History DarkerAndEdgier / Music

* Music/PJHarvey pulled this one off a couple of times. Her first album ''Music/{{Dry}}'' is not a warm sunny walk in the park kinda album, but its tone and subject matter is far more about longing and loneliness. ''Music/{{RidOfMe}} Rid Of Me'' is about the aftermath of said longing, rife with lyrics about breakups and anger and perversion and gender-fluidness/confusion that make Music/AlanisMorissette and ''Music/JaggedLittlePill'' look like Tiffany by comparison, right alongside the trademark abrasive and raw engineering style that Music/SteveAlbini contributed to it. Enter 3rd album ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' with its subject matter of child sacrifice and longing and Delta Blues style, but helped along by the production of Flood. Somehow, her follow-up, ''Music/IsThisDesire'' with it's trip-hop influence is even darker, its themes being murder, suicide, mental breakdown and suicidal ideation. This, combined with a cold electronic music style added to an oppressive atmosphere that scared Harvey herself; after this, she vowed to never go into these depths of darkness ever again.

* Music/PJHarvey pulled this one off a couple of times. Her first album ''Music/{{Dry}}'' is not a warm sunny walk in the park kinda album, but its tone and subject matter is far more about longing and loneliness. ''Music/{{RidOfMe}}'' is about the aftermath of said longing, rife with lyrics about breakups and anger and perversion and gender-fluidness/confusion that make Music/AlanisMorissette and ''Music/JaggedLittlePill'' look like Tiffany by comparison, right alongside the trademark abrasive and raw engineering style that Music/SteveAlbini contributed to it. Enter 3rd album ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' with its subject matter of child sacrifice and longing and Delta Blues style, but helped along by the production of Flood. Somehow, her follow-up, ''Music/IsThisDesire'' with it's trip-hop influence is even darker, its themes being murder, suicide, mental breakdown and suicidal ideation. This, combined with a cold electronic music style added to an oppressive atmosphere that scared Harvey herself; after this, she vowed to never go into these depths of darkness ever again.

* Music/PJHarvey pulled this one off a couple of times. Her first album ''Music/{{Dry}}'' is not a warm sunny walk in the park kinda album, but its tone and subject matter is far more about longing and loneliness. ''Music/{{RidOfMe}}'' is about the aftermath of said longing, rife with lyrics about breakups and anger and perversion and gender-fluidness/confusion that make Music/AlanisMorisette and ''Music/JaggedLittlePill'' look like Tiffany by comparison, right alongside the trademark abrasive and raw engineering style that Music/SteveAlbini contributed to it. Enter 3rd album ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' with its subject matter of child sacrifice and longing and Delta Blues style, but helped along by the production of Flood. Somehow, her follow-up, ''Music/IsThisDesire'' with it's trip-hop influence is even darker, its themes being murder, suicide, mental breakdown and suicidal ideation. This, combined with a cold electronic music style added to an oppressive atmosphere that scared Harvey herself; after this, she vowed to never go into these depths of darkness ever again.

* Music/PJHarvey pulled this one off a couple of times. Her first album ''Music/{{Dry}}'' is not a warm sunny walk in the park kinda album, but its tone and subject matter is far more about longing and loneliness. ''Music/{{RidOfMe}}'' is about the aftermath of said longing, rife with lyrics about breakups and anger and perversion and gender-fluidness/confusion that make Music/AlanisMorrisette and ''Music/JaggedLittlePill'' look like Music/Tiffany by comparison, right alongside the trademark abrasive and raw engineering style that Music/SteveAlbini contributed to it. Enter 3rd album ''Music/ToBringYouMyLove'' with its subject matter of child sacrifice and longing and Delta Blues style, but helped along by the production of Flood. Somehow, her follow-up, ''Music/IsThisDesire'' with it's trip-hop influence is even darker, its themes being murder, suicide, mental breakdown and suicidal ideation. This, combined with a cold electronic music style added to an atmosphere that scared Harvey herself; after this, she vowed to never go into these depths of darkness ever again.

* ''Third'' by Music/BigStar was recorded at a time when Alex Chilton was tired of getting [[MusicIsPolitics fucked around by various record companies]]. It ''shows''. It carries on the messy sonic sprawl of ''Radio City'', but with bleaker lyrics.

%% (ZCE) * Music/{{Anthrax}} on ''Persistence of Time''. They continued with ''Sound of White Noise'', then gradually declined with the remaining three John Bush albums. 'Worship Music'' is an almost complete return to the campiness of the band's eighties albums. -- How does it qualify?
%% (ZCE) * Music/{{Aqua}}'s reunion album ''Megalomania'' has a ''much'' more serious tone than the bubblegum {{Europop}} their earlier work was defined by. -- How does it qualify?
%% (ZCE) * Music/TheBandPerry's second album has a much harder rock edge than their first. "Better Dig Two" is a definitely darker song than almost anything on their first album, and "DONE." is by far their hardest song yet. -- How does it qualify?

%% (ZCE) * Music/BoardsOfCanada -- How do both examples qualify?
%% (ZCE) ** Their second album, ''Geogaddi'', compared to the debut, ''Music Has The Right To Children''.
%% (ZCE) ** ''Tomorrow's Harvest'' compared to ''The Campfire Headphase''.

%% (ZCE) * Music/CrystalCastles' second album is more abrasive and darker compared to their more accessible debut. - How?
* Music/DeltaGoodrem: Went from dealing with some hopeful innocent themes and young love dilemma's (Not Me Not I), kissing the wrong guy (My Big Mistake), and wanting to be free (Predictable) in Innocent Eyes, with a soft fresh piano focused sound to dealing with issues within her friendships/close circle (Nobody Listened), issues with her own mortality (Extraordinary Day), issues with being a celebrity (Electric Storm), issues with being TheInsomniac (The Analyst) and having a general crisis of identity in (Mistaken Identity), with a jazz-rock-classical piano-based contemporary songwriter pop soundtrack, and occasional screaming, ranting, random phrases and the such.
%% (ZCE) * Dope's cover of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
%% (ZCE) ** As well as Ten Masked Men's cover of the same song, and others.
* Music/DefLeppard's 1996 album ''Slang'' showcased a more organic, darker musical style and subject matter, fueled by [[CreatorBreakdown personal turmoil]] in the band members' lives, express themselves more honestly and by their willingness to experiment with new sounds and acknowledge the [[TheNineties 1990s]] AlternativeRock movement. It was their first album since their debut ''On Through the Night'' not to be produced by Creator/RobertJohnMuttLange.

%% (ZCE) * UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} artist Music/{{FM Attack}} strongly exhibits this trope with ''New World'', especially the three collaborations with Vandal Moon that edge towards DarkWave territory. - How does it qualify for the trope?

* Kelly Clarkson may have gone in a decidedly harder and more rock-oriented direction on ''Breakaway'', but her follow-up ''My December'' played this trope completely straight. It had a crunchier guitar sound, Clarkson's angriest vocal performance to date and some truly scathing lyrics in certain songs. Enough that many pop radio stations pulled lead single "Never Again" from rotation just a couple weeks after release. The decision to make such an album stemmed from Clarkson's exhaustion from constantly touring, several bad relationships, and her growing frustration with her manager.

* Bunny X shattered the neon-tinged pop UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} image of their first album, ''Young and in Love'', with a DarkWave sci-fi ConceptAlbum follow-up, ''Love Minus 80'', the lead single of which, "The Forever War", is a FilkSong of [[Literature/TheForeverWar Joe Halderman's 1974 novel of the same name]].

