album and ''Regional at Best'', both of which were self-released.

* [[Music/PorcupineTree "Normal" or "Sentimental".]] Both songs share the same chorus and many of the same lyrics, with the former being more acoustic and focusing on vocal harmonies, and the latter focusing more on ambience and generally being more ... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin sentimental.]]
* ''To the Bone'', Wilson’s latest solo album, almost split the fanbase in two: One half being his old fans who wanted more rock, and the other being mostly new fans who like or may even prefer his new classic pop directon.

** The hip-hop fan division appears to also have subtle shades of classism in addition to regionalism, as the aforementioned urban sub-genres appeal to rap fans of two very different socioeconomic backgrounds (albeit probably unintentionally). Rap that deals with "urban, inner city issues" tends to appeal to middle- and lower- income blue-collar fans, while glamorous club-oriented stuff appeals to upper middle-class suburban fans.
** Yet another point of contention within the Hip-Hop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is astro turfed thanks to The Powers That Be, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city/urban culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, phased out within Hip-Hop culture.
*** Discussed in this [[https://www.spin.com/2013/11/lorde-royals-rap-radio-urban-macklemore-thrift-shop/ Spin article]]. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being ''gentrified''.
** There's also those who judge artists on "relevance" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans. But this isn't just unique to the Hip-hop genre though.
** When and where did UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.

** Yet another point of contention within the Hip-Hop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is astro turfed thanks to The Powers That Be, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city/urban culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, phased out within Hip-Hop culture.
*** Discussed in this [[https://www.spin.com/2013/11/lorde-royals-rap-radio-urban-macklemore-thrift-shop/ Spin article]]. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being ''gentrified''.
** There's also those who judge artists on "relevance" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans.
** When and where did UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.

** Yet another point of contention within the Hip-Hop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is astro turfed thanks to The Powers That Be, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city/urban culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, phased out within Hip-Hop culture.
*** Discussed in this [[https://www.spin.com/2013/11/lorde-royals-rap-radio-urban-macklemore-thrift-shop/ Spin article]]. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being ''gentrified''.
** There's also those who judge artists on "relevance" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans.
** When and where did TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.

** Yet another point of contention within the Hip-Hop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is astro turfed thanks to The Powers That Be, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city/urban culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, phased out within Hip-Hop culture. ***Discussed in this [[https://www.spin.com/2013/11/lorde-royals-rap-radio-urban-macklemore-thrift-shop/ Spin article]]. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being ''gentrified''.
** There's also those who judge artists on "relevance" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans.
** When and where did TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.

** Yet another point of contention within the Hip-Hop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is astro turfed thanks to The Powers That Be, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city/urban culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, phased out within Hip-Hop culture. Discussed in this Spin article. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being ''gentrified''.
** There's also those who judge artists on "relevance" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans.
** When and where did TheGoldenAgeOf
HipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.

* Hip-Hop is divided between pure HipHop fans, AlternativeRap fans, GangstaRap fans, PoliticalRap fans, HardcoreHipHop fans, ConsciousHipHop fans vs. fans of overtly mainstream poppish "bling bling" styled "GlamRap". But to simplify it, it generally boils down to divisions mainly between the normally underground/gutter/gangsta/anti-establishment/grimy/Alternative and conscious hip hop heads and the fans of artists that rhymed about material wealth, capitalism and the like. The former groups don't get a long that much either, but has some form of respect towards one another and tends to crosspolinate, and seem to be [[TeethClenchedTeamWork united againt the latter group of fans]]. Don't even get started on the regionalism though, we'll be here all day.

* The rap group ''Music/BoneThugsNHarmony'' has such a varied and diverse style that they ended up creating a varied and diverse fanbase. This diverse fan base always ends up in heated flame wars over what direction the group should take musically. The debates (or arguments) range from style, subject matter and whether or not to have guest features. The group even has a problem maintaining the small but loyal Broken Base that they do have, due to the fact there are more fans of certain individual members than the actual group as a whole. There's also a very contentious debate regarding what caused the group to lose popularity. Some say it's because [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks their music changed]]. While others say it's because of [[LighterAndSofter changing trends in the Hip-Hop industry]], [[MusicIsPolitics and the music industry over all]]. Quite a few say all of the above. The beef with Music/Migos has kinda unified most of the fanbase, but there's still some dissent in regards to the beef as some Bone fans are apparently Migos fans.

** The rap group ''BoneThugsNHarmony'' has such a varied and diverse style that they ended up creating a varied and diverse fanbase. This diverse fan base always ends up in heated flame wars over what direction the group should take musically. The debates (or arguments) range from style, subject matter and whether or not to have guest features. The group even has a problem maintaining the small but loyal Broken Base that they do have, due to the fact there are more fans of certain individual members than the actual group as a whole. There's also a very contentious debate regarding what caused the group to lose popularity. Some say it's because [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks their music changed]]. While others say it's because of [[LighterAndSofter changing trends in the Hip-Hop industry]], [[MusicIsPolitics and the music industry over all]]. Quite a few say all of the above. The beef with Music/TheMigos has kinda unified most of the fanbase, but there's still some dissent in regards to the beef as some Bone fans are apparently Migos fans.

*** Speaking of gangster rap, there's a debate going on about whether or not the genre is [[DeadHorseGenre dead]]. Fans of the first wave of gangsta rappers (the anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment, and politically conscious era) felt that it died along time ago. Other, more cynical hip-hop fans (usually indie/alt-rap fans) feels that the current rap is no different from the earlier form, despite the fact that its more LighterAndSofter.

*** The narrowing of the urban radio format, and song selection, and exclusivity (including music video blocks during the 00's) has exacerbated this problem. As they tend to favor GlamRap type songs and videos because they are seen as "Safe". Which causes a lot of bitter resentment. So the argument isn't necessarily about whether or not SouljaBoy is real hip-hop, (Or alternativly StopHavingFunGuys), But about the marginalization of everything else in favor of SOLELY supporting rappers like SouljaBoy or generic club anthem rap songs.

** Within the past year, the “Emo Trinity” has expanded to include Music/TwentyOnePilots. Their major-label debut ''Vessel'' (2013) is widely considered their best album and 2015’s ''Blurryface'' was a huge, [[GrammyAward Grammy-winning]] pop success. Most fans agree they are excellent albums in their own right, but some miss the less polished production and less poppy sound of their self-titled album and ''Regional at Best'', both of which were self-released.

* Very common in the fandoms of the so-called “Emo Trinity,” three rock bands that gained popularity in the mid-2000s.
** Music/FallOutBoy has been experiencing this for more than a decade. While they have always been willing to experiment with pop sounds (ever since ''Infinity on High'' in 2006), their releases post-hiatus have taken this Up to Eleven, especially ''American Beauty/American Psycho'' and ''MANIA''. The lead single on every new album nowadays is an introduction to whatever sound they’re trying out, and they always invoke a passionate and polarized response from the fandom.
** Music/PanicAtTheDisco's first two albums are a notable example in that the creative difference the fandom broke over quite literally broke up the band itself. ''A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out'' has complicated, baroque instrumentations with a dance-pop sound, with Ryan Ross’s verbose lyrics. ''Pretty. Odd.'' takes a lot of inspiration from Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand-era Beatles and folk rock. After ''Pretty. Odd.''’s release, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker departed and formed The Young Veins, a band very similar in style to ''Pretty. Odd.''-era Panic, while Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith went back to a pop-punk sound with ''Vices & Virtues''.
** Music/MyChemicalRomance’s base is pretty toxic and broken in just about every respect, but let’s focus on the music. Their first two albums (''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love'' and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge) are rougher, louder, and much more Hardcore Punk and Post-Hardcore. Music/TheBlackParade is a theatrical, operatic concept album influenced by 70s progressive and glam rock, while Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys is another concept album with a garage rock and dance-rock vibe. Some fans prefer the harder-edged sound of the first two albums, and you’ll find arguments in the fandom about which one is the best even now, 5 years after MCR’s disbandment.

** Music/PanicAtTheDisco's first two albums are a notable example in that the creative difference the fandom broke over quite literally broke up the band itself. ''A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out'' has complicated, baroque instrumentations with a dance-pop sound, with Ryan Ross’s verbose lyrics. ''Pretty. Odd.'' takes a lot of inspiration from {{Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand}}-era Beatles and folk rock. After ''Pretty. Odd.''’s release, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker departed and formed The Young Veins, a band very similar in style to ''Pretty. Odd.''-era Panic, while Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith went back to a pop-punk sound with ''Vices & Virtues''.

** Music/MyChemicalRomance’s base is pretty toxic and broken in just about every respect, but let’s focus on the music. Their first two albums (''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love'' and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge) are rougher, louder, and much more Hardcore Punk and Post-Hardcore. Music/TheBlackParade is a theatrical, operatic concept album influenced by 70s progressive and glam rock, while Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys is another concept album with a garage rock and dance-rock vibe. Some fans prefer the harder-edged sound of the first two LPs, and you’ll find arguments in the fandom about which album is the best even now, 5 years after MCR’s disbandment.

** {{Music/FallOutBoy}} has been experiencing this for more than a decade. While they have always been willing to experiment with pop sounds (ever since ''Infinity on High'' in 2006), their releases post-hiatus have taken this Up to Eleven, especially ''American Beauty/American Psycho'' and ''MANIA''. The lead single on every new album nowadays is an introduction to whatever sound they’re trying out, and they always invoke a passionate and polarized response from the fandom.
** {{Music/PanicAtTheDisco}}'s first two albums are a notable example in that the creative difference the fandom broke over quite literally broke up the band itself. ''A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out'' has complicated, baroque instrumentations with a dance-pop sound, with Ryan Ross’s verbose lyrics. ''Pretty. Odd.'' takes a lot of inspiration from {{Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand}}-era Beatles and folk rock. After ''Pretty. Odd.''’s release, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker departed and formed The Young Veins, a band very similar in style to ''Pretty. Odd.''-era Panic, while Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith went back to a pop-punk sound with ''Vices & Virtues''.
** {{Music/MyChemicalRomance}}’s base is pretty toxic and broken in just about every respect, but let’s focus on the music. Their first two albums (''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love'' and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge) are rougher, louder, and much more Hardcore Punk and Post-Hardcore. {{Music/TheBlackParade}} is a theatrical, operatic concept album influenced by 70s progressive and glam rock, while {{Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys}} is another concept album with a garage rock and dance-rock vibe. Some fans prefer the harder-edged sound of the first two LPs, and you’ll find arguments in the fandom about which album is the best even now, 5 years after MCR’s disbandment.
** Within the past year, the “Emo Trinity” has expanded to include {{Music/TwentyOnePilots}}. Their major-label debut ''Vessel'' (2013) is widely considered their best album and 2015’s ''Blurryface'' was a huge, [[GrammyAward Grammy-winning]] pop success. Most fans agree they are excellent albums in their own right, but some miss the less polished production and less poppy sound of their self-titled album and ''Regional at Best'', both of which were self-released.

* Music/InFlames' older albums are often praised for being melodic death metal masterpieces, but when they changed their sound in 2002 with ''Reroute to Remain'' it caused a bitter flame war between "old" and "new" In Flames fans that still hasn't ceased; if you look on a comments section involving In Flames anywhere, it's ''very'' likely there'll be a debate (or flamewar) over new vs. old In Flames.

Many popular bands suffer a [[BrokenBase fan division]] after the release of a NewSoundAlbum. Some get the same treatment with ''every'' album. Just about every other band/group/singer/rapper/composer who has altered their musical style over the years has had to learn the hard way that there's a distinct trade-off between artistic integrity and maintaining the fanbase. This trope is ''much'' OlderThanTheyThink.