** West himself famously [[CreatorBreakdown became this in real life]] when his mother, who he [[MommasBoy famously loved immensely]], tragically passed away in November 2007, just two years after the release of what was his biggest release up to that point, his third album ''Graduation'' (2007), which was his lightest and poppiest album to date. Every album since then has been some of the darkest, despondent, paranoid, angry works of his career, starting immediately with ''808s & Heartbreak'' (2008), which was directly written in response to both the death of his mother and the subsequent dissolution of his engagement to a long-time fiancee. His fifth album ''Music/MyBeautifulDarkTwistedFantasy'' (2010) is a dense [[ConceptAlbum concept album]] centered on his personal struggles with fame, mental health, self-doubt, paranoia, and interpersonal relationships. His sixth album ''Music/Yeezus'' (2013) is probably his darkest and edgiest album in his entire discography, experimenting with (among other genres) [[Main/Glitch glitch]], [[PunkRock punk]], and [[NoiseRock noise]]. Even his seventh album ''Music/TheLifeOfPablo'' (2016), while considerably lighter and more pop-friendly than ''Yeezus'', is still incredibly jagged, dissonant, and unsettling in tone [[note]]See in particular: "Pt. 2", "Feedback", and "FML"[[/note]] and sound compared to his first three albums.

** West himself famously [[CreatorBreakdown became this in real life]] when his mother, who he [[MommasBoy famously loved immensely]], tragically passed away in November 2007, just two years after the release of what was his biggest release up to that point, his third album ''Graduation'' (2007), which was his lightest and poppiest album to date. Every album since then has been some of the darkest, despondent, paranoid, angry works of his career, starting immediately with ''808s & Heartbreak'' (2008), which was directly written in response to both the death of his mother and the subsequent dissolution of his engagement to a long-time fiancee. His fifth album ''Music/MyBeautifulDarkTwistedFantasy'' (2010) is a dense [[ConceptAlbum concept album]] centered on his personal struggles with fame, mental health, self-doubt, paranoia, and interpersonal relationships. His sixth album ''Music/Yeezus'' (2013) is probably his darkest and edgiest album in his entire discography, experimenting with (among other genres) [[Glitch glitch]], [[PunkRock punk]], and [[NoiseRock noise]]. Even his seventh album ''Music/TheLifeOfPablo'' (2016), while considerably lighter and more pop-friendly than ''Yeezus'', is still incredibly jagged, dissonant, and unsettling in tone[[Note]]See in particular: "Pt. 2", "Feedback", and "FML"[[/note]] and sound compared to his first three albums.

** While they had an unrivalled back catalogue, their output from 1986's ''Oktubre'' to 1993's double album ''Lobo Suelto/Cordero Atado'' is this compared to 1984's festive and upbeat ''Gulp!'', produced when Los Redondos were a troupe with a rock band on top of it. Darker lyrics, darker themes (the 1917 Russian Revolution in "Fuegos de Oktubre", the foreign invasion of another country in "Nuestro Amo Juega al Esclavo" and "Rock Para los Dientes" and drug experiences such as the one depicted in "Ji ji ji") and a more streamlined rock band format (product of Solari replacing the troupe with three musicians who defined the band's sound) shaped the band's catalogue for the period.
** 1996's ''Luzbelito'' was the transition point between the two eras. It had less hits than the hit-filled prior albums, an even darker sound, darker lyrics and darker themes such as satanism ("Fanfarria del Cabrío", which could easily pass as a Music/BlackSabbath song) and the actual loss of freedom ("Blues de la Libertad"). There was the ocassional HopeSpot ("Juguetes Perdidos") and happy songs ("Mariposa Pontiac/Rock del País"), but for the most part, this album set the stage for the darker direction the band was about to take.
** Their last two albums, 1997's ''Último Bondi a Finisterre'' to 2000's ''Momo Sampler'' are quite darker compared to most of their back catalogue. For once, they're mostly devoid of hits (even though songs such as "Gualicho" and "Una Piba con la Remera de Greenpeace" ''did'' saw some radio airing) and direct songs. Then there's the incorporation of Hernán Aramberri as the band's keyboardist and programmer, whose work gave the band a quite dark sound, making some songs not quite for those who liked Los Redondos' more direct rock.

* HeavyMetal, with its distinctive association with controversy and [[RuleOfCool Rule of Brutal-based everything]], has several entirely darker-and-edgier subgenres. First of all, Music/BlackSabbath were intended as DarkerAndEdgier rock. About a decade later, ThrashMetal came along and was the new DarkerAndEdgier. Then DeathMetal, BlackMetal and {{Grindcore}} came along. No genre has topped them yet.
** The entire musical genre of DoomMetal is one big exercise in how grim and depressing music can get.
** Frankly, the last 30 years of HeavyMetal could be summed up as a sort of DarkerAndEdgier LensmanArmsRace.
** DarkerAndEdgier as BlackMetal is, there are some bands who manage to do this to ''black metal itself''. Music/DeathspellOmega is one good example. Dark Tribe, Music/{{Revenge|Band}}, and Music/AnaalNathrakh are others.
* Any cover by Music/MarilynManson. Impressive when it's an already dark[=/=]creepy song. He satirized this trope itself in "This Is the New Shit".
* Music/GreenDay's ''Music/{{Insomniac}}'' is lyrically darker than ''Music/{{Dookie}}'' (or, for that matter, ''39/Smooth'' and ''Kerplunk''), and the music has sometimes been perceived as heavier and more abrasive.
** [[BrokenBase Depending on who you ask]], ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' is darker than any of their prior albums in context.
* The whole genre of HipHop owes its existence to this trope. Until the late 1980s, it was dismissed as a passing fad by most music critics, due to its generally shallow, goofy lyrics and repetitive beats. But in 1988, two albums were released that would go on to legitimize hip hop and make it a relevant form of music: ''Music/StraightOuttaCompton'' by Music/{{NWA}} and ''Music/ItTakesANationOfMillionsToHoldUsBack'' by Music/PublicEnemy. The latter featured biting political commentary, centered around the oppression of black culture in mainstream America, while the former contained some of the most genuinely scathing lyrics ever heard in popular music up to that point (it was, in fact, one of the first albums to earn a "Parental Advisory" sticker). In the wake of those two albums, HipHop took on a much more serious and socially conscious tone, much to the delight of both critics and fans. A few years later, the genre of GangstaRap showed the world just how dark and edgy hip hop could be, culminating in the real life deaths of rappers Music/TupacShakur and Music/TheNotoriousBIG. Then came the sub-genre known as {{Horrorcore}}. GangstaRap turned up to eleven, with lyrics worthy of DeathMetal. Then there's industrial hip-hop, typified by acts like Music/{{Dalek}}, Music/DeathGrips, and Music/{{Clipping}}, which is simply way more abrasive than anything that had qualified as hip-hop before the 2000s.
* For Music/ATribeCalledQuest, the change was very gradual, starting from ''Music/TheLowEndTheory'''s more laid-back tone, more earthy soundscape, and slightly more realistic lyrics to the more confrontational and serious tones of ''Midnight Maurader''. ''Beats, Rhymes, and Life'' finally topped this off with plenty of swearing, dark beats, and realistic situations. It also watered-down its playful, surreal sound. Music/DeLaSoul also went through this, except its transition was ''much'' more sudden.
* Music/{{Gob}} went from bright, energetic punk with the occasional hardcore influence, to a more serious AlternativeRock sound by the late 2000s. Such a GenreShift, in fact, that their most recent album ''Apt. 13'' is a long way from the Music/{{NOFX}}-lite that made up their early material.
* Music/{{Beyonce}}:
** Her 2013 SelfTitledAlbum is this and HotterAndSexier. In the latter case, it connects to the feminist theme of the album, focusing on the sexual liberation of women, and contains lines like "Can you lick my Skittles?" and "He Monica Lewinsky'd all over my gown". In the former case, aside from containing more profanity, it also concerns darker themes previously unexplored in her work, such as bulimia, post-natal depression, the fears and insecurities of marriage and motherhood.
** ''[[Music/Lemonade2016 Lemonade]]'' is her darkest work yet. The album is entirely based around grown-up worries: what to do when your partner cheats on you, how to move on and the lasting effects it can have in a marriage. The songs go further and show this is a problem to have also happened to her mother and grandmother. The album has also been praised for its exploration of black feminism and womanhood.

* Rappers who were actual criminals fit this trope to a T. They will scare you straight outta crime. Not just those who are flashy and claim to be criminals, but real criminals who still killed while they made music -- Music/SchoollyD and Music/EazyE are the best examples. Because of their past, the subject matter of their works are very dark and serious compared to most other rappers. As if "bro"-hating wasn't already a part of the black culture (as it is white culture, though with white racists out of bigotry).
* ''Third'' by Music/BigStar was recorded at a time when Alex Chilton was tired of getting [[MusicIsPolitics fucked around by various record companies]]. It ''shows''. It carries on the messy sonic sprawl of ''Radio City'', but with bleaker lyrics.
* Music/LanaDelRey's album ''Ultraviolence'' was particularly well-received because of its darker and edgier themes and more personal content. Among other things, the album deals with abusive relationships, drug use, and prostitution.
* Music/LinkinPark started out with ''Music/HybridTheory'', which, aside from "One Step Closer" and "A Place for My Head", have no real screaming, though they did have angsty lyrics, and had no swearing. ''Music/{{Meteora}}'' had angst, but no hard screaming or swearing. Then came ''Music/MinutesToMidnight'', when lead singer Chester Bennington and lead rapper Mike Shinoda swore like sailors, with several uses of the word "fuck", and had "Given Up", one of their darkest songs to date, with [[HarsherInHindsight suicide references]]. After that was ''A Thousand Suns'', a concept album about nuclear destruction, along with several more uses of "fuck" and "shit". Then the band became LighterAndSofter with ''Living Things'', with only one "angry" song, "Lies Greed Misery", and no profanity.
* Music/{{Suede}}'s sophomore album ''Dog Man Star'' saw them moving away from {{Britpop}} to a more art-rock, drug-influenced sound. The record got mixed reactions upon release and was fairly commercially unsuccessful, but [[VindicatedByHistory is nowadays regarded as their best album.]]
* Believe it or not, Music/{{Pantera}} started out as a GlamRock act, with their debut ''Metal Magic'' not quite living up to its title and a vocalist that sounded straight out of Music/{{Foreigner|Band}} or Music/{{Loverboy|Band}}, along with family-friendly lyrics that sounded like something straight out of a 1950s teenager's diary. Their following records ''Projects in the Jungle'' and ''I Am the Night'', however, were each progressively more HeavyMetal influenced, and their once-squeaky clean singer had gotten noticeably harsher and started showing impressive falsettos, while the lyrics began delving into HotterAndSexier SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll territory, {{Fantasy}} themes, horror and {{Angst}}y subject matter (one song even deals with [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]).
** ''Power Metal'' marked a change in the band's overall focus, with a new vocalist named Phil Anselmo adding an element of grit and aggression to the band's lyrics and image. The main crossover point was ''Cowboys from Hell'', where the band dumped the '80s glam fashion for a more adequate "street thug" look, and adopted a contemporary ThrashMetal sound combining the vocals and guitar sound of fellow Southerners Exhorder.
** Then they managed to go from Darker and Edgier after three albums, to even more, MUCH MORE, with the release of their eighth album ''The Great Southern Trendkill'', which dealt with the aforementioned subject matter relating to suicide, drugs, the end of the world by a massive flood, the media and many more topics along with Anselmo AND Seth Putnam from Music/AnalCunt himself sounding like both are ready to go "[[ContinuityNod fucking hostile]]"
* Music/JudasPriest went here by releasing ''Painkiller'', an album full of hard-hitting power and speed metal, with none of the happy-go-lucky synthesizers and lyrics of their previous album ''Turbo'' (they kept the synths only to evoke dark atmospheres). Subsequent albums (the Ripper Owens period especially) continued the trend, although most fans dismiss these albums (which seems to happen with more Ripper-sung albums; see Music/IcedEarth's albums ''The Glorious Burden'' and, less often, ''Framing Armageddon''.)
* Music/SonataArctica's music has been progressing from the standard cheesy excesses endemic to power metal to more grim lyrics and darker sounds. It seems to be working, though one wonders how far they can stretch it...
** Their music has always been a bit dark thematically, though, even if they did used to sound like an explosion in a Skittles factory. Their latest album however, is all over the place.
* The cover of "Music/{{Imagine}}" by A Perfect Circle is downright depressing. With a simple shift to a minor chord, the song [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning switches from hopeful and uplifting to cynical and depressing]]. "Imagine all the people sharing all the world! ...yeah, like that'll ever happen..." The change has been likened to going from a friendly, smiling hippie offering you peace and love and flowers, to a grim suicide bomber outlining his manifesto to a huddled, frightened crowd.
* Music/TypeONegative make a RunningGag of doing this to hippie anthems: Seals & Croft's "Summer Breeze", Music/NeilYoung's "Cinnamon Girl", several [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] songs...
* Dope's cover of Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)".
** As well as Ten Masked Men's cover of the same song, and others.

* Music/NeilYoung: The "Ditch Trilogy" – ''Time Fades Away'' (1973), ''On the Beach'' (1974), and ''Tonight's the Night'' (1975) – is his first example of this. They are the product of Young struggling to deal with the pressures of fame as well as the recent deaths of two close friends, Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten and roadie Bruce Berry. Whitten was so addicted to heroin that it rendered him unable to play and resulted in Neil firing him; on November 18, 1972, Neil gave Whitten $50 and a plane ticket to Los Angeles in an attempt to help him get back on track. ''On the same day'', a combination of Valium and alcohol resulted in his death. Just 6½ months later on June 4, 1973, Berry fatally overdosed on heroin and cocaine. ''Time Fades Away'' was recorded live from February 11 – April 1, 1973 (except "Love in Mind", which was recorded on January 30, 1971), and is generally a hard rock album; but it feels unpolished and abrasive even by Young's standards, and deals implicitly with themes of loneliness and loss. ''Tonight's the Night'', which was recorded from August–September 1973, but not released until 1975, bears every indication that it was written and performed by someone in the process of grieving - Young even sounds like he's on the verge of breaking down in some of the album's tracks. Reprise Records was initially hesitant to release ''Tonight's the Night'' because of its harsher tone, and is still widely considered the darkest record in Neil's catalogue. Although ''On the Beach'' was released almost 11 months before ''Tonight's the Night'', it was recorded about half a year after it (February 5 – April 7, 1974).[[note]] Just for the sake of further clarity, the release dates of ''Time Fades Away'', ''On the Beach'', and ''Tonight's the Night'' are October 15, 1973, July 16, 1974, and June 20, 1975, respectively.[[/note]] While not quite as acerbic as either of the other two albums in the Ditch Trilogy, ''On the Beach'' is still an all-around despondent collection of songs. Neil's 1979 album ''Music/RustNeverSleeps'' counts as well, as he responded to the death of Music/ElvisPresley, the rise of PunkRock, and his own [[CreatorBreakdown fears of becoming culturally irrelevant]] by turning his soft-ish folk rock into nihilist hard rock with heavy, distorted guitars, in a post-modern stage show with giant amps, roadies dressed like Jawas, and decaying film footage from Woodstock. It worked; the album received widespread popular and critical acclaim, and has been cited as one of the earliest examples of what became {{grunge}} music.
* Much, though not all, of Music/JohnLennon's songwriting took this direction in the late sixties due to a combination of drug use (especially heroin), the influence of Music/YokoOno, and a growing disillusionment with his role as a [[Music/TheBeatles Beatle]]. This culminated in three experimental AvantGardeMusic albums, ''Music/UnfinishedMusicNo1TwoVirgins'', ''Music/UnfinishedMusicNo2LifeWithTheLions'' and ''Music/WeddingAlbum'', which are all basically a combination between NoiseRock and [[LeaveTheCameraRunning Leave the Recorder Running]]. His 1970 solo album ''Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand'' in which, under the influence of [[AndIMustScream primal scream therapy]], he expressed his childhood traumas and adult pain starkly and directly in a way that he couldn't do with the Beatles, but this time far more accessible. While Lennon continued to write hard-edged songs afterward, most of his subsequent work was more pleasant and hopeful in tone.
* Music/GeorgeHarrison's songwriting got especially dark in his 1975 album ''Extra Texture (Read All About)'', in which most of the songs take a noticeably dark turn.
* Music/TheBeatles went this direction with ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''. Though light, silly songs remained ("Back in the U.S.S.R", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Birthday") many songs on the album were quite dark, such as "Julia", about the death of John Lennon's mother, "Blackbird", about racism, and especially "Revolution 9", a nightmarish sound collage. Similarly, many other '60s bands, including Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}} and Music/TheWho, became DarkerAndEdgier during/after the peak of psychedelia.