----

!!Music in general
* In {{Indie}} or otherwise underground music, [[ItsPopularNowItSucks any artist who gains a measure of mainstream popularity will experience a wave of backlash from original fans]], mostly from fear that the artist(s) in question will change their style in order to become mainstream.
* Almost [[TheBandMinusTheFace any band who loses a member]] will cause fanwank over whether they got worse or not with the change.
* Hip-Hop. Fasten your seatbelts, y'all.
** The main division seems to be thus: pure HipHop fans, AlternativeRap fans, GangstaRap fans, PoliticalRap fans, HardcoreHipHop fans, and ConsciousHipHop fans are pitted (or pit themselves) against fans of overtly mainstream, pop-ish, "bling bling"-styled GlamRap, and arguably SwagRap[[note]]Swag Rap, fairly or not, is often seen as no different than Glam rap. Some don't even see it as rap, but another genre entirely[[/note]], and eventually "Mumble Rap". But to simplify it, it generally boils down to divisions between the normally underground/gutter/gangsta/anti-establishment/grimy/Alternative/gritty/political and conscious hip hop heads and the fans of artists that rhyme about material wealth, capitalist gain, and the like. The former groups don't get along that much either, but have some form of respect towards one another and tends to cross-pollinate. They seem to be [[TeethClenchedTeamWork united against the latter group of fans]]. Don't even get started on the regionalism, though; we'll be here all day.
** The narrowing of the urban radio format, song selection, and exclusivity (including music video blocks) has exacerbated this problem. Networks and stations tend to favor GlamRap type songs and videos because they are seen as "Safe". This causes a lot of bitter resentment. The argument isn't necessarily about whether or not SouljaBoy is real hip-hop, but about the marginalization of everything else the genre has to offer in favor of ''solely'' supporting rappers like SouljaBoy or generic club anthem rap songs.
** The hip-hop fan division appears to also have subtle shades of classism in addition to regionalism, as the aforementioned urban sub-genres appeal to rap fans of two very different socioeconomic backgrounds (albeit probably unintentionally). Rap that deals with "urban, inner city issues" tends to appeal to middle- and lower- income blue-collar fans, while glamorous club-oriented stuff appeals to upper middle-class suburban fans.
** Each of these hip-hop sub-fanbases have their own splinter groups, and even at its simplest level, you actually have a gigantic seething mass of cliques: something along the lines of "Golden Age" purists (fans of late '80s/early '90s rap; typically East Coast with some token Ice Cube or Too $hort appreciation), indie/alternative (or the semi-pejorative "undie") rap fans who lean towards some of the more avant-garde acts like Madlib, POS and El-P, several strata of Southern rap fans pitting coke-rap boosters (often accused of being indie hipster kids) vs. snap/trap/crunk club-rap fans (see: Soulja Boy/"ringtone rap") vs. Dungeon Family (Music/OutKast/Goodie Mob/et al), West Coast adherents (which can potentially be split into classic g-funk vs. hyphy arguments), the cooled yet still potentially volatile Jay-Z vs. Nas camps... and god help you if you actually like grime or dubstep or electro or some other (usually non-American) genre offshoot.
*** The non-American genre argument does go both ways, though. In Britain and Germany in the Nineties, people who listened to a specific hip-hop subgenre called "Britcore" would not listen to any other forms of hip-hop and heavily deride them.
** Speaking of gangster rap, there's a debate going on about whether or not the genre is [[DeadHorseGenre dead]]. Fans of the first wave of gangsta rappers (the anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment, and politically conscious era) felt that it died along time ago. Other, more cynical hip-hop fans (usually indie/alt-rap fans) feels that the current rap is no different from the earlier form, despite the fact that its LighterAndSofter.
** Another hotly debated issue within the hip-hop community is the issue of what's causing the decline of hip-hop's record sales. Some say it's the decline in quality, some say piracy, and others say both.
** Yet ''another'' point of contention within the HipHop community is whether or not the state of current Hip-Hop is natural progression or is [[AstroTurf astro turfed]] thanks to ThePowersThatBe, ExecutiveMeddling and due to the fact that MusicIsPolitics.
*** To that end it gets more complicated if you believe the mainstream media and white America is the one that's driving hip-hop now instead of the inner city culture, blacks and Latinos. Some even believe young urban black culture is being marginalized, or, more ominously, ''phased out'' within HipHop culture.
*** Discussed [[http://www.spin.com/articles/lorde-royals-rap-radio-urban-macklemore-thrift-shop/?sailthru_position=5 in this Spin article]]. Basically, people are saying hip hop is being gentrified.
** There's also those who judge artists on "[[QualityByPopularVote relevance]]" rather than talent and credentials. This also further divides fans.
** When and where did UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHipHop begin and end? Some say it's around the late 80's to early to mid 90's. A few hardliners say it's just the early to mid 80's only. Believers of the latter constitute a VocalMinority.
** And yet, all of the above varied bases seem to agree on one thing: [[{{Hatedom}} Will Smith sucks, and has always sucked.]]
* Baroque era music performance is split into "period instruments" vs. "modern instruments" proponents.
* {{Opera}} vs. Symphony was a popular (and heated) topic in the 1800s.
** It's still a big deal now - go to any music conservatory, even a really prestigious one, and prepare to be amazed at how little the singers generally know about orchestral music, and likewise, how little the instrumentalists know about opera.
** Before the late Romantic era, symphonies were primarily written for the aristocracy or wealthy patrons of some kind. On the other hand, operas, while often viewed by the wealthy, were also popular among the middle-class. It was not rare for people to gamble at the opera, or even bring prostitutes into the balconies. Traditional orchestral music (like symphonies) had more of an air of austerity, which helps to explain some of the divisiveness.
** Music/GiuseppeVerdi opera (Italian) vs. Music/RichardWagner opera (German) was a further division of this debate, and continues to this day.
*** Wagner alone is probably the most [[LoveItOrHateIt divisive]] figure in opera. Nobody is neutral about him (and that's probably how he wanted it to be). He even rejected the term "opera" itself, using "Bühnenfestspiel" (music-drama) to describe his own such works.
*** The Wagner controversy, it should be mentioned, has been ongoing since Wagner was in his early thirties (the original leader of the anti-Wagner camp was Viennese music critic and philosopher Edouard Hanslick) and has been going strong since.
*** To be sure, it ''is'' a difficult choice: ''Come into my shop, let me cut your mop, let me shave your crop . . . daintily!'' versus ''Kill the wabbit!''
** Opera buffs in general tend to be divided between fans of "traditional opera" (i.e. mainly Mozart and bel canto, and no further than Verdi or Puccini) and fans of more modern opera, with Wagner usually being the dividing line between the two camps. And that's not even going into the "baroque opera" fans...
** Opera also has the "traditional production" vs. "Regietheatre/Eurotrash production/anything-goes-in-art" debate. Defenders of Regietheater cite it as a deconstruction of the original opera with a focus on the director's vision, bringing a fresh new perspective to an already well-known work. Critics argue they're just talentless hacks unable to produce art that would attract an audience, so they hijack a master's work to promote whatever modern issue they want to bring up with a focus on shocking and disgusting the audience.
** Not to mention the singer wars: Maria Callas vs. Renata Tebaldi and Placido Domingo vs. Music/LucianoPavarotti to name the two bloodiest conflicts. Mario Lanza: great classical tenor, or overhyped Hollywood version of same? And of course "There are no good singers today" vs. "There are too!"
** On even more fundamental levels: is translating operas into other languages a brilliant move to make the material more accessible to people who would otherwise be put off the art form, or an inexcusable mangling of the material which places far too much pressure on the singers? This one has petered off in the last decade or so, with the surtitling machine considered an acceptable middle ground by all but the die-hards.
** There is also the question of whether spoken recitatives are acceptable, i.e. is it OK to save the singing for the arias and other important bits, and just say all the dialogue in between, or does that dialogue have to be sung too?
* With instruments that have a history of good repertoire extending back to the baroque or classical period (e.g. piano, organ, violin, cello, flute, guitar), there's a division between those players who embrace contemporary music, and those who prefer the older stuff - and these debates can get pretty heated. Instruments that have only developed a good solo repertoire in the past 100 years - ex. saxophone, percussion, tuba - have less division on this matter because their players have no choice but to play the newer stuff.
* Musical theater fans are divided between those who prefer the earlier Broadway style of Rodgers & Hammerstein (or [[Theatre/{{Showboat}} even earlier]]), versus modern musicals. Heck, they even made a musical (''The Drowsy Chaperone'') ''about'' the whole debate.
* CountryMusic, definitely. Country music blogs and message boards are replete with lengthy arguments over what constitutes genuine country music, and if modern mainstream Nashville pop-country fits the definition. This has only gotten stronger in TheNewTens as R&B, rap, and even EDM influences have invaded the genre, both from hitmakers such as Music/SamHunt, Music/LukeBryan, Music/JasonAldean, Music/BrantleyGilbert, and Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine, and [[GenreAdultery even from established artists who rarely did so before]]. There are also the "alternative country" artists, whom many fans view as far more "authentic" than mainstream country, while fans of more mainstream acts view alternative country as pretentious and boring. Basically, someone who loves the aforementioned artists is very unlikely to enjoy artists such as Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Music/ChrisStapleton, or Music/KaceyMusgraves, and vice-versa.
* Section rivalry within concert and marching bands varies, from friendly ribbing to all-out hatred.
* In general, R&B attracts this. Fans of R&B/Pop stars vs fans of more "pure" and "mature" R&B/Soul vocalists artists have major problems. This goes as far back as the Motown vs. STAX/Volt rivalry of TheSeventies. The modern version of that rivalry basically boils down to fans of artists like Music/{{Rihanna}}, Kristina Debarge, Mya, Music/ChrisBrown, Keri Hilson, etc vs. fans of artists like Anthony Hamilton, Music/IndiaArie, Leela James, Amel Larrieux, Kem, Music/JillScott, Angie Stone, Goapale etc. The fans of the former group of artists thinks the latter artists' style is outdated and boring, and their fans are a bunch of out of touch elitists. The latter usually calls the former group of artists "Industry Whores" whom along with the record companies are impeding the success of the "true musicians".
* {{Dubstep}}, to ridiculous degrees. Fans of the more bass-driven, minimalistic sounds of Music/{{Burial}} or Skream and fans of the more aggressive "Brostep" such as Flux Pavilion or Rusko get into flame wars that you wouldn't believe. There is no middle ground.
* Drum & bugle corps. Mother of Mercy, drum & bugle corps. Old-school vs. really old school vs. 80s vs 90s versus modern, G bugles versus B flat brass, etc. - the issue most argued about seems to be amps and electronics in the pit. And of course, fans of the individual corps have been going at it since the beginning (lately, there seems to be considerable animosity between fans of the Blue Devils and fans of Carolina Crown).
** Drum Corps International: Is it an organization that encourages creativity and selflessly promotes the activity, or is it an elitist cartel who has turned drum corps from an all-inclusive youth activity with military roots to an over-expensive, artsy-fartsy haven for music and dance majors? The two main forums for drum corps, Drum Corps Planet (DCP) and Rec.Arts.Marching.Drumcorps (RAMD) have hosted thousands of [[FlameWar flame wars]] over this issue.
** Many corps directors are subject to this, with Cadets director George Hopkins being the biggest BaseBreaker. Is he a creative genius whose concepts and innovations (including the above-mentioned amplification and electronics) have taken drum corps in new and exciting directions, or have the changes he has brought forward resulted in drum corps being RuinedForever?
* For jazz fans, there's traditional jazz vs. jazz fusion.
* Listening to music via cloud services vs. listening to local copies of music. Fans of the former enjoy not having to worry about storage and being able to listen to their music on any device that can access their service of choice. Fans of the latter argue that local copies do not need an Internet connection to listen to and that cloud services come and go; after all, one can listen to [=MP3=] or FLAC copies of their music 30 years from now, while the service one currently uses might not exist anymore in 30 years.
* In the area of Norwegian folk music, UsefulNotes/HardangerFiddle players are victims to this, and the broken base is actually OlderThanTheyThink. When one particular area in question has more than one capable fiddler (with or without legendary status), things can get ''nasty'' because the two fiddlers gather their own fans around them. When discussing which of them is most "genuine" or just the best performer, full on FlameWar ensues.
** A "change" in the mode of playing, or whether the fiddlers were "better" in the old days, or better nowadays, results in the same debates.
* Americans who listened to a couple of ItaloDisco songs before the internet age such as "Plastic Doll" by Dharma, "Not Love" by Trilogy, and "I Need Love" by Capricorn have argued over the best speed to play these songs. People from cities such as those in the east coast and notably UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} enjoy listening at the slower but correct speed intended by the artists. People from southern UsefulNotes/{{California}} (and possibly the Hi-NRG locales) who heard these songs faster in parties prefer the faster 45 rpm speed.
* Happens with classic rock too. Is classic rock just a radio format or a distinct style of its own? What should the cutoff year be? Are 90's (or even late 80's) rock allowed to be classics? Should so-and-so band be considered classic rock? (The latter debate is especially prominent with [[Music/GunsNRoses Guns N' Roses]], Music/{{Metallica}}, Music/{{Nirvana}}, and Music/PearlJam.)
** Same situation with classic HipHop. Anything pass 2000 on a classic hip-hop station is heavily contentious.
* "What is [[HeavyMetal Metal]]?" is an extremely loaded question. Bands like Music/WithinTemptation and Music/{{Babymetal}} have come under fire for not being 'real' metal. Babymetal in particular has had an InternetBackdraft because their image goes so very against what people consider metal music.
* {{Trance}} has what is quite possibly the most fractured fanbase in ElectronicMusic. Arguments mainly center on what constitutes [[NoTrueScotsman "true"]] trance (the weird and trippy psychedelic trance versus the euphoric and emotional uplifting trance, which is just one of many inner fandom rivalries), with the fandom continuing to schism more and more due to the sheer number of subgenres within the larger scene and the directions the genre has taken over the years, especially in the increasingly commercialized climate of TheNewTens ElectronicMusic scene.
* An example regarding the ''Billboard'' singles charts. In 2012, several genre airplay charts (such as Country) were split into two new charts: a chart using the existing method of tallying only single airplay, and a second one tallying downloads, streaming, and all-genre airplay of genre-specific songs (effectively making it a single-genre version of the Hot 100). Chart watchers in particular were incensed by this change, as many songs (especially in country) have had disproportionately long runs at #1 on the "new" chart due to strong downloads, leaving the country charts dominated by the likes of Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine, Music/LukeBryan, and Music/SamHunt -- thus leaving many chart watchers who prefer the "old" airplay-only chart as a more accurate gauge of what's popular. Meanwhile, the airplay-only chart has become increasingly prone to manipulation, thus undercutting ''its'' credibility as well.