* Compare the album ''The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp'' to anything that Music/KingCrimson's done, ever. The first King Crimson lineup ''was'' Giles, Giles and Fripp, plus [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Greg Lake]] and [[Music/ForeignerBand Ian McDonald]]. Also, compare the album ''Music/FromGenesisToRevelation'' by Music/{{Genesis|Band}} to the song "The Knife" from the very next album, ''Music/{{Trespass|GenesisAlbum}}''.
** Music/PeterGabriel (who wrote the concept, storyline and most of the lyrics) intended for ''Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway'' to be about this trope, steered away from the Victorian, English whimsy and folksier/pastoral elements of previous albums and creating the character Rael as a proto-punk Puerto Rican street tough on [[TheBigRottenApple the rough streets of Manhattan, circa 1974]].
** Also compare ''The Aerosol Grey Machine'' with any of Music/VanDerGraafGenerator's subsequent output.
** This is common with progressive bands that have their roots in the flower power '60s psychedelia days, as prog as a whole is generally much more {{serious|Business}}; Music/PinkFloyd being the UrExample.

* Music/CrystalCastles' second album is more abrasive and darker compared to their more accessible debut.

* Winger was originally known for being a standard glam act with a pretty-boy front-man and musicians that were far above the rest of the pack, but their overly poppy leanings made them among the most frequent targets of ire from the anti-glam crowd, which wasn't helped by the ''relentless'' mockery they received on ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead''. 1993's ''Pull'' answered these criticisms with a shockingly dark, mature album that emphasized their technical ability while completely eliminating the poppiness of their earlier material. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, and the album went unnoticed until the mid-00s glam revival.
* Music/CountingCrows' debut album, ''August and Everything After'', was a sweetly melodic, very subdued folk album. Their second, ''Recovering the Satellites'', added distorted guitar, angry lyrics, and several swear words. Eventually they found a middle ground which worked quite well.
* Music/{{Eminem}}'s discography has been a sine-wave of LighterAndSofter and DarkerAndEdgier. His 1996 debut ''Infinite'' was the former, though [[CreatorBreakdown a series of life events]] caused him to take the darker content to the nth degree with ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'' and ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP''; both were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. His subsequent two albums were somewhat LighterAndSofter; ''Relapse'' is both the most [[DarkerAndEdgier dark]] album he's yet done (seeking to be genuinely frightening in parts) ''and'' is about him rapping absurd comedy rhyme schemes [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent in a silly accent]]; ''Recovery'' is a straight pop-rap album and ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' is a comedic pop-rap album which captures the playfulness of his early music but not the violence. After this, he largely went into MoodWhiplash within albums, veering between sincere pop-rap with Skylar Gray and violent raps about mass shooters.
* Music/MassiveAttack. While ''Blue Lines'' and ''Protection'' weren't entirely sunny, ''Music/{{Mezzanine}}'' had a sonic background so dark, it absorbed light. Trip-Hop as a whole moved in this direction; it originated as a soothing, acid jazz-inspired blend of hip-hop and dub; in the mid-90s, the post-punk influences turned into angry distorted riffs, the trippiness became heavy psychedelia, and the {{retraux}} atmosphere traded nostalgia for old horror movie creepiness.
* Jazz musicians will occasionally take songs from seemingly light repertoire and turn the intensity up. Music/SonnyRollins took the corniest show tunes (such as "There's No Business Like Show Business") and turned them into positively hip (for the time) jazz tunes. Music/JohnColtrane famously turned the light-hearted, optimistic "Music/MyFavoriteThings" into what one critic described as a "hypnotic eastern devish dance", one that lasted an impressive [[EpicRocking 13:42]]. Coltrane is a truly great example himself. Starting with light-hearted, simplistic albums like ''Music/BlueTrain'' before becoming gradually more complex with ''Music/GiantSteps'' and ''Music/MyFavoriteThings'', then culminating with ''Music/ALoveSupreme'', ''Ascension'', and ''Meditations''. And it's not just Coltrane, jazz musicians do this ''constantly''. Most of the standard repertoire that is required knowledge for jazz musicians is songs lifted from Broadway musicals of the '20s, '30s, and '40s. For example, of the six songs on Music/MilesDavis's 1956 ''Relaxin' with the Miles Davis Quintet'', four are from musical theater or film ("If I Were a Bell", "You're My Everything", "I Could Write a Book", "It Could Happen to You").
* Music/BillieHoliday had a tragic life where she was the victim of rape at age 11, teenage prostitution, abusive partners and severe alcohol, morphine and heroin addiction. All it culminated in her world-weary ''Music/LadyInSatin'', where she sings about break-ups, unrequited love and all hardships of relationships in her drug-ravaged voice. At the time, this was quite unprecedented in the happy, carefree atmosphere of most popular music in the day. She died from liver cirrhosis only a year after recording it.
* Happened naturally to Music/MichaelJackson in the mid-90s. His 1991 album ''Music/{{Dangerous}}'' was, like his previous albums, a mix of standard pop and uplifting songs. His next album, ''Music/HistoryPastPresentAndFutureBookI'' (1995), came out following his 1993 child molestation allegations and ''it shows''. The album is filled with dark songs that exude paranoia and anger, dealing with topics like betrayal, media scrutiny, loneliness, and ''a song about a child dying from neglect''. It also has more swearing than any other Michael Jackson album, including the only instance of the word [[PrecisionFStrike "fuck"]]. Even the sole love song on the album, the R. Kelly-penned "You Are Not Alone", is a little bit of a downer because it is about separated lovers. Jackson's 2001 album ''Music/{{Invincible}}'' would retain some of the darker influences from this period though it would also be a bit of a return to form, with more upbeat, love/life-affirming songs compared to ''[=HIStory=]''.
* Music/DepecheMode. First album: pure synth-pop, mostly SillyLoveSongs, marketed as a BoyBand for some reason. Fourth album: {{Industrial}}-pop/DarkWave, subject matter including [[ObligatoryBondageSong BDSM]], a girl dying in a car accident and {{Obsession Song}}s. And then two albums after that, the songs started being about drugs.