!!Specific bands and artists
* Music/ArcadeFire successfully break their base with every release they make:
** In 2004, when they released ''Funeral'', fans were split towards whether or not the sound from their first EP was better than the sound on ''Funeral''.
** In 2007, when they released their second album, ''Neon Bible'', some fans were displeased with the "darker" sound they got. To make matters more confusing, critics were the same way.
** Then, in 2010, when they released ''Music/TheSuburbs'', the fanbase basically split yet again. This time into several sections. There are now people that have a certain combination of Arcade Fire albums they like and dislike. This creates some pretty heated arguments between their fans.

* Music/TupacShakur fans usually fight over which album showcased the ''[[AlternateCharacterInterpretation real]]'' Tupac. The albums in question are "Me Against the World" VS. "All Eyez on Me". Proponents of the first claim that it's better because of its depth and dark, introspective approach, while claiming that AEOM is just a typical mainstream rap album people jumped on the bandwagon for.
* The Music/AvengedSevenfold fandom is broadly split thus:
** Those who listen primarily to metalcore/post-hardcore tend to gravitate towards the band's first two albums, ''Sounding the Seventh Trumpet'' and ''Waking the Fallen''.
** Those who don't care much for metalcore/post-hardcore, but who are fans of straightforward hard rock bordering on heavy metal, would prefer the band's output from ''City of Evil'' onward.
** On another note, "Hail to the King" was not only the first album to be recorded without any input whatsoever from the late Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, but also takes on a significantly different direction from the previous three albums (although probably not quite as drastically as ''City of Evil'' did from ''Waking the Fallen''). According to lead singer M Shadows, the album can be described as "more blues rock-influenced and more like classic rock and classic metal in the vein of Music/BlackSabbath and Music/LedZeppelin". Quite naturally, this album would be even more disdained by those who prefer the band's STST/WTF-era style. But even a significant portion of those who have enjoyed the past three albums find the style to be too much of a departure for them.
** Also, arguments abound over who is the better drummer: Arin or Jimmy.
* Music/BlackFlag is perhaps the most polarizing example of a broken base for a punk band. First, there are camps of fans that prefer either the pre-1984 Flag (consisting of raw fast-paced punk) or the 1984-1986 Flag (which consisted of slow, repetitive avant-garde experiments in an attempt to push the band's sound forward). Then, there are fans divided by the singer (either Keith Morris, Dez Cadena, Ron Reyes {who was involuntarily credited by the band as "Chavo Pederast"}, and [[FaceOfTheBand Henry Rollins]]).
* Music/BoneThugsNHarmony:
** The group has such a varied and diverse style that they ended up creating a varied and diverse fanbase. This diverse fan base always ends up in heated flame wars over what direction the group should take musically. The debates (or arguments) range from style and subject matter to whether or not to have guest features. The group even has a problem maintaining the small but loyal BrokenBase that they do have, due to the fact there are more fans of certain individual members than the actual group as a whole. There's also a very contentious debate regarding what caused the group to lose popularity. Some say it's because [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks their music changed]]. Others say it's because of [[LighterAndSofter changing trends in the Hip-Hop industry]], not to mention [[MusicIsPolitics the music industry overall]]. Quite a few say all of the above.
** Then there's the departure of a certain member... who later returned... sort of. But the embittered division is still there. This also adds more fuel to the fire because of the reason he was ousted and the fact the group isn't quite the same without him. Others would say he was on the decline due to his substance abuse issues and his unprofessionalism when it came to not showing up for video shoots and concerts.
** There's the fact that the ''other'' EnsembleDarkhorse (Krayzie Bone) was asked to leave. Wish Bone left with him and things just kept going from bad to worse among the fans. They have also also returned. But Layzie hung separately to promote his own ventures, while insisting he hasn't left the group.
** ''The Art Of War'' album by far... (and to a lesser extent the Resurrection album).
* Music/{{Pantera}}, especially when it comes to critics of Phil Anselmo and his supporters. The murder of Dimebag Darrell, the well-loved guitarist of the band at the hands of a fan of Anselmo, has made the situation [[IncrediblyLamePun fucking hostile]].
* Even {{Music/They Might Be Giants}} were hit by this. Fans are divided over whether 1994's "John Henry" was one of their finest albums or their worst, and ''some'' refuse to listen to anything recorded since, because they think that the idea of a rock band with musical instruments is an affront. [[FanDumb All of the True Fans]] even went to far as to picket concerts promoting "John Henry".
* Music/{{Depeche Mode}} fans are divided between the ones who like all of their work and those who only like the material prior to Alan Wilder's departure. Visiting the forums will provide users arguing if the Post-Wilder era albums are good or not.
** There isn't much consensus in general with Depeche Mode fans, except that the early TastesLikeDiabetes songs "Whats Your Name?" & "A Photograph of You" are terrible, "Speak & Spell" has EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, & that the period from about "Black Celebration" through to "Violator" is mostly good. Otherwise, everything else is contested to some degree, especially whether "A Broken Frame" is a SophomoreSlump or when they started picking up steam by going DarkerAndEdgier sound-wise, & what tracks (if any) are good from "Exciter".
*** And there's also a small minority who only prefer the first three albums, before they got all "dark and depressing."
* {{Music/Devo}} fans are split between when Devo "began to suck". Many say after ''Music/FreedomOfChoice'', some ''New Traditionalists'' or ''Oh, No!'', and even a few say ''Duty Now for the Future''. Most folks seem to agree, though, that ''Shout'', ''Total DEVO'', and ''Smooth Noodle Maps'' all suck, but ''Something for Everybody'' has generally been well-received.
** The perceived declining quality of Devo's later albums has been blamed by most (including the band itself) on [[ExecutiveMeddling interference from the label]]. (Devo's battles with Warner Bros. border on legendary.) During the production of ''Something for Everybody'', Devo did a massive online outreach to its fans, allowing them to preview and vote on which tracks would be included. This effort probably was responsible for the generally good reception of the album. [[MeaningfulName Something for everybody]] indeed.
** Oh, then there's those curmudgeons who think everything after ''[[Music/QAreWeNotMenAWeAreDevo Q: Are We Not Men?]]'' is a load of junk with too much synthesizer.
* ''Music/TheKillers'': Did they sell out with Sam's Town? Mature as artists? Try to be the next ''Music/{{U2}}''? Simply explore a different style? The world [[strike:may]] will never know, especially since they went back to their synthy, '80s post-punk revival roots with ''Day & Age'' and show no sign of looking back.
* The decision of ''Music/{{KISS}}'' to dress replacement members Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer in the makeup and costumes of founders Peter Criss and Ace Frehley has split the fanbase into those who think it is an insult to the originals and those who think it is a fitting tribute to the band's past legacy. This debate often overlaps into the old debates of makeup vs. non-makeup and "old school" 70s Kiss vs. any post-1979 lineup.
** Even before that - the 1978 solo albums are basically the wedge that created all of the other base breaking: fans argued vehemently over which of the four was the best, and differing sales of the albums were a contributing factor to Criss leaving the band shortly afterwards.
* Music/{{Genesis}} have a fanbase generally split into three groups: those who love the early Music/PeterGabriel-led albums and decry the later work pop sellout garbage while bashing Music/PhilCollins at every available opportunity; those who love the later Music/PhilCollins-led albums and dismiss the earlier work as pretentious nonsense; and those who love both eras (seeing Peter and Phil as equals) and credit keyboardist Music/TonyBanks as the true mastermind of the band.
** There's at least a fourth camp who agree that Banks was the mastermind but think he went downhill at some point, with sub-debates over when that was (but certainly it had happened by ''Music/InvisibleTouch''). And that's just the beginning. There's also huge debates over the merits of individual albums, especially ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'', ''...And Then There Were Three'', and the one album with neither Gabriel nor Collins, ''...Calling All Stations...''. Not to mention debates, easily confused with but distinct from the Gabriel/Collins/Banks one, between fans of their more pop-oriented versus their more progressive material, and on and on ''ad nauseum''.
** Lots of other progressive or once-progressive bands have these too, including Music/{{Yes}}, Music/KingCrimson and Music/{{Rush}} in particular, but Genesis is easily the best known. The mere mention of liking Music/PhilCollins on some Genesis and progressive-rock related fan websites can result in an immediate argument between fans.
* Fleshgod Apocalypse got hit with this to a very large degree with ''Agony''. The fandom either thought it was a bold new progression of their sound and a breath of fresh air or a bonafide [[JumpTheShark shark jump]] that needlessly shifted them from very solid Italian-style brutal death with symphonic influences to something that was essentially Music/DimmuBorgir playing death metal, with both sides having a tendency to be ''very'' vocal about it. As such, bringing them up on a metal board is a good way to cause a huge blowup.
* Music/{{Metallica}}, because they [[ImportantHaircut cut their hair]]!
** More seriously, ''Music/RideTheLightning'' VS. ''Music/MasterOfPuppets'' can also cause wars.
*** There is also the argument of whether [[strike:[[FanNickname Smell the Glove]]]] ''The Black Album'' was the first sellout album or ''Load'' was.
*** The death of Cliff Burton was a tragedy. But was Metallica any good after?
** Averted with "One", which was Metallica's very first music video. Though the band swore they would never make music videos during the mid-80s, the video for "One" is widely loved by the fan's fans and was the only song from ''Music/AndJusticeForAll'' that ended up becoming a mainstay in the band's live shows.
** Anything involving Dave Mustaine counts, ''especially'' Metallica vs. Music/{{Megadeth}}.
* Speaking of Music/{{Megadeth}}, they're a particularly interesting example of this. While most will agree that ''Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?'' and ''Rust In Peace'' are classics, opinions of their remaining albums tend to be a lot more divided:
** Some fans write off ''Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good'' and ''So Far, So Good, So What?'' as drug-induced messes (although SFSGSW does contain the fan favorite "In My Darkest Hour").
** Their 90's material, especially, tends to be very divisive. Some fans won't listen to anything made post-RIP, some won't listen to anything made post-''Countdown To Extinction'', etc. While most agree that Megadeth's DorkAge began sometime during the 90's, there is a ridiculous amount of debate over when it actually began (although popular consensus agrees that 1999's ''Risk'' was a huge misfire for the band).
** And then we get into the issue of when in the 2000's the band actually made their big comeback. Was it with 2001's ''The World Needs A Hero''? 2004's ''The System Has Failed''? 2007's ''United Abominations''? Did the band ''ever'' make a serious comeback? Just thinking about it could really [[DrivenToMadness drive you crazy]]!
* Whether or not Music/TheMisfits are any good without Danzig is one fierce argument.
** Don't even talk about the current incarnation with early Misfits fans... or Jerry Only in general.
*** Then again, there are some fans who like all 3 incarnations.
* German indie rockers Music/{{Tocotronic}} started as a [[RuleOfCool sloppy]] underground [[CultClassic cult band]] with frontman Dirk von Lowtzow [[PerishingAltRockVoice embodying]] the [[TheSnarkKnight deadpan]] [[TheSlacker slacker]], much to the amusement of the Hamburg indie scene that was otherwise crowded with agitprop leftists and [[StrawNihilist dead-serious fatalist philosophers]] like their friends from Blumfeld. Tocotronic changed their style towards professional recording and Lowtzow [[BadassBaritone stopped snarking]] in favor of becoming a [[TrueArtIsAngsty melancholic]] [[TheDandy dandy]] with [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible abstract]] lyrics no one really understood. As their new sound was far more successful, old fans usually claim that they were [[ItsPopularNowItSucks better when they were snarking]], while younger fans prefer their more polished sound.
* Music/PanicAtTheDisco's first album was a unique, somewhat interconnected bunch of songs with obtuse but clever titles that bridged dance and rock genres and had stories to them, with complex, often surreal lyrics. Their second album is somewhat Beatles-esque pop rock with no apparent connection other than style between the songs... and they dropped the exclamation point from their name. Guess what happened to their following? Yep! Instant Division, Just Add Second Album.
** And then they put the exclamation point back, and their lead guitarist and bassist left the band. Oh dear.
* Music/VanHalen. Music/DavidLeeRoth or Sammy Hagar. 'Nuff said.
** With a small, but vocal, subgroup insisting Gary Cherone never got a fair chance.
** In a similar vein: ''Music/BlackSabbath''. Music/OzzyOsbourne or Music/RonnieJamesDio. 'Nuff said.
*** In another similar vein: Ozzy Osbourne's guitarists: Randy Rhodes or Zakk Wylde. With the odd Jake E. Lee fan trying to pop in here and there.
* ''Music/{{Journey}}''. There is an insane amount of hatred and bad feeling among fans over whether Neal Schon should've gone on without Steve Perry. Simply mentioning Perry's name on any fanboard is guaranteed to start a fight over "old lineup vs new lineup".
* Among fans of BlackMetal, there is the ongoing war about the definition of the genre. Are Cradle of Filth black metal? Are Dimmu Borgir black metal? Immortal? Music/{{Emperor}}? Take your pick...
** Though this is common among many sub-genres of [[HeavyMetal Metal]] in general. So many bands take elements from multiple genres, there are often heated arguments over which genre a LOT of bands fit into. Other ones that are especially common though is Gothic Metal vs. Symphonic Metal, and there is often a lot of confusion with [[DeathMetal Death]] and Doom, and Folk and Viking.
** And, of course, there are the constant debates over whether or not Band X is even ''metal'' in the first place.
* The question that is sure to stir up controversy: Who broke up Music/TheBeatles?
** Even when the group was active, "Who's your favorite Beatle?" was an active question. After, it tended to cause {{Flame War}}s.
** You can tell a lot about a Beatles fan by learning whether they prefer the early work (the kind that could easily be done in concert pre-synthesizer) or the later, more experimental work. But Beatles fans generally still like all their music, even if they prefer one era over another. In this respect, the fanbase has a startling [[AvertedTrope aversion]] to being broken.
** There are many people in America who bought Music/{{Wings}} albums but will never admit it.
** "Revolution # 9" from ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''. Is it atrocious noise and genuine AlbumFiller? Or is it an exciting and audacious musical experiment that is essential to the GenreRoulette that this album is?
* ''Music/LinkinPark'''s ''Reanimation'' album, which primarily contained heavily remixed electronic/hip-hop versions of their previous album's songs, caused a major rift in the fanbase trying to decide whether they liked the differing direction of the album or hated it.
** Apart from the remix albums, ''Linkin Park'' fans are divided over the change in Linkin Park's music style from electronica and nu-metal to ballads and soft rock. Some fans claim that the "Old Linkin Park" was the best and that they sold out while others argue that the "New sound" shows their evolution as a band.
** Not to mention their increasing trend towards becoming Music/{{U2}}, with more rock-driven albums than previously and less Shinoda.
** With ''A Thousand Suns'', make that more electronic-driven albums and less Chester.
** And then ''One More Light'' came out, and it was a [[GenreShift pop album]]. Longtime fans of rock music were stunned and critics were harsh, however fans of Linkin Park that also enjoyed pop were much more accepting.
* The Music/{{Coldplay}} album ''Viva La Vida'' has split fans as well, between rejoicing at the [[NewSoundAlbum new sound]] and criticizing them for "trying to be the next Music/{{U2}}".