* Music/{{PSY}}'s earlier singles [[OlderThanTheyThink when he debuted in 2001]] (''Bird'' and ''The End'' for example) were full of SarcasmMode against cynical social phenomenon spewing with some Korean cuss words and sarcastic sentence, but at least [[BlackComedy it is somewhat colorful despite its cynical tone]]. Then come to his 2005 single, ''Urbanite'', which deals with one of the most-cynical phenomena, {{Workaholic}} stress and city life issues. This single was rendered in monochromatic effects complete with RidiculouslyHumanRobots or ArtificialHumans replacing natural workforces.
** PSY's version of "Urbanite" itself is a DarkerAndEdgier remake of Korean rock band [=N.Ex.T's=] 1992 song of the same name, with faster pace and stronger tones. Nevertheless, it's the darkest song PSY has ever made.
---> ''This is the CITY LIFE!''
* ''Music/TheProtomen'' do this to ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'', turning the video game setting into an urban police state dystopia where Dr. Wily is [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Big Brother]], and the Blue Bomber himself is an angst-ridden ReplacementGoldfish.
* Music/MileyCyrus is going this way with her music, and she's combined this with HotterAndSexier in her overall career choices, likewise debated.
** {{Downplayed|Trope}} in that most of the songs on ''Can't Be Tamed'' are about ''empowerment'', or about Miley missing her boyfriend on the road. [[ContractualPurity But the media's focus]] on the mild ThreeMinutesOfWrithing and (relatively) saltier language ([[FelonyMisdemeanor she uses "hell"]] [[PrecisionFStrike in a song]]) and revealing clothing in her music videos has overshadowed the empowerment themes.
** Her 2013 album ''Bangerz'' was her first album released in separate explicit-lyrics and edited editions.
* Music/{{Disturbed}}'s discography, over time: the first album was mainly about anger and [[CrapsackWorld the world being a horrible, horrible place]], all inspired by lead singer David Draiman's past experiences (which later evolved into [[ContemplateOurNavels retrospective navel gazing]] then to themes of empowerment and victory). Then he started getting some new experiences to work off of, creating ''Indestructible'', then ''Asylum'' after that (that band's darkest, most serious records yet). Time will tell if the lyrics ever get back to the "a bit of humor through pain" theme.
* A lot of {{Dubstep}} remixes tend to go down this path while still using the same lyrics as the original song. This is easily accomplished with the thunderous basslines associated with the genre. For comparison: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9yGcKlYAiw Example - Kickstarts]] versus [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks0P1u6-OUY the Bar 9 remix]], the former sounding much more hopeful and cheery than the latter, made even more evident with the corresponding official videos.
* Music/ManicStreetPreachers started off with a double album, ''Generation Terrorists'', which had a political glam-punk sound inspired by Music/GunsNRoses. Their second album, ''Gold Against the Soul'', was more introspective compared to the first, while retaining the glam of their debut. Richey Edwards, one of the band's songwriters, began to lose control and go on a downward spiral, resulting in the increasingly dark nature of his lyrics. This culminated with the grim, pessimistic atmosphere in their third album, ''The Holy Bible''. Just as the band was about to tour stateside to promote their third album, Richey disappeared (he would later be presumed dead). The band, reforming as a trio, recorded music that was LighterAndSofter, even though the band would occasionally release darker albums such as ''Know Your Enemy'' and ''Journal for Plague Lovers'' (which contained the last of Richey's lyrics).
* Music/DavidBowie albums, or stretches of such, tend to alternate between this and LighterAndSofter (owing to his penchant for the NewSoundAlbum trope), but an even clearer example of this can be seen with his stage personas in TheSeventies. After the flamboyant tragic rock messiah of [[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars Ziggy Stardust]] and the variants of ''Music/AladdinSane'', et. al., with 1976's ''Music/StationToStation'' came The Thin White Duke -- a heartless Fascist. This persona owed a lot to a CreatorBreakdown and his heavy drug abuse at the time (including cocaine addiction), and Bowie's decision to pull himself up from it all was accompanied by a choice to not only dump the persona, but to only be himself on stage afterwards.
* Music/LadyGaga released ''The Fame'', her first label-sponsored LP. The album had a very upbeat, joyful theme, centered mainly around party life, along with [[IntercourseWithYou love]], along with the [[SlidingScaleofIdealismVersusCynicism idealist's]] view of fame and tributes to her favourite artists. Her follow-up EP, ''The Fame Monster'', is it's [[ArtistDisillusionment "hangover"]]. The cover, [[DeliberatelyMonochrome monochrome]] with the Gaga veiled up to the nose by a cape; combined with music centered around [[Music/BadRomance love evoking a bad, sexy romance novel]]; romantic anxiety ("Dance in the Dark"); and [[IntercourseWithYou sex]]; the music took a more dark, perverse, challenging, and personal route. ''Born This Way'' got [[GenreRoulette eclectic]], with dance-pop ("The Edge of Glory"), {{house|Music}} ("Marry the Night"), {{techno}} ("Judas"), [[NewWaveMusic New Wave]] ("[[OminousLatinChanting Government Hooker]]"), and [[ThePowerOfRock rock]] ("You and I"). It's no ''Music/StationToStation'' or ''Music/RayOfLight'' but it's a [[NewSoundAlbum shift]]. Could be [[LighterAndSofter more upbeat]] at times than ''The Fame Monster'', though. Many hold that if you compare her to other teen pop stars, she's dark and edgy. Others contend that, in comparison to many other genres and groups, she's not that much different from any other pop star despite a different packaging.
* Music/{{Gorillaz}} pulls a not-so-subtle variation in their story canon, which started out as a zany and [[DarkComedy darkly humorous]] setup but got noticeably darker in the second and third phases. Party animal [[{{Jerkass}} Murdoc]] shifted sharply into a violent psychopath with the ''Music/PlasticBeach'' arc, (though this may be justified as an already twisted man being driven to desperate measures by greed.) In accordance, his [[VitriolicBestBuds relationship]] with 2D has changed in portrayal from [[AmusingInjuries comedic bullying]] to [[BreakTheCutie pretty abusive]], though it could always have come off this way [[FridgeHorror if you thought about it.]] Ironically, their musical style has become [[LightIsNotGood brighter and more polished]], though certainly no softer in theme.
* Music/IceNineKills started out as a ska-punk band, then made a shift to metalcore. Tellingly, their early LighterAndSofter music is no longer available on streaming platforms.