* The first two Music/{{Oasis}} albums are universally loved by the fans. The subsequent five all sharply divide opinion, including that of ''the band itself'' in one case.
** There's also a Broken Base over which post-Oasis band to follow: Liam's band, Beady Eye, or Noel's project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.
* Music/{{Slipknot}} [[FanNickname Maggots]] constantly fight over whether ''Mate.Feed.Kill.Repeat'' (which was their first album which featured only three of the current nine bandmembers) should be considered a ''real'' Slipknot album. That's before we even get to arguments over ''Vol. 3 The Subluminal Verses'' VS. ''Iowa'' debates.
* ''Music/RageAgainstTheMachine'' fans are very much divided over the quality of ''Audioslave'' and Tom Morello and Zach de la Rocha's solo projects.
** All [[DreamTeam supergroups]] seem to suffer from this to some extent. Go to any discussion about Stone Temple Pilots and mention the words ''Velvet Revolver''. [[InternetBackdraft It will get ugly]]. On the other hand, most Music/GunsNRoses fans seem to have a more universally positive opinion on ''Velvet Revolver''. STP fans are also torn on Scott Weiland's solo project.
* While we're on the subject of Music/GunsNRoses, ''Chinese Democracy''.
** The debate is more of the likes that, if a band who's more than 20 years old and broke up abruptly, coming back without ''80% of the original lineup'' (a weird case of "The Face Minus The Band") and releasing an album stuck in DevelopmentHell during 14 years that was [[SoOkayItsAverage utterly irrelevant]] at its best is worth of any kind of attention nowadays, due to their past-time status of "''Heavy Metal Saviors''".
* ''Music/{{Nightwish}}'', post Tarja Turunen. Some fans think the newer singer and newer sound are a different kind of good, others think it completely sucks now.
** It doesn't help that the band hedged their bets by including an instrumental version with the digipack.
** And, on a secondary note, those who found the way Tarja departed from the group distasteful and a thumb-or-other-appendage in the face disrespectful.
** Don't even think about saying that you like them both. Stating that you do only means that you're a new Nightwish fan who doesn't know jack about them at all. Let's also not forget that stating this only tends to create a flame war between Tarja fans and Annette fans.
** Some fans say that they think that Annette was far more entertaining and nicer live than Tarja was. Then again, some fans didn't like Anette's rendition of older songs (most notably ''Wishmaster'') and complained that her on-stage performance was too "pop" for the band.
** After Annette split from Nightwish (under not particularly good circumstances, either), the debate became more complicated, particularly considering whatever direction Tuomas planned on taking the band, or if there was much he can really do after ''Imaginaerum''.
** Floor Jansen, the singer they picked to finish the tour in place of Annette, seems to have gotten a pretty positive reception - nobody really hates her. But that only splits the flame war into three sides...
* Gothenburg Metal band Music/ArchEnemy's fans arguing about their preference between the current vocalist, Angela Gossow, and former vocalist and founding member, Johan Liiva. Consensus: Gossow = good performer/bad singer; Liiva = good singer/bad performer. Even this is not raised very loudly because the backlash is just not worth it.
** Angela vs. Alissa
** There's a growing group of fans who believe that both Alissa White-Gluz, and Jeff Loomis are being wasted due to the perceived stifling control of Michael Amott.
* Power Metal band Music/{{Stratovarius}}' fans about the pre/post Timo Tolkki periods of the band.
* Suomi Metal band Sentenced, on who between Taneli Jarva or Ville Laihiala is the better singer. Controversy waned when the group disbanded and lead guitarist Miika Tenkula died four years later.
* Electronic/electronic rock musician Celldweller started doing dubstep and drum & bass in more recent works. Go to any song of his on YouTube. Read the comments. There is arguing ''daily'' between members of the fanbase of how awesome/terrible it is, how it means/doesn't mean he sold out, how he should stick to his old sound or keep growing, how his style is changing for the better or [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks for the worse]] and how he does/doesn't have artistic integrity.
* This happened to Music/{{TLC}} later in their career. Them trying to replace ''Lefteye'' definitely rubbed some of the fans the wrong way. Although it was clearly L.A. Reid's doing, the blame still fell in their laps.
** And of course, there's the whole "which member is the best" argument. Some say Chili was the REAL singer in the group, while others think Left Eye was the only good thing about the group. Others thought T-Boz is/was the whole group.
* Music/PinkFloyd - and ''how'' - although their heyday provides only one truly classic example. This was the [[CreatorBreakdown forced departure]] of songwriter/frontman Music/SydBarrett, which divided fans from the playground up into "he was the band" and "alright without him" camps. However, as the band got through the next few albums with increasing sales and audiences, the Syd camp became a minority.\\
\\
The second historical split came around ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', with the shift away from their psychedelic roots towards a darker, edgier and more commercial sound. Many older fans [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks decried this]], complaining also of the live audiences, which were [[ItsPopularNowItSucks getting much larger, more mainstream and rowdier,]] and the larger and less intimate venues required to host them. [[note]]Not that they didn’t have a point, especially where the largest gigs were concerned. The crowd surges could be scary, and the crowd control measures were often primitive and sometimes brutal. The bursting door and police action seen during the "In The Flesh?" concert sequence in the film version of ''Music/TheWall'' were all based on things that had happened on tours.[[/note]] On the other hand, few thought that the subsequent releases were actually ''bad'', and there weren’t really two hostile camps, the new fans being generally oblivious to the older antis.\\
\\
It might be hard to believe now, but Roger Waters’s departure and attempted dissolution of the band caused hardly a ripple at the time. The bandmembers had [[TheFaceless retreated so far behind the imagery and stage effects]] that only a surprisingly small hard core of fans actually knew who Roger Waters ''was'', let alone that he had now quit, depriving Floyd of its main writer; or that he believed the band would/should now cease to exist as a result. It was only with Waters’s failed attempts to stop them using the name, and subsequent exchanges in the music press, that word began to get out to the wider fanbase. [[note]]And it was only in 1990, with ''The Wall – Live in Berlin'' (i.e. Waters presenting and performing ''The Wall'' to a worldwide audience with anyone ''but'' Floyd) that the whole of the fandom really got the message.[[/note]]\\
\\
With the benefit (?) of hindsight and vastly better-informed fans, the fanbase is split six ways to Sunday. Was Barrett or Waters the ''true'' genius? How does their psychedelic era compare to what came after? Are the Gilmour-led albums sell-out trash or nearly as good as the classic ones? Is ''Music/AtomHeartMother'' brilliant or complete rubbish ([[CreatorBacklash the band themselves mostly think the latter]])? Ditto ''Music/TheFinalCut''[[note]]this one divides even the surviving members of the band - they being the ones who were on it)[[/note]]. And so on.
** ''Music/TheFinalCut'' isn't rubbish, but it does illustrate exactly what broke up the band: the liner notes clearly credit it as "[An album] [[IAmTheBand by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd]]." Ow. [[note]]However, as described above, this didn’t actually register with anyone at the time.[[/note]]
*** ''Music/TheFinalCut'' is basically a Roger Waters solo album (and in fact Waters wanted to release it under his own name, but this was vetoed by Gilmour and Mason), but some of the fanbase regards it as one of the group's best albums anyway, even if it isn't a "typical" Floyd album. On the other hand, there is also a significant portion of the fanbase that regards it as worse than the two Gilmour-led albums. Notably, there was one poll where the ''editors'' of a Floyd fan magazine voted it the group's best album, while the ''readers'' voted it the group's worst. ''That's'' how divisive it is.
* An odd obscure one... folk singer Old Man Ludecke and any album/song he has a duet on.
* ''Music/ThreeSixMafia'' went through this when they went from a 6 member group to a 2 member group.
** They also gradually moved away from their horrorcore occult-themed sound over the years toward a more generic hardcore gangsta rap sound (Their original name was ''Triple 6 mafia''... get it?). After that, they moved to a more mainstream hardcore act. These three shifts in style have also really put a wedge in their base.
* Many musical theater types seem to praise Music/KurtWeill's music mainly as a vehicle for the [[WriterOnBoard polemical messages]] of Creator/BertoltBrecht and similar playwrights, and consider his move away from political themes in his later Broadway musicals as a sell-out to American capitalism.
* Music/MichaelJackson's fanbase went through this on ''every'' post-''Music/{{Thriller}}'' record. Their are some who said that his last good album was ''Music/{{Bad}}'', whereas others say it was ''Music/{{Dangerous}}''. Then there are who love ''Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI'' for it being more personal and for its dark overtones; ''Music/{{Invincible}}'' gets a lot of hate from some fan for not using real instruments, while others liked the more urban sound and thought it was Michael going back to his roots.
** There are also some fans who dislike the way Michael sang on certain albums. Some liked the smoother vocals he used from ''Music/OffTheWall'' to ''Music/{{Bad}}'' and dislike the more rougher vocals he used in his later years. There is also a strange divide between producers and who the real genius was.
** Quite a few fans of Jackson prefer his earlier stuff, which is closer to {{Soul}} and {{Funk}}, and feel that after ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' he never quite reached the same heights. Some even want to base this on his skin color, causing a divide between fans who feel Michael was better when he was black.
* ''En Vogue'' went through this with their second album, especially when their rock influenced ''Free Your Mind'' song became uber popular. Predictably, the term "Sell Outs" began swirling around.
* Music/{{Prince}} & The Revolution vs. Prince & The New Power Generation.
** Prince vs. the symbol.
** Or Prince after the symbol.
* Music/MariahCarey:
** Fans (and critics) went through this post-''Music Box''. Either ''Daydream'' or ''Butterfly'' was her last good album or her first bad album. ''Butterfly'' gets shit as it was the first album to move towards a more "urban" (or "ghetto," if you're not a fan) sound; Mariah also became much, much more {{Stripperiffic}}. However, many fans of ''Butterfly'' will argue that at least it still ''sounded'' like a Mariah Carey album, and that it was the sequel, ''Rainbow'', that had Mariah going off the rails with constant rap cameos and even more overt sexualization. Either way, she's never been able to bring the base back together.
*** It should be noted that ''Butterfly'' was the first album where she ''fully'' conformed to her urban sound, thus picking up a [[NewbieBoom new young urban fanbase]] who might not have been interested in her music beforehand. When she stopped making Adult Contemporary power ballads, the Base started to break. Because of the latter, the criticism of her post-''Music Box'' albums tend to veer into UnfortunateImplications territory.
** It runs much much deeper than this. Most of her fans seem to agree that her best work is ''Daydream'', or that it's at least up there. However, after that, it divides quite heavily. Some people like the poppier sound that was found in ''Music Box'' and in her debut, even as it was heavily influenced by R&B. However, ''Daydream'' saw her start to incorporate more of a current sound into her work, against the wishes of her [[DomesticAbuse ex-husband]]. She then continued on this route with ''Butterfly'', picking up new fans that liked her more soulful sound. The people who loved the AC ballads complained that Mariah had lost her mind, but fans of her R&B leaning stuff stated she just sounds bored on ''Music Box'', which [[WordOfGod Mariah reportedly does not like]]. ''The Emancipation of Mimi'' saw the bases starting to get back together because it was compared favorably to everything she had done before. Sadly, there was another split when she went heavy on the current urban trends in ''E=mc2''.
*** It should also be noted most of her pop work was created while she was under the control of a very mentally abusive ex-husband, and, as a result, criticisms on how her husband made her career on top of the urban hate ''really'' veer towards UnfortunateImplications. There are also people that take a third option and like everything but ''Music Box'', save for a few tracks, which earns ire from her pop lovers.
** Ironically, critics as a whole started to ''love'' Mariah Carey after she ditched the PowerBallad sound because she started to sound consistent and more soulful. ''Music Box'' was even more badly received than ''Glitter'' in terms of critical approval. ''Daydream'' was a powerhouse, and her critical love peaked around ''Butterfly'' before reaching another peak with ''E=MC2'', and her albums have been pretty well received since then. Though no one would ever guess it, Mariah Carey's work, to her fans, is SeriousBusiness.
* Music/{{Pink}} was called a sellout after her first album. She switched from urban R&B to pop/rock on her ''mizzunderstood'' album. This seemed to confuse her since she thought she was being more true to her self on the second album. Her first album arguably could be a case of MisaimedFandom, or PeripheryDemographic. Or bad [[MisaimedMarketing marketing]] on her record label's part.
* Music/KanyeWest's album ''808s and Heartbreak'' isn't a rap album, unlike his previous works; it's pure electro-pop. The results were... rather polarizing, to say the least, amongst both fans and critics.
** The album appears to have been VindicatedByHistory, though, as many now consider it to be one of the defining albums of the 2000's.
** ''Yeezus'' appears to be polarizing the fanbase as well.
* Music/AvrilLavigne:
** "Girlfriend". Does it glorify a certain particularly shallow way of thinking, or does it satirize it? And if it's the latter, then, since Teenage Radio Listeners Are Morons, was it a good idea or a bad one?
** Songs like "Hello Kitty" and "Girlfriend" sound completely different from her older styles. Fans are torn on whether her more pop-oriented songs are treacherous or enjoyable.
* Music/KellyClarkson's ''My December''. It's either a dark, depressing album that's not radio friendly, or it's a great album ''because'' it's dark and not radio friendly.
* The Norwegian AOR band TNT have been victims of this in on-off spats. When ''Firefly'' came out in 1997, the fandom was torn between accepting and rejecting the change. Then, when Tony Harnell, the band's most liked singer, left in 2006, and was replaced by British singer Tony Mills, FanDumb erupted like you wouldn't believe, and even more so when ''The New Territory'' came out in 2007. It was a largely LoveItOrHateIt album, but ''Atlantis'' was much better received.
* Kelli Ali was fired from the Music/SneakerPimps after the group's first album and replaced with founding member Chris Corner. The argument continues even today as to whether the group was better with or without her.
* Music/NoDoubt's ''Rock Steady'' album induced this. Most critics loved it but the hardcore fans either had mixed feelings, or outright despised it. Other fans thought it was the best ND album in years.
* Music/DestinysChild fell prey to this phenomenon after the other two original members were unceremoniously booted. This is not to mention the group of fans who thought they were trying too hard to cross over. There is also a group of fans that felt Kelly Rowland was clearly the better singer whom had to play second fiddle to Beyoncé Knowles, who they thought had a special [[ButNotTooBlack "advantage"]].
** Lampooned to hilarious effect by ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASCZgbJxC8 this sketch]].