* The first album by Music/SkidRow was a pretty typical HairMetal album, containing popular rock anthems such as "18 And Life" and "Youth Gone Wild" as well as the PowerBallad "I Remember You". The band's second album, ''Slave to the Grind'', was darker, edgier, and less mainstream than the first with many songs adopting a ThrashMetal sound and lyrics about drugs, politics, and criticism of religion.
* All of the ''Strapping Young Lad'' albums are this to Music/DevinTownsend's solo work. Although some of Devin's solo albums can be considered dark based on their lyrical content and heaviness. Physicist and Deconstruction are heavier compared to others and their lyrics are darker. Ocean Machine's lyrical themes revolve around Life, Death, Isolation, etc. Ki for it's moody atmosphere. And Ghost 2 will appear to have more in common with Ki in terms of atmosphere rather than the original Ghost, which was Devin's attempt at LighterAndSofter.
* Music/WithinTemptation is fairly dark itself, but eventually parodied the trend in "[[AntiChristmasSong Gothic Christmas]]" -- complete with The Evil Reindeer Overlord, because everything should be Grim and [[GrimUpNorth Nordic]]. For a less meta example in the Within Temptation camp, 2011's ''The Unforgiving'' is far-and-away the most intense and darkest album they've put out, lyrically and musically.
* The '80s albums from British band ''Music/{{Madness}}'' progressively got more serious as time went on. Their first album, ''Music/OneStepBeyond'', featured reggae covers and songs about singing and dancing, any potentially serious subject matters (such as the chorus in "Mummy's Boy" that reveals the song's main character to be a pedophile) sung purely tongue-in-cheek. By their sixth album (the tellingly titled "Mad Not Mad"), they were singing critiques of the modern song industry itself, cynical parodies of Americanism and a surprising number of completely serious songs about child abuse. Their post-90's comeback albums have largely subverted this trend though.
* Music/{{Metallica}}'s sophomore album ''Music/RideTheLightning'' is quite a bit darker than their debut ''Kill 'Em All'', shedding most of the youthfulness and camp of its predecessor in favor of songs centering around death and fate. ''...And Justice for All'' is arguably the darkest and most serious album they ever made, shedding all of the youthful rebellion of their first three records in favor of songs addressing serious topics like The Cold War ("Blackened"), spousal abuse ("Harvester of Sorrow" - which is probably the darkest song the band has ever written), dementia ("Frayed Ends of Sanity"), and the death of bassist Cliff Burton ("To Live Is to Die"). While they certainly went in a LighterAndSofter direction with their music during the 1990s, ''[=ReLoad=]'' was decidedly darker and more sinister-sounding than the comparably upbeat ''Metallica'' and ''Load''. In the 2000s, the band returned to the darkness of their 1980s material with ''St. Anger'' and ''Death Magnetic''.
* Music/{{Megadeth}}'s return to thrash metal from ''The System Has Failed'' onwards has been this, with Mustaine revamping his singing style into a snarling, spitting style, and going for heavier, less speed-oriented metal. His lyrics are almost exclusively political now. ''[=Th1rt3en=]'' took them back in a more radio-friendly direction, which was further expanded on with ''Super Collider''.
* Music/{{Anthrax}} on ''Persistence of Time''. They continued with ''Sound of White Noise'', then gradually declined with the remaining three John Bush albums. 'Worship Music'' is an almost complete return to the campiness of the band's eighties albums.
* Music/IcedEarth played this trope straight with ''Burnt Offerings'', which band leader Jon Schaffer admits was due in no small part to his growing frustration with label Century Media.
* A Romantic era example: compare Music/PyotrIlyichTchaikovsky's somewhat syrupy ''Romeo and Juliet'' ballet suite to Music/SergeiProkofiev's rather darker take on the story.
* Music/{{Skillet}}'s ''Alien Youth'' and ''Collide'' albums marked a shift from their initial AlternativeRock[=/=][[ElectronicMusic Electronica]] sound to a more HeavyMetal-oriented one.
* Music/DeltaGoodrem: Went from dealing with some hopeful innocent themes and young love dilemma's (Not Me Not I), kissing the wrong guy (My Big Mistake), and wanting to be free (Predictable) in Innocent Eyes, with a soft fresh piano focused sound to dealing with issues within her friendships/close circle (Nobody Listened), issues with her own mortality (Extraordinary Day), issues with being a celebrity (Electric Storm), issues with being TheInsomniac (The Analyst) and having a general crisis of identity in (Mistaken Identity), with a jazz-rock-classical piano-based contemporary songwriter pop soundtrack, and occasional screaming, ranting, random phrases and the such.
* Power metal band Music/{{Kamelot}} took this tack with their 2010 release, "Poetry for the Poisoned." The band has been tactfully reticent about details but there are hints, readable between the lines, that this is the reason for their former vocalist Roy Khan's departure.
* Music/{{Epica}} zigzagged this trope a bit with 2 straight albums. Their 2009 release "Design Your Universe" was, musically speaking, the darkest, heaviest, and most intense of their works as of 2012, but had arguably the most optimistic and uplifting lyrical message. Their 2012 release "Requiem for the Indifferent," by contrast, lightened up the compositions and went in a more prog-metal direction but took on a condemning, accusatory lyrical tone that decried the injustices of modern society and the inaction of those who could make a difference.
* Music/LambOfGod had always been known to deliver some already dark, heavy and intense albums, like "Ashes in the Wake" and "Wrath", but then they managed to one-up themselves with 2012's "Resolution", which resulted in both some of their darkest songs ever, (Such as "King Me", "Ghost Walking", "Insurrection" and the bonus track "Bury Me Under The Sun") and some of Randy Blythe's most insane and intense vocals (Most notably "King Me", which featured different styles of singing, such as spoken word, the basic grows and Randy's screams of insanity and rage towards the end.) Basically, they did what Pantera did with ''The Great Southern Trendkill''.
* Metal band Music/IllNino's fifth album ''Dead New World'' featured a much more aggressive sound than their previous works, with more frequent and angry harsh vocals (with the exception of a couple songs), louder production, heavier riffs, darker subject matter, and less Latin influence. And this is from the same band who put out an album 7 years earlier that was basically a slightly harder version of early Music/LinkinPark.
* Kelly Clarkson may have gone in a decidedly harder and more rock-oriented direction on ''Breakaway'', but her follow-up ''My December'' played this trope completely straight. It had a crunchier guitar sound, Clarkson's angriest vocal performance to date and some truly scathing lyrics in certain songs. Enough that many pop radio stations pulled lead single "Never Again" from rotation just a couple weeks after release. The decision to make such an album stemmed from Clarkson's exhaustion from constantly touring, several bad relationships, and her growing frustration with her manager. After many fans and critics [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks complained about this change in tone]], Clarkson for the most part returned to lighter and more upbeat pop music on her next two albums.
* The "Outlaw Country" subgenre of CountryMusic that was popular from the 1960s to the early 1980s was darker and edgier than the more clean-cut and family friendly "Nashville sound" mainstream country music. Outlaw country musicians such as Music/DavidAllanCoe, Music/MerleHaggard, and Music/WaylonJennings had long hair, beards, and dressed in denim jeans and work shirts rather than rhinestone-covered stage outfits that mainstream country artists were fond of. Outlaw country songs frequently dealt with subjects like alcoholism, failed relationships, poverty, and other subjects that many blue-collar Americans could identify with. Outlaw country was sometimes called "Texas country" because many outlaw country musicians came from Texas instead of Tennessee.
* Music/TheBandPerry's second album has a much harder rock edge than their first. "Better Dig Two" is a definitely darker song than almost anything on their first album, and "DONE." is by far their hardest song yet.

* Music/DefLeppard's 1996 album ''Slang'' showcased a more organic, darker musical style and subject matter, fueled by [[CreatorBreakdown personal turmoil]] in the band members' lives, express themselves more honestly and by their willingness to experiment with new sounds and acknowledge the [[TheNineties 1990s]] AlternativeRock movement. It was their first album since their debut ''On Through the Night'' not to be produced by Creator/RobertJohnMuttLange.
* When Music/FaithNoMore were quoted as saying "People are going to hate our new album" prior to the release of ''Angel Dust'' in 1992, they were ''not'' mincing words. Fans of the upbeat FunkMetal sound of ''The Real Thing'' were in for a shock to discover their much-anticipated follow-up to be filled with minor chords, DoomMetal riffs, circus and funeral organs, subject matter even more disturbing than before (third world starvation, [[{{Squick}} explicit gay sex]], [[DrugsAreBad drug-induced]] [[AxCrazy psychopathy]], and [[DrivenToSuicide what reads like a deranged man's suicide note]]), and Music/MikePatton exchanging his nerdy AlternativeRock vocals for a combination of gothic crooning and [[HarshVocals over-the-top screams]]. Also greeted with images of a slaughterhouse upon opening the album packaging.
* Music/TlotTlot are kind of a reversal of this trope: they started out as a post-punk band called Man in the Wood in 1986 and changed their name and style in 1991.
* Future Perfect's third album, ''After the Fall'', took a darker turn from their first two albums, both instrumentally and lyrically; e.g. "Protect and Survive" is about [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt an impending nuclear strike on Britain]].
* With her second album, ''Siberia'', the once [[{{Moe}} cheerful]] Music/{{Lights}} has taken a noticeably angstier turn. The album after, ''Little Machines'' went back in a lighter direction.