* Music/DreamTheater. Older music (''Images and Words'', ''Awake'') vs newer music (''Train of Thought, ''Systematic Chaos''), Kevin Moore vs. Derek Sherinan vs. Jordan Rudess, too much keyboard vs. not enough keyboard, music is too heavy vs. music is too poppy, who's the best lyricist?, songs are [[EpicRocking too long]], songs are too short... just about anything, really.
** It really doesn't help that Dream Theater is pure LoveItOrHateIt material to begin with.
*** There's the fans who supported Mike Portnoy's ejection from the band and think that the band was right to not let him rejoin ([[FanDumb Despite the band lacking a drummer]]), and those who believe that Portnoy should be allowed back in.
** Another topics prone to Flame Wars include: James [=LaBrie=] vs Charlie Dominicci. And the most overlooked and least fandumbish, but most well-argumented and heated debate: Music after Scenes From a Memory: [[NewSoundAlbum A new era in the band's sound]] by emulating and adding their own style to classic 60's/70's experimental progressive rock? Or just a long-running, boring and over-the-top battle between John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess overwanking to their instruments in order to see who's the fastest musician on earth, [[JumpingTheShark leading the songs to have no real structure whatsoever]]?
* Music/IgorStravinsky is perhaps the all-time example of a composer with a fractured, factionalized fanbase. After making his initial fame by applying impressionist harmonies to Slavic melody and rhythm with such works as [[Theatre/TheFirebird "The Firebird"]] and "Petrushka", Stravinsky's brutal, primitivist ballet [[Theatre/TheRiteOfSpring "The Rite of Spring"]] incited a riot at its premiere in Paris in 1913 as audience members who hated the work clashed with others who found it one of the most exciting things they'd ever heard. (Apparently, Stravinsky wasn't too happy with this; he left the concert in a taxi, exclaiming that he'd never been so angry.) Unfortunately for fans of the "Rite", Stravinsky would compose only a few more works in this vein before turning to a cooler, more controlled and intellectual neoclassical style in the 1920's. The fans of the neoclassical Stravinsky held him up as a proponent of tonality in opposition to the atonal style of Music/ArnoldSchoenberg, Stravinsky's contemporary and rival best known for his invention of dodecaphonic (or "twelve-tone") music. After Schoenberg's death in 1951, Stravinsky proceeded to confound his neoclassical fans by turning to Schoenbergian dodecaphony himself.
* No love (or hate) for Music/AliceInChains yet? The flamewars on Youtube over Layne's death never die down. Not to even mention William [=DuVall=]; entire cities have been warmed by the flames stemming from just one claim that he's better than Layne.
* Music/{{REM}}. People can go on for hours over whether ''Music/AutomaticForThePeople'' is a mature, deep, emotional masterpiece or overproduced pop schlock, a glorified Michael Stipe solo record that showcases the band as a shadow for their former selves. Just say the words "Everybody Hurts" and watch the fun begin. The far less famous ''Up'' can inspire similar reactions.
** ''Monster'' is one of the most divisive albums they ever did, having a radically different sound to anything that came before it.
* Check out the comments on any Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge video, and prepare to be assaulted by back and forth on "They suck after Nick left", countered by "They would suck if they still had a wife-beater and a drunk in their band." All this ignores, of course, the fact that Josh Homme has written all the music from the get-go, and has recorded just about every track in the studio, including most of the bass work in the first album, and a lot of it in the second.
* Anything Music/IceCube did after ''The Predator'' (or ''Lethal Injection'' depending on who you ask) tends to divide fans. ''Lethal Injection'' specifically is polarizing. It was a commercial hit, but it was heavily criticized for what many saw as Cube's pandering to a crossover audience and toning down the hardcore socio-political content found on his earlier efforts. Others saw this as unfair, as they thought it was still vintage gritty Cube but with G-funk productions. The album's standing has [[VindicatedByHistory increased over time]], though once people realized that it wasn't a huge departure as was first thought.
* Likewise with poor Nas. After ''Illmatic'', virtually every album he made afterwards polarized his base. ''Stillmatic'' almost sealed the divide... almost.
* Music/JanetJackson's ''Velvet Rope'' album. Critics loved it, and most fans loved it, but others were alienated by its darker tone. There's also the debate on whether or not her ''Janet.'' album is a worthy successor to ''Rhythm Nation'', whereas others think fans need to suck it up and accept she changed with the times, and that they should let the 80's go.
** Then there are those who feel she went downhill in the 2000's.
* Music/{{Madonna}} fans tend to be divided over ''Music/{{Erotica}}'', which many consider to be a great album that was unfairly bashed due to the title track and the HypeBacklash over Madonna in the early 1990s, or else a really crappy album with one good song (the hit single "Rain"). Also at debate, whether Madonna is better at making dance music or ballads and songs about important social messages.
** Also, ''Music''. A good album that was simply anticipated too much due to ''Music/RayOfLight'', or a really, ''really'' poor sequel?
* Music/BetteMidler's song "From A Distance". Is it a song that empowers and encourages hope deep within people no matter how bad the events in our society would get? Or is it preachy and pretentious drivel to the point that some people claim that it has a deist view of God?
* Music/{{ACDC}} fans are divided over which of AC/DC's two lead singers, Bon Scott or Brian Johnson, is better. The one thing that they are unified on is that ''Music/BackInBlack'' is an AWESOME ALBUM.[[note]]For the record, even though Brian Johnson sang on that album, some of the songwriting was also already done by Bon Scott.[[/note]]
* ''Music/DavidBowie''. Pretty much ANY time he [[Main/NewSoundAlbum shifted styles]], a split in fandom occured regarding whether it was worth sticking around for, all the way up to 2003's ''Reality''. The most important breaks newbies should be careful about bringing up are:
** 1980's NewWaveMusic effort ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps)'' has long had a reputation (with both fans and professional critics) as the end of his "golden age" because he followed that with the pop rock of 1983's ''Music/LetsDance'', recorded SPECIFICALLY to appeal to casual fans/listeners. This was either great or really lame. It became his biggest-selling album and triggered a NewbieBoom, but even he regrets sticking with that approach on his next two albums, which resulted in a DorkAge from 1984-87.
** Other fans argue the drop-off came during the Tin Machine period of 1989-92. Bowie decided to free himself from his recent excesses by establishing a HardRock group that he could just be a member of. But he was, like it or not, TheFaceOfTheBand and though the public at least understood his intentions, they didn't care for the music that resulted. The fact that he'd just hit middle age, the point when so many established stars start crying WereStillRelevantDammit, probably didn't help matters.
* Music/ToriAmos' fanbase started to slowly divide with ''To Venus and Back'', when the much hyped B-Side album was dropped for new material, done mainly so Tori could advance one step closer to get out of her contract with Atlantic Records after being told point blank by the label that they weren't going to promote her work anymore. Some consider TVAB to be Tori's last good album. ''Scarlet's Walk'' was better received but ''The Beekeeper'' came out and broke the base clear down the middle. How badly was it broken? You had people joking that the only way that Tori would be able to make a new good album would be if something bad happened to her family, since most of what made the early Tori albums so popular was the anger Tori had towards Christianity, being raped, her ex-boyfriend, having a miscarriage, etc. that drove her early albums.
** Tori broke her base again with ''American Doll Posse''. One half thought that it was her best album in years, while the other half thought it was crap. ''Abnormally Attracted to Sin'' had similar effects. It wasn't until Tori released a ''solstice'' album (''Midwinter Graces'') that more fans than not were satisfied. 2011's ''Night of Hunters'' was also felt to be a step further in the right direction, especially its tour with a string quartet.
* Fans of Music/TheMountainGoats are often divided over whether the band's newer, more polished output is an improvement on the earlier boombox recordings or not.
* 65daysofstatic's album "We Were Exploding Anyway" was greatly divisive: some fans embraced the new, more dance-oriented direction of the album as a logical progression. There is, however, a considerable portion of fans who were looking forward to more glitchy post-rock, and will not listen to the album.
* Music/{{Queensryche}} experienced one of these when guitarist Chris [=DeGarmo=] left the band. Somewhat expected, in that [=DeGarmo=] was one half of the band's primary songwriting team, which drastically altered their sound in music that followed.
** That proved to be nothing compared to what happened when the band fired singer Geoff Tate in June of 2012. After lawsuits were filed on both sides, a judge ruled that both parties could use the name until the suit was settled in November of 2013 (later pushed back to late January 2014 due to Tate not being ready for the case), resulting in two competing versions of Queensryche. Tate seems to be more or less continuing in the direction of the band's more recent work, while the rest of the band is pursuing a sound closer to that of their early albums. The fandom appears to have mostly sided with the other members over Tate, but both sides seem utterly convinced that they are the majority and the opposition is using deceitful means to make themselves appear far greater in number than they actually are, and until the name rights get resolved it's pretty much at the point where any post about either side will inevitably devolve into a massive flame war.
* Music/{{Outkast}} post ''Aquemini'' albums. ''Especially'' during the ''Speakerboxxx/Love Below'' era, as many felt the duo had become too pretentious and goofy by this time.
* A lighter example with Music/{{Disturbed}}'s fan base over the bassists: [[StageNames Fuzz]] vs. John Moyer.
** A heavier example is the fire storm that happened when they said #[=AllLivesMatter=]. Then they backtracked and said that #[=AllLivesMatter=] and #[=BlackLivesMatter=]. That just made it worse.
* Dutch cult band Music/TheGathering seems cursed with losing singers. But its greatest loss is when Anneke Van Giersbergen, their charismatic third (or fourth, if you count the two singers from their sophomore album) singer, who left to form a band with her husband.
* R&B singer Brandy's ''Never Say Never'' album caused this. Some saying she was trying too hard to [[MultipleDemographicAppeal appeal to multiple demographics]]. The album was accused of targeting the whitebread A/C crowd, the bubblegum pop crowd, the hip urban street crowd.
** She even had singles for each demographic too. ''Have You Ever'' for the A/C crowd, ''Almost Doesn't Count'' for the older R&B crowd, ''The Boy Is Mine'' for the bubblegum pop crowd, and ''Sitting On Top Of The World'' for young urban radio.
* Anything by Music/{{Sade}} post-''[[CrowningMusicOfAwesome love Delux]]'', specifically when ''Lover's Rock'' came out, continuing into ''Soldier Of Love''. Some feel that they are moving from the more organic, "quiet storm", contemporary R&B/Soul, contemporary jazz fusion sound, and are suffering from a mild form of modern production aesthetics. Others think they are just changing with the times, and that their music is still good.
* Music/{{Flyleaf}} has been having a slight fan division since ''Memento Mori'' came out. Some of the fans dislike the album due to its (more explict) Christian undertones. The band is NotChristianRock; however, their lyrics have Christian overtones due to their beliefs, and their second album is more obviously Christian than the first.
** The opposite has happened to a lot of ChristianRock bands such as Music/{{Skillet}}. They were originally very obviously Christian, but later they become more secular and their messages more subtle; a majority of their fans don't even realize they're Christian, or notice the Christian overtones.
** [[FaceOfTheBand Lacey]] left the band to persue other things. The fanbase is torn on whether the newer singer is good or not, whether she's a suitable replacement, or whether they should change the name of the band and stop singing Flyleaf songs.
* BT, before and after ''Emotional Technology''.
* Music/BobDylan should have been at the head of this list! Just start with the massive schism over his going electric, and drill down from there.
* Music/LadyGaga's fanbase divided after Gaga's change after recording Cheek to Cheek, when she took on a more toned down atittude and way of being. This prolonged to the release of her album Joanne. There's the side that misses the old Gaga and wants her to comeback, and the other part that prefers the new, toned down Gaga. There's also the third side, that likes both.
* Evans Blue had two rather unique albums that included the (then) lead singer/songwriter Kevin Matisyn. In 2008 Kevin was kicked out of the band and replaced with a new lead who had a completely different sound and lyrics. Cue base breaking.
* Music/DuranDuran's fanbase is rabid about whether the "fab five" lineup of Simon, Nick, John, Andy, and Roger was the acme of the band's existence; whether they improved post-split with the severely trimmed-down lineup of Simon, Nick, and John; whether the best lineup of their musical career was the '90s lineup of Simon, Nick, John, and Warren; whether John leaving the band was a good thing or a terrible thing; or whether the 2001 "reunion" was a good idea. And furthermore, after Andy left (again!) and they replaced him with Dom, the base argues whether the band is still relevant and interesting or a hoary old dinosaur that's fooling itself into thinking it's ''not'' extinct.
** By the way, even the question of a "reunion" in 2001 brought forth a flurry of controversy from people who resented the insinuation that the band were "reuniting" since they never went away, and it went even deeper when the press frequently cited that it was "the original lineup", since the "fab five" lineup of Simon, Nick, John, Andy, and Roger was in no way the "original lineup" from the band's 1978 establishment (that would've been Steve Duffy, Simon Colley, Nick, and John). It was another reason for the fans who got into the band from about 1987 onward and/or preferred the non-"fab five" band eras, who felt betrayed and disenfranchised by the "reunion" era activities, to hate what was happening, especially since the band seemed to be doing that to court what the disenfranchised fan base felt were "fairweather fans" who dropped the band when it no longer became about the "fab five". The disenfranchised fan set also felt very strongly that from 2004's ''Astronaut'' on, the band had compromised its artistic integrity (since Warren was the member who introduced experimental elements into the band's music) for purely poppish interests.
* Music/GreenDay: Is ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' as good as the previous work? Have they become {{Emo}}? Is ''Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown'' worth something?
** Green Day have had complaints from some of their older fans about ''most'' of their albums - ''Dookie'' marked the switch to a major label and had a comparatively polished production sound; ''Nimrod'' diluted the band's melodic punk-rock sound with more diverse influences and produced an acoustic ballad as a major single; ''Warning'' diversified further with the acoustic guitars gaining more ground. From a purely sonic point of view, you could almost argue that ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' was a return to past form.
*** ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' in a nutshell is a case when bringing the "return to past form" topic, even when comparing to the first records, because the band never made any ballad (like ''Boulevard of Broken Dreams'' and ''Wake me Up when September ends'') during their [=39/Smooth=]/Insomniac era, and their longest song, somehow faithful to old school punk music, was barely behind the 4 minute bar (Longview is 3:59).
* Music/{{Chicago}}: Terry Kath/every-other-guitarist-the-band-has-ever-had; to a lesser extent, Peter Cetera/Jason Scheff and Danny Seraphine/Tris Imboden.
* The fanbases of Music/TheWho and Music/TheSmallFaces can get like this occasionally, with fans of their R&B days clashing with fans of their later releases (''Music/{{Tommy}}'', ''Music/WhosNext'' and ''Music/{{Quadrophenia}}'' for the former and ''There Are But Four Small Faces'' and ''Music/OgdensNutGoneFlake'' for the latter).
* Music/{{Sugarland}} tried to go more eclectic with their acoustic-pop album ''The Incredible Machine''. Some think it's great; others think that besides the singles "Stuck Like Glue" and "Little Miss", it's terrible and far too strident an attempt at a new sound.
* Following the pop crossover success of "This Kiss" and "Breathe" a couple years earlier, Music/FaithHill set her sights on AC with the 2002 album ''Cry'', a more bombastic pop album than her slick country-pop of the past. Many fans thought that she was abandoning the country genre altogether, and the album tanked at that format (although the title track was a major pop hit and even won her a Grammy). She was all but gone from the country airwaves until 2005, when ''Fireflies'' finally brought her back to form for about a year.
* Music/ChristinaAguilera with ''Stripped''. Most fans loved it, whereas critics felt she was selling out with her "Dirrty" image and not taking advantage of her skilled voice. Like Pink, however, Christina herself thought she was simply being true to herself with her new image.
** And ''Bionic''. Some fans supported it; other hated it. On the other hand, most ignored her recent album ''Lotus''.
* The Wildhearts' 1997 album ''Endless Nameless'' abandoned the band's traditional blend of loud guitars with big tunes and harmonies in favour of an experimental extreme-noise-rock sound. Band-related web forums enjoyed heated debate, as some fans insisted that the music was stronger than ever underneath the noise, while others expressed feelings ranging from indifference to outright betrayal. Only one or two songs from this album have had significant live exposure since 2000, despite the frontman having said several times on record that this album is his favorite, and all the band's subsequent albums have been much closer to the earlier sound.
* KK Downing vs. Glenn Tipton of Music/JudasPriest.
** Invoked in the song ''Glenn Tipton'' by the group Sun Kil Moon.
* Music/AliciaKeys fanbase became broken with ''The Element of Freedom'' and ''Girl on Fire'' when she started to experiment with power ballads and made less pure R&B/Soul songs.
** To that end, there's also the fact she changed her vocal style. Some find it compelling, while others find it grating and say she is trying to sing far beyond her vocal range.
* Did Music/ModestMouse become better or worse when they signed onto a major label? Do you favor the early underground stuff straight from the jaws of LSD, or the later overblown monstrosities of their 2000's albums?
** As evidenced above, a lot of old-school fans dislike the new(er) sound, but most of the people who were exposed to Modest Mouse with Good News and We Were Dead liked it so much that they searched out the old albums and dug them too. So it's mostly a one-way break.
* Japan's base are extremely split on whether their first two albums are worth listening to or not. People who like their first album ''Adolescent Sex'' usually think that Music/DavidSylvian has lost his sense of fun over the years with increasingly mature music. However, people who like the ambient music often wish ''Adolescent Sex'' never existed because it conflicts with their view of Sylvian as a melancholic recluse.
* Music/IcedEarth's fanbase are usually in agreement that their work up to and including ''Something Wicked This Way Comes'' kicks ass, but the fanbase is very divided afterwards. This is because of the band's decision to go for a more power metal sound, rather than the dark thrash they were known for. The singer Tim "Ripper" Owens is the most common reason for this, as he is incapable of singing in a deep register, unlike Matt Barlow who he replaced, so the band had to change their sound to fit him.
* Scooter's fanbase are divided on every album, due to the band's increasing reliance on uncredited cover songs and high pitched vocals, something which wasn't nearly as prevalent in their earlier years. In the case of the single "The Only One" there are those who like it because it has "the Scooter sound" and those who hate it because it sounds like a cheap imitation of them.
* Music/RedHotChiliPeppers have quite a large BrokenBase due to their evolution from a funk-punk band through more slow-paced funk mixed with the alternative rock they've produced later on. However, the fanbase are extremely divided on the album ''[[CreatorBreakdown One Hot Minute]]'', and starting a thread on a RHCP forum about it is not advised.
* Anything by Music/AlanisMorrisette after ''Music/JaggedLittlePill''. Also, anything before ''Jagged Little Pill.''
* Happened to rapper ''Mystikal'' after he left No Limit records and came out with the club-friendly ''Let's Get Ready'' CD, causing ''A LOT'' of ''Unpredictable/Ghetto Fabulous'' (his most popular albums prior to the 00's) vs. ''Let's Get Ready'' album wars.
* It's not advised to go to rapper Twista's message board and bring up anything after the Adrenalin Rush album (Twista's most beloved album, plus somewhat of a cult classic). Interestingly enough one Allmusic reviewer snarkily points this out when they reviewed his ''The Day After'' Album, commenting that fans of Adrenalin Rush are gonna sneer at the album because it's filled with slick R&B productions. And that's ''exactly'' what happened.
** His Adrenalin Rush 2007 album caused even more controversy , because it was called adrenaline rush... and sounded ''[[InNameOnly nothing]]'' like the original... baaaaad idea.
* Fans of the Music/{{Sugababes}} with Keisha vs fans of the lineup without her. Keisha was kicked out of the band in 2009 and replaced with another member. A huge argument erupted between fans of Keisha and fans that were willing to give the new version of the band a chance. The Keisha fans argued that the band wasn't Sugababes anymore without her (because she was a founding member), while the others argued that they should give the new lineup a chance and the music would still be the same no matter what.
* Music/KidRock has changed his music style several times over the years. Initially he was a rapper; then he made the very successful "Devil Without A Cause" which blended rap with rock & roll, and since then he has dabbled in SouthernRock, AC/DC-style HardRock, country, and even gospel. Naturally this has caused rifts in his fan base, with fans of his early stuff accusing him of "selling out" while fans of his newer stuff believe that he has grown and matured.
* Want to start an argument on a HeavyMetal message board? Ask "Who is the better vocalist: [[Music/JudasPriest Rob Halford]] or [[Music/IronMaiden Bruce Dickinson]]?" or "Should Music/{{Rush}} be considered metal?"
* Music/{{Evanescence}} experienced this with the leaving of Ben Moody. Many fans love The Open Door and their SelfTitledAlbum, and think that both are as good as the original while diverging into different sounds. However, there is a large fan base that says Fallen was the best album hands down, and the other two were no where near close because Amy Lee isn't as talented as Ben Moody.
** There is also a section of fans that took great offense to Amy Lee denouncing their Christian Rock undertones stating that "It was Ben's thing, I never viewed the music like [[ChristianRock that.]]" Many fans who found the Christian tones the driving force were upset that Amy never viewed it that way.
** There are also Fallen/Evanescence fans who like their rockier, more violent sound, which is rather sad/downbeat lyrically, and The Open Door fans who like the focus on build and more classical elements, with more abstract lyrics and sarcasm.
* Everything but the Girl. Fans of their early, jazzy “sophisti-pop” phase tend to have an intense dislike for their later, techno-dancefloor-oriented phase, and vice versa.