* Music/{{Aqua}}'s reunion album ''Megalomania'' has a ''much'' more serious tone than the bubblegum {{Europop}} their earlier work was defined by.
* Tom Shear's Surveillance side project is this to his Assemblage 23 material.
* Information Society's ''Don't Be Afraid'', which dabbled in DarkWave and EBM sounds, was considerably darker than any material that came before or after.
* Synthwave master Lazerhawk has shifted to a more {{goth}}ic mood on his third album, ''Skull and Shark''. The cover art is the first giveaway at this, depicting a hawk/eagle with a human skull for a head and an inverted cross on its breast.
* "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2oY-4TMOI0 Dio vi salvi Regina]]", Corsica's national anthem, is considered one of the saddest national anthems due to its tone and the lyrics. The one of the lines (In un mar di dolore, E d'amarezza) describes Corsica being surrounded by a "sea of pain and bitterness" which refers to the troubled past of the island.
* Of all the Seattle [[Main/{{Grunge}} grunge]]-era bands, Music/AliceInChains were this compared to the [[Music/{{Nirvana}} other]] [[Music/PearlJam three]] [[Music/{{Soundgarden}} bands]] from the "Big 4", with a lot of their music arguably qualifying as DoomMetal. But this trope even applies to the band's discography, as they got ''much'' heavier with each release; their predecessors Alice 'n' Chainz were pure GlamRock in the vein of Music/{{Poison}}. The first incarnation of the current Alice in Chains was GlamMetal in the vein of Music/GunsNRoses, and their debut album ''Facelift'' took it even further, with a much heavier sound clearly in HeavyMetal territory, but still very glam. The album that followed, 1992's ''Dirt'', was a far bigger transition, with the music being their first attempts at doom metal and the lyrics focused on war, death, depression, and ''especially'' heroin addiction. Their 1995 self titled album is easily one of the darkest, most depressing albums ever released into mainstream. The band's latest material, with William [=DuVall=] having replaced the late Layne Staley on vocals, has still kept the tradition going.
* Music/TheJonasBrothers, who were sponsored by Creator/TheDisneyChannel, made their career singing clean and chaste love songs aimed at young girls. After they faded into obscurity, Music/NickJonas and Music/JoeJonas started careers of their own. Nick became an RAndB star and Joe formed DNCE, a disco-funk-pop band. While not really darker sonically, lyrically they're much more explicit. With obvious sexual themes and swearing throughout, they've separated themselves from the Jonas Brothers in more ways than one since splitting from Disney.
* If a {{boy band}} lasts more than a few years, they generally become frustrated with the limited "bubblegum pop" material they are spoon-fed in their early career and want to pursue a more grown up sound with darker and more introspective lyrics and more aggressive instrumentation, sometimes played by themselves as they strive to prove they have genuine talent.
* Music/{{Erasure}} went in this direction with ''World Be Gone'' (2017), which has a harder and angstier vibe comparable to the later works of songwriter Vince Clarke's earlier band, Music/DepecheMode.
* Music/{{Necronomidol}} is an idol group whose imagery and sounds are influenced by BlackMetal, occultism, horror manga and Creator/HPLovecraft's books. Their lyrics are mostly about despair, sacrifices, terror, eldritch abominations etc. like any respectable dark metal band. It doesn't get much darker than this in idol-land!
* ''Music/DragonForce'': The album ''Ultra Beatdown'' was the turning point. The music was pretty much the same upbeat power-metal as always, but the lyrics veered away from the usual themes of blood, fire, steel, honor and dragons, to focus on things like suicide, separation, mid-life crisis and death angst.
* Psytrance and tech trance are darker subgenres under the {{trance}} umbrella, with the former combining MindScrew with dance music and the latter utilizing its {{techno}} influences by way of using harder, dirtier and more synthesized sounds than other trance subgenres, especially compared to the much LighterAndSofter uplifting.
* British dance rock quintet [=EMF=] hit the mainstream with their 1991 single "Unbelievable", and had more hits domestically as part of the Madchester/baggy scene, but when the grunge wave reshaped the alternative rock charts in the early 1990s, [=EMF=] attempted to keep up with a sample-free, darker sophomore album (1993's "Stigma") that went nowhere. Website/YouTube music reviewer WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows invoked this trope in his One Hit Wonderland episode on [=EMF=], noting that on ''Behind the Music'', a darker, more adult album from an "allegedly lightweight act" is "generally the 2/3rds mark of the episode when things start going bad, and [=EMF=] was no exception, because who the hell wanted a darker [=EMF=]?"
* Music/VNVNation, following the LighterAndSofter ''Automatic'' and ''Transnational'', swung back in the dark direction with the [[MeaningfulName aptly named]] ''Noire''.
* UsefulNotes/{{Synthwave}} artist FM Attack strongly exhibits this trope with ''New World'', especially the three collaborations with Vandal Moon that edge towards DarkWave territory.
* On her 2019 tour, Music/AmandaPalmer went to some fairly dark places in her speeches to the audience -- par for the course for her. But then, at the end of the show, she performed a cover of [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 "Let It Go"]] that was completely unexpected and [[ItMakesSenseInContext made perfect sense in context]], and managed to be dark and heartbreaking while also being heartwarming and uplifting.
* Although Music/TheCaretaker was quite dark and horror-inspired when it started, it became much bleaker after Kirby decided to incorporate ideas about amnesia and dementia, culminating into the literal aural equivalent of losing one's mind.
* While not too dark and edgy and still light-hearted, the Music/JasonDonovan album "All Around the World" is more serious and mature than his previous three albums.
** His rendition of the song "Close Every Door" is darker than his other songs he performed.
** The music video of the song "RSVP" has a darker and mature feel, but the song itself has the same clean-cut tone.
* Music/BoardsOfCanada's second album, ''Geogaddi'', compared to the debut, ''Music Has The Right To Children''. Also, ''Tomorrow's Harvest'' compared to ''The Campfire Headphase''.

* Annie's 2020 comeback album, appropriately named ''Dark Hearts'', does a complete 180 turn from her prior bubblegum synth/dance-pop towards dark synthwave, featuring apocalypse-themed songs such as "The Countdown to The End of the World" and "The Bomb".
* Music/OrigamiAngel: Downplayed. ''Music/GamiGang'', their second album, is tonally darker than ''Music/SomewhereCity''. While it has its light moments, they're not as frequent. For instance, "Blanket Statement" is about the singer's life being "a fuckin' mess" and him not knowing how to fix it.

* The musical history of Music/PinkFloyd seems to have been a long slide from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHRE5dyDKTA spacey, exploratory psychedelia]] of Music/SydBarrett, down into Roger Waters' descent into dark cynicism with ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', ''Music/WishYouWereHere'', ''Music/{{Animals|1977}}'' and ''Music/TheWall''. Waters' solo work after leaving Pink Floyd continues the trend.

* Music/TheBeatles went this direction with ''Music/TheWhiteAlbum''. Though light, silly songs remained ("Back in the U.S.S.R", "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", "Birthday") many songs on the album were quite dark, such as "Julia", about the death of John Lennon's mother, "Blackbird", about racism, and especially "Revolution 9", a nightmarish sound collage. Similarly, many other '60s bands, including Music/TheBeachBoys, Music/TheRollingStones and Music/TheWho, became DarkerAndEdgier during/after the peak of psychedelia.