* Music/MyChemicalRomance. Dear God, ''Music/MyChemicalRomance''. Was ''I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love'' an underrated success of theirs or just the band finding their feet? Is ''Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge'' the greatest thing they've done, or would that be ''Music/TheBlackParade''? Did they completely lose the plot with ''Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys'' or is a refreshing new start for them? Should ex-drummer Bob Bryar be reunited with the group or is that era over and done with?
* Music/{{Sepultura}} fans are heavily divided. There are those who only like the music with Max, those who only like the music with Derrick, those who like all their music, those who only like the material before ''Chaos A.D.'' and ''Music/{{Roots}}'', those who ''only'' like ''Chaos A.D.'' and ''Roots'', younger fans who pretend the music with Max never existed, and older fans who pretend the music with Derrick never existed. Some people don't even believe the music with Derrick is even by Sepultura, thinking it's a different band with the same name.
* Music/{{MGMT}}'s ''Congratulations'' is either a psychedelic masterpiece or a self-indulgent mess that proves that they don't have any more hits left in them. The dividing line mainly seems to be fans who got into the band through SynthPop-influenced singles like "Kids" and "Time To Pretend" versus those who were initially familiar with the more experimental material they released before ''Oracular Spectacular''.
* Music/RedHousePainters was struck with a rather hefty one when Mark Kozelek banded together the new band Music/SunKilMoon in 2003. Many people were hoping on a continuation of RHP's existence after the surprise release of ''Old Ramon''. Kozelek tried his hardest to get his old bandmates back together but most of them had moved onto different projects in the 5 years since. Unable to get anyone besides Anthony Koustos back, Kozelek decided to rename the project Sun Kil Moon. This cause quite a ruckus in the fandom between whether or not the new project was any good. Then once ''Ghosts Of The Great Highway'' was released, there was a whole new section of fans that actually ''preferred'' Sun Kil Moon's sound over RHP's. Then the third group formed around the 2010s that enjoy both project's music and just want the two groups to shut up and enjoy the music already.
* Rap duo Mobb Deep has had a very polarizing post-[[TheNineties nineties]] career. Like their Queens native contemporary Nas, Mobb Deep has had to endure a broken base ever since Murda Muzik. Everything after that album was highly contentious. Then they signed to G-unit....and things went downhill from there.
** ''Blood Money'' was a polarizing album that got mixed reviews from fans. It did get good ratings from HipHop publications like XXL and Vibe, but outside of that it got average reviews.
* In fact, almost every rapper from the [[TheNineties 90's]] had issues with transitioning into the TurnOfTheMillennium. Either adapt and lose the core fans, or stay the same and possibly become irrelevant because you couldn't grab new younger fans. It's a complicated tight rope to walk.
* Music/BryanAdams, post ''Reckless''. ''Into the Fire'' is well loved by fans due to its more serious tone; critics ignored it since it produced just one sequel. Then there's the debate over ''Waking Up the Neighbors'' and ''18 Til I Die'', both of which some viewed as a great album but others viewed as him taking a huge step backwards.
* Music/JayZ. Some fans believe his more recent albums just don't have the same musical depth of ''Music/ReasonableDoubt'' (his classic debut album), [[QualityByPopularVote no matter how popular they are]].
* Music/{{Muse}}. Take a look on the official board and you'll see a pretty definite divide between "people who think Bellamy can do no wrong" and "people who think the band've jumped the shark but hang about because of friends they've made". Threads can easily dissolve into "if you don't like them, why are you still here?" or, on the flip side, "you'd listen to faecal matter if it came from Bellamy and you'd praise it to high heaven". Beyond that, there's another set of splits between "people who think they started to suck after ''Absolution''"; "people who think they started to suck after getting involved with Twilight" and "people who think ''The Resistance'' is a work of art". Things can get... heated.
** And that's before ''The 2nd Law'' came out. Hooooooo boy, the reaction to the dubstep in the trailer...
** Dubstep aside, what was much more divisive was the completely scatter-shot nature of the album, and the variety of musical styles that Muse attempted (with mixed success) to pull off.
* SuperJunior provides an interesting example, in that the base split started with the addition of [[PromotedFanboy Kyuhyun]], who was later accepted and later became one of the most prominent members. The addition of [[CanadaEh Henry Lau]] and Zhou Mi was much more polarizing, seeing as they are only officially members of the subgroup Super Junior M (catering to the Chinese market) and not the first Chinese members of Super Junior anyway. The "only 13 versus all 15" debate has pretty much died down as of late. And then Han Geng left...
* Music/NewEdition fans would have debates over the departure of Bobby Brown. Some would say that New Edition wouldn't make it without Bobby, while N.E. fans would say Bobby is going nowhere without the group. It turned out that they both did spectacularly well without the other. New Edition released their most popular album with N.E. Heartbreak, and Bobby became ''THE'' biggest male R&B/pop artist of the late 80's and early 90's.
%%* For Music/KillswitchEngage fans it's Jesse Leach VS. Howard Jones. Especially since Howard quit and Jesse returned as lead vocalist.
* Music/SonataArctica had this once after ''[[NewSoundAlbum Unia]]'', and again after ''Stones Grow Her Name''. It doesn't help that the band, which is known to have very poetic lyrics, made a single called [[OddNameOut Shitload of Money]] on the latter.
* Music/InFlames' older albums are often praised for being melodic death metal masterpieces, but when they changed their sound in 2002 with ''Reroute to Remain'' it caused a bitter flame war between "old" and "new" In Flames fans that still hasn't ceased; if you look on a comments section involving In Flames anywhere, it's '''very''' likely there'll be a debate (or flamewar) over new vs. old In Flames.
* {{Music/Soilwork}} also changed their sound from melodic death metal to include alternative influences with 2003's ''Figure Number Five''; again, this also split the base between "old vs. new", although most of the fanbase on both sides seem to have received ''The Living Infinite'' quite well. Some Soilwork fans will argue that ''Natural Born Chaos'' is where it went wrong.
* There seems to be quite a lot of animosity within the Music/AtTheGates fanbase: Namely, the fans of the 1995 melodic death metal album ''Slaughter of the Soul'' and the 1991 death metal album ''The Red in the Sky is Ours''. The death metal fans often deride [=SotS=] for "paving the way for a new era of awful metalcore bands".
* Music/{{Opeth}} started out as a progressive death metal group, but their sound slowly became less death metal-oriented over time. Eventually they became a progressive rock/metal band. Like with Genesis, the fanbase is divided into three groups: the fans of their older work (largely comprised of [[FanDumb metalheads who believe Opeth has "betrayed" metal]]), the fans of their newer work (largely comprised of progressive rock fans) and those that enjoy their entire career.
* Music/{{Vocaloid}}. The Kaito [[ShipToShipCombat Shipping Wars]]. Do you support him with [[[{{Tsundere}} Meiko]] or [[{{Moe}} Miku]]? Dare you even mention Luka? Whatever it is, you'd better not talk about it in the comments, no matter which pairing is supported....
* Like the above HipHop example, this has happened to R&B during the transition from TheSeventies to [[TheEighties Early Eighties]]. The sound switched from funk/soul and or disco to post-disco, synthesized/electro funk, and new wave R&B. You had artists that were known for their quiet storm slow jams like ''The Whispers'' making songs like "Rock Steady", and ushering in electro/funk new wave bands like Starpoint, Midnight Star, Patrice Rushen, Zapp, Evelyn King, The System etc. Some thrived in the transition and became even bigger in this era like S.O.S. Band, DeBarge, Kool and The Gang, Michael Jackson (and later Janet Jackson), The Gap Band, and Cameo, who all started as straight forward R&B, soul and funk in the previous decade. Some fans loved that age while others might see it as a overproduced DorkAge of modern R&B/Funk/Soul.
* Reliant K's album ''Collapsible Lung'' has caused quite a division between fans who hate it because of the pop, say it's the best thing ever because of the pop, are OK with it and don't take either side, and fans who are uncomfortable with the less-than-Christian message (some songs actually feature unsubtle IntercourseWithYou references, which is very shocking for a Christian rock band).
* Cassadee Pope REALLY split her fanbase when she left pop punk band Hey Monday, went onto ''The Voice'' and won, and went on to perform... wait for it... ''[[NewSoundAlbum COUNTRY MUSIC]].'' Many fans love this new direction, others are, to put it lightly, ''very'' torn on it, especially considering that country music is already a very polarizing genre.
* Music/DaftPunk caused a rift between fans with ''Human After All''. Some praised the album for its new sound and more experimental edge, while others called it irritating and sloppy.
* Was ''Hazards of Love'' a crime against humanity, or a brilliant work of art? Has ''The King Of Dead'' once and for all proved that Music/TheDecemberists have lost their touch and are "going mainstream Americana?" While conversations about this particular band are usually amiable, one can find some ''vocal'' detractors.
* As mentioned with other examples, this happens a lot to Christian musicians, and often [[NotChristianRock people who are assumed to be]]. There's a big rift between fans who interpret songs in a religious manner and songs who interpret them in a more secular manner.
* Music/{{Ultravox}} had two distinct career halves, the first one led by John Foxx, the other one led by Midge Ure. In a magnificent blend of ItsPopularNowItSucks, ReplacementScrappy, and TrueArtIsAngsty, people either prefer the more experimental and noisey John Foxx-led post-punk albums or the more [[LighterAndSofter accessible]] Midge Ure-led synth pop albums.
* Music/BradPaisley has two:
** The first was his 2008 album ''Play'', which was mostly composed of guitar instrumentals and had only a couple non-instrumental songs (one of which, the Music/KeithUrban duet "Start a Band", was a #1 hit). While some found it an enjoyable diversion and felt that it allowed Paisley to show off his guitar playing like never before, others felt that it was needlessly self-indulgent noodling that didn't need to exist.
** Next was 2013's ''Wheelhouse''. The album found him abandoning RecordProducer Frank Rogers, who had been his producer since his 1999 debut, in favor of self-production. It also found him recording more topical material than before, such as racism, domestic abuse, and xenophobia. Some felt that the album was his most ambitious to date, with more creative production than its predecessors; others found it a bloated, grossly-overproduced mess. (However, both sides mostly agreed that the Music/LLCoolJ duet "Accidental Racist" was a huge misstep.) The third and fourth singles off the album ("I Can't Change the World" and "The Mona Lisa") also bombed, becoming his lowest-peaking since "Me Neither" off his debut album. It seems that Paisley realized this, as 2014's ''Moonshine in the Trunk'' tones things down somewhat.
* Music/TaylorSwift: Pretty much everything she released after her debut has been a base breaker of sorts. Every successive album saw her veering further and further from her roots as a country singer and closer towards being a pop (and occasional rock) singer. Naturally, this has caused a ''major'' divide in her fanbase, with some wanting her to return to playing straight up country and others arguing that pop is where her true talent lies.