* The whole genre of HipHop owes its existence to this trope. Until the late 1980s, it was dismissed as a passing fad by most music critics, due to its generally shallow, goofy lyrics and repetitive beats. But in 1988, two albums were released that would go on to legitimize hip hop and make it a relevant form of music: ''Music/StraightOuttaCompton'' by Music/{{NWA}} and ''Music/ItTakesANationOfMillionsToHoldUsBack'' by Music/PublicEnemy. The latter featured biting political commentary, centered around the oppression of black culture in mainstream America, while the former contained some of the most genuinely scathing lyrics ever heard in popular music up to that point (it was, in fact, one of the first albums to earn a "Parental Advisory" sticker). In the wake of those two albums, HipHop took on a much more serious and socially conscious tone, much to the delight of both critics and fans. A few years later, the genre of GangstaRap showed the world just how dark and edgy hip hop could be, culminating in the real life deaths of rappers Music/TupacShakur and Music/TheNotoriousBIG. Then came the sub-genre known as {{Horrorcore}}. GangstaRap turned UpToEleven, with lyrics worthy of DeathMetal. Then there's industrial hip-hop, typified by acts like Music/{{Dalek}}, Music/DeathGrips, and Music/{{Clipping}}, which is simply way more abrasive than anything that had qualified as hip-hop before the 2000s.

* Music/{{Eminem}}'s discography has been a sine-wave of LighterAndSofter and DarkerAndEdgier. His 1996 debut ''Infinite'' was the former, though [[CreatorBreakdown a series of life events]] caused him to take the darker content [[UpToEleven to the nth degree]] with ''Music/TheSlimShadyLP'' and ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP''; both were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. His subsequent two albums were somewhat LighterAndSofter; ''Relapse'' is both the most [[DarkerAndEdgier dark]] album he's yet done (seeking to be genuinely frightening in parts) ''and'' is about him rapping absurd comedy rhyme schemes [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent in a silly accent]]; ''Recovery'' is a straight pop-rap album and ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'' is a comedic pop-rap album which captures the playfulness of his early music but not the violence. After this, he largely went into MoodWhiplash within albums, veering between sincere pop-rap with Skylar Gray and violent raps about mass shooters.

* Of all the Seattle [[Main/{{Grunge}} grunge]]-era bands, Music/AliceInChains were this compared to the [[Music/{{Nirvana}} other]] [[Music/PearlJam three]] [[Music/{{Soundgarden}} bands]] from the "Big 4", with a lot of their music arguably qualifying as DoomMetal. But this trope even applies to the band's discography, as they got ''much'' heavier with each release; their predecessors Alice 'n' Chainz were pure GlamRock in the vein of Music/{{Poison}}. The first incarnation of the current Alice in Chains was GlamMetal in the vein of Music/GunsNRoses, and their debut album ''Facelift'' took it even further, with a much heavier sound clearly in HeavyMetal territory, but still very glam. The album that followed, 1992's ''Dirt'', was a far bigger transition, with the music being their first attempts at doom metal and the lyrics focused on war, death, depression, and ''especially'' heroin addiction. Their 1995 self titled album took this trope UpToEleven, being easily one of the darkest, most depressing albums ever released into mainstream. The band's latest material, with William [=DuVall=] having replaced the late Layne Staley on vocals, has still kept the tradition going.

* Believe it or not, Music/{{Pantera}} started out as a GlamRock act, with their debut ''Metal Magic'' not quite living up to its title and a vocalist that sounded straight out of Music/{{Foreigner}} or Music/{{Loverboy|Band}}, along with family-friendly lyrics that sounded like something straight out of a 1950s teenager's diary. Their following records ''Projects in the Jungle'' and ''I Am the Night'', however, were each progressively more HeavyMetal influenced, and their once-squeaky clean singer had gotten noticeably harsher and started showing impressive falsettos, while the lyrics began delving into HotterAndSexier SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll territory, {{Fantasy}} themes, horror and {{Angst}}y subject matter (one song even deals with [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]).

* Compare the album ''The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp'' to anything that Music/KingCrimson's done, ever. The first King Crimson lineup ''was'' Giles, Giles and Fripp, plus [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Greg Lake]] and [[Music/{{Foreigner}} Ian McDonald]]. Also, compare the album ''Music/FromGenesisToRevelation'' by Music/{{Genesis|Band}} to the song "The Knife" from the very next album, ''Music/{{Trespass|GenesisAlbum}}''.

* The musical history of Music/PinkFloyd seems to have been a long slide from the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHRE5dyDKTA spacey, exploratory psychedelia]] of Music/SydBarrett, down into Roger Waters' descent into dark cynicism with ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'', ''Music/WishYouWereHere'', ''Music/{{Animals}}'' and ''Music/TheWall''. Waters' solo work after leaving Pink Floyd continues the trend.

* Compare the album ''The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp'' to anything that Music/KingCrimson's done, ever. The first King Crimson lineup ''was'' Giles, Giles and Fripp, plus [[Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer Greg Lake]] and [[Music/{{Foreigner}} Ian McDonald]]. Also, compare the album ''Music/FromGenesisToRevelation'' by Music/{{Genesis}} to the song "The Knife" from the very next album, ''Music/{{Trespass|GenesisAlbum}}''.

* Music/BlindMelon followed up their very successful self-titled debut album with the much darker ''Soup'', which dealt with subject matter of murder, suicide and serial killers. It didn't sit well with some -- especially those who used the first album to only put "No Rain" on repeat. Even among fans, the shift from the more light, almost hippieish jam band feel of the first album to the darker and heavier feel of the second took some getting used to. The shift in tone is not only for creative reasons, but the increasingly erratic behavior, near constant drug use of primary songwriter Shannon Hoon. The album was also recorded in New Orleans, and the influence of the music and culture of that city on the album is salient.

* Music/{{Suede}}'s sophomore album ''Dog Man Star'' saw them moving away from {{Britpop}} to a more art-rock, drug-influenced sound. The record got mixed reactions upon release and was fairly commercially unsuccessful, but [[VindicatedByHistory is nowadays regarded as their best album]].

* Believe it or not, Music/{{Pantera}} started out as a GlamRock act, with their debut ''Metal Magic'' not quite living up to its title and a vocalist that sounded straight out of Music/{{Foreigner}} or Music/{{Loverboy}}, along with family-friendly lyrics that sounded like something straight out of a 1950s teenager's diary. Their following records ''Projects in the Jungle'' and ''I Am the Night'', however, were each progressively more HeavyMetal influenced, and their once-squeaky clean singer had gotten noticeably harsher and started showing impressive falsettos, while the lyrics began delving into HotterAndSexier SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll territory, {{Fantasy}} themes, horror and {{Angst}}y subject matter (one song even deals with [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]).

** DarkerAndEdgier as BlackMetal is, there are some bands who manage to do this to ''black metal itself''. Music/DeathspellOmega is one good example. Dark Tribe, Music/{{Revenge}}, and Music/AnaalNathrakh are others.

** ''[[Music/Lemonade2016 Lemonade]]'' is her darkest work yet. The album is entirely based around AdultFear: what to do when your partner cheats on you, how to move on and the lasting effects it can have in a marriage. The songs go further and show this is a problem to have also happened to her mother and grandmother. The album has also been praised for its exploration of black feminism and womanhood.

* If a {{boy band}} lasts more than a few years, they generally become frustrated with the limited TastesLikeDiabetes material they are spoon-fed in their early career and want to pursue a more grown up sound with darker and more introspective lyrics and more aggressive instrumentation, sometimes played by themselves as they strive to prove they have genuine talent.