* Music/FallOutBoy: many fans consider their quality to be inversely proportional to popularity. ''Take This To Your Grave'', therefore, was perfect, and ''Save Rock and Roll'' was pure trash. Also: if you're a post-hiatus fan you obviously only like them because they're popular.
** ''Folie à Deux'' was this when it first came out. People hated its new pop-ish sound and the band got booed whenever they performed songs off of it. This led to them going on a hiatus for four years, and they still don't play any songs from it live because they're hurt over its reception.
** When "American Beauty/American Psycho", "Centuries", and "Immortals" came out, people immediately started criticizing them for changing their sound. Ignoring, of course, that they change their sound significantly on every album.
* Take a gander at any band that is ChristianRock or might even [[NotChristianRock vaguely be considered]] Christian Rock. You'll notice a lot of debates about whether a song is religious or not, and it often warps into outright arguments about religion.
* Music/StatusQuo. It's generally agreed that if you're a Quo fan, you either prefer the harder, heavier music from their "Frantic Four" heyday (i.e. ''Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon'' to ''Blue For You''), or you favour all their music in general. The former camp is divided even further - whilst many people simply feel the earlier stuff is better, there is a section of the fanbase that feel Quo have betrayed their hard rock roots by experimenting with a poppier sound, and will refuse to enjoy anything post-'70s, up to and including the current lineup of the band. The rest don't seem to mind.
* Music/FrankZappa's entire career is made of broken bases. Granted, most Zappa fans like a majority of his music, but he changed his style so often and drastically with each album -- this was also due to [[RevolvingDoorBand musicians in his band frequently changing and leaving]] -- that there are bound to be some albums that some of his fans will dislike.\\\
There are those Zappa fans who prefer the original Mothers of Invention line-up (from ''Music/FreakOut'' until ''Music/WeaselsRippedMyFlesh''). Others only like Zappa's output from ''Music/OverNiteSensation'' until ''Music/SheikYerbouti'' for their rich, orchestrated sound and incredible professional musicianship. Some fans dismiss this period because they like Zappa's late 1960s and early 1970s pure AvantGardeMusic output better than the heavy rock sound. Others only like his rock songs. Some people only enjoy Zappa's comedy novelty songs and have no interest in his GenreRoulette music. Others like Zappa as a musical innovator and could do without his BawdySong material. Some adore his guitar solos, while others think they go on for far too long.\\\
A major base-breaker is ''Music/JoesGarage''. Some fans feel it's his last ''classic'' album before the 1980s set in and a long period of lesser to outright terrible albums began. Others claim that ''Music/SheikYerbouti'' was his last classic album and see ''Joe's Garage'' as practically the ''start'' of Zappa's lesser period. In general, most Zappa fans like his 1960s and 1970s output just fine, but his 1980s work (''Music/TinseltownRebellion'', ''Music/YouAreWhatYouIs'', ''Music/ShipArrivingTooLateToSaveADrowningWitch'', ''Music/TheManFromUtopia'', ''Music/ThemOrUs'', ''Music/ThingFish'' and ''Music/FrankZappaMeetsTheMothersOfPrevention'' in particular) is more polarizing. Many feel that Zappa's 1980s output was musically less colorful, with an over-reliance on singing in obnoxiously stupid voices about painfully unfunny subjects that probably were only funny to Zappa's own band. Many of his political songs from that era have now become very dated because they were so direct in their attacks on the [[MoralGuardians Moral Majority]], the UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan administration, the PMRC, and televangelists like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart. \\\
The most polarizing records in Zappa's entire oeuvre are ''Music/TheManFromUtopia'' and ''Music/ThingFish'', which are both prime examples of all the typical problems of his 1980s work. "Thing-Fish" in particular is even worse, because it's a double album where Zappa just recycles songs from his older albums and has Ike Willis sing over it in a mock imitation of the Kingfish character from ''Radio/AmosNAndy''.\\\
Zappa's shift to Synclavier compositions also has its supporters and haters, with people who feel it just sounds cold and devoid of humanity.
* Music/BobMarley: Some fans feel his 1960s and early 1970s work is great and that he went "commercial" after ''[[Music/LiveBobMarleyAlbum Live]]'' brought "No Woman, No Cry" to the top of the charts.
* Music/ElvisPresley: Did his career go downhill after he joined the army in 1958? Or was ''Music/ElvisNBCTVSpecial'' (1968) his last hurrah? Either way many people are divided over whether they like the early 1950s RockAndRoll legend better than the Las Vegas mainstay he became two decades later.
* Music/StevieWonder: His 1960s and 1970s output is held in high esteem, though his 1980s output became increasingly more saccharine to many. Enough to make Creator/JackBlack in ''Film/HighFidelity'' chase a customer away over the fact that he wanted to buy "I Just Called To Say I Love You" (1984).
* Music/PaulMcCartney: Did he ever make anything as good after ''Music/BandOnTheRun''? Or not?
* Music/TomWaits: Some fans like his work before ''Music/{{Swordfishtrombones}}'', which is jazzy crooner music, better than his later more AvantGardeMusic and AlternativeFolk music.
* Music/VelvetUnderground: Many fans feel that the band died when Music/JohnCale left. Others claim they were still good until Music/LouReed left.
* Music/TheRollingStones: Alright... let's go over all the broken bases here:
** Is ''Music/TheirSatanicMajestiesRequest'' a bad ripoff of ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''? Or is it an underrated masterpiece?
** Some people claim the band started to suck after Music/BrianJones died and won't acknowledge anything they made afterwards. Others think they were never the same after Ronnie Wood joined in.
** Was ''Music/SomeGirls'' their last "great" album? Or ''Music/TattooYou''? Many feel that from the 1980s on they became more focused on going commercial than remaining true to their roots. Other say ''Music/SteelWheels'' was their last good album.
** Is Music/MickJagger the heart and soul of the Stones? Or is it Music/KeithRichards? It's difficult to say which one of the two is more irreplaceable.
* Music/LouisArmstrong: Some critics feel that in the latter half of his career Armstrong became more of a showman than an artist and prefer his older stuff, particularly ''Music/TheCompleteHotFiveAndHotSevenRecordings''.
* Many fans of Music/TheStooges can agree that ''Music/RawPower'' is a great record. What's a bit more harder for them to agree on is whether Music/DavidBowie's original thin mix or Iggy's eardrum destroying remix is the better version.
* The Doobie Brothers are split between two sounds: hard southern rock and soft rock. Their original material was fronted by Tom Johnson, though his health became poor shortly after the band became a success. Patrick Simmons briefly took over vocal duties, however, Michael [=McDonald=] was introduced as the new lead singer in 1976 (he had previously played keyboards) to fulfill the band's obligation to record an album and their style changed heavily. The band would perform older material live in concert with a substitute singer filling Johnson's role, but [=McDonald=]'s own style was vastly different. They would not return to their original signature style until 1988 when Tom Johnson would eventually return. Naturally, some refuse to even regard the [=McDonald=] era due to the vastly different style of music, though the band themselves haven't shied away from that era despite maintaining their more traditional hard rock style of music.
* Music/InThisMoment's fanbase breaks more with each album. Whether the flashiness and theatrics of their newer music videos is a step up or a bad thing depends on the person.
* Music/JethroTull's own website [[http://jethrotull.com/?portfolio=a-passion-play invokes this trope]] in its discussion of ''A Passion Play'':
--->Tull fans are a rather cordial group but breech the topic of ''A Passion Play'' at your own peril. Many vehemently defend it as Tull's finest work — others downright loath it.
* Flame wars about Music/HollywoodUndead are quite rampant on YouTube. Do you prefer original singer Deuce, or replacement Danny? Do you prefer the fun party songs or the heavier, more emotional songs?
* A lot of Music/{{Dismember}} listeners wonder if any of the albums between ''Indecent and Obscene'' (or at least, ''Massive Killing Capacity'') and ''The God That Never Was'' were any good, since the band added a lot more focus on melody than straight up DeathMetal.
* When Music/{{Katatonia}} drastically shifted from being a blackened DoomMetal band to a LighterAndSofter AlternativeMetal band starting with ''Discouraged Ones'' and stuck with it, this reaction is a given.
* Butcher Babies got criticism for the two lead singers performing topless with pasties. Others point out that it's an homage to performer Wendy O. Williams. But it's likely that most of their audience [[PopCultureIsolation doesn't even know who that is]]. When they caved in to the criticism people said they were selling out.
** Gets even more dicey when people claim that the criticism is passive aggressive SlutShaming.
* Music/ZacBrownBand has this several times over:
** The mainstream country music fans can't get enough of the band's debut single "Chicken Fried" (it is hands-down their most downloaded song), but long-term fans seem to view it as their worst song, due to pandering, cliché lyrics about America and God, which seem far removed from the band's usual tropes. (To be fair, it is subject to vast amounts of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness because they wrote it several years before it was actually released.)
** ''Jekyll + Hyde'', their fourth full length album, is rife with this. Some fans view it as an interesting experiment in GenreRoulette which pushed the band's sound in new and interesting directions; others feel it was an overdone mess. One of the biggest points of contention was the single "Beautiful Drug", which featured elements of EDM. Some found this song exciting for its new sound; others felt that it was rampant trend-chasing, particularly in the wake of other EDM-influenced country acts such as Music/SamHunt (although it was released before Sam broke out, but the fact that Zac promptly announced an EDM-ish side project in wake of the song's release didn't help). Some stations were actually hesitant to even play it, to the point that the label sent out a more country-sounding remix.
** To a lesser extent, there was also its followup "Castaway", which is either their best or worst OnceAnEpisode beach song: fans of the song find it a new and exciting twist on one of the band's recurring tropes, while detractors find it a tired rehash with annoying backing vocals that sound like they were sung by [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid Sebastian the crab]].
** Conversely, the successor album ''Welcome Home''. Fans of the album view it as a "return to form" after ''Jekyll + Hyde''; others view it as being an overly-calculated "apology" for that album, given that many of the songs and even the title seem to be stressing that Zac is still the same good ol' country boy he's always been. It's also been panned for sounding sleepy and boring, as it's almost entirely ballads and lacks the interplay and focus of their pre-''Jekyll + Hyde'' albums.
* Music/TheBeachBoys: To be a Beach Boys fan can mean many things. Some fan interest starts chronologically with Pet Sounds while some fans prefer their catchier early hits and don't have Pet Sounds or Music/SMiLE on their radar at all. Such were the many distinct phases of the band, it's understandable.
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* Music/TheBeachBoys: To be a Beach Boys fan can mean many things. Some fan interest starts chronologically with Pet Sounds while some fans prefer their catchier early hits and don't have Pet Sounds or SMiLE on their radar at all. Such were the many distinct phases of the band, it's understandable.