Line #19 LighterAndSofter/Music


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2	* Ethereal Wave is a SubGenre of GothRock that takes the scything guitar that Goth Rock is defined by and adds in soothing synths, [[OneWomanWail airy vocals]], and classical instruments like the violin.
3	* Music/MyChemicalRomance has ''Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys''. While still embodying the band's strong language and edgy themes, this album seems like a much lighter direction in themes and musical style, particularly considering that the emo factor and dark imaginery are non-existent here. Instead, the band here opted for a much more punk rock style and musical elements of power pop and pop rock.
4	* ''Music/KidzBop'' is a series of cover albums, the concept of which is turning hit songs into children's music, not neglecting songs about death, sex, or drugs. HilarityEnsues. Rockabye Baby takes it way further - it turns classic rock songs into ''baby lullabies''. While Kidz Bop mainly cover Top 40 hits full of LyricalDissonance, Rockabye Baby covers [[SarcasmMode kid-friendly bands]] such as Music/NineInchNails, Music/PinkFloyd, Music/{{Radiohead}}, and Music/{{Tool}}. And it's ''[[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel amazing]]''.
5	* Music/{{Macabre}} has a side project called Macabre Minstrels, and they released an [=EP=] called "Morbid Campfire Songs". While still rather gruesome, they have much softer lyrics compared to their usual method of telling horrid stories.
6	* The departure of Roger Waters from Music/PinkFloyd was followed by a classic Lightening and Softening. From mental breakdowns rendered into music and harsh lyrics condemning modern life, Pink Floyd moved to David Gilmour's gentle dreamy soundscapes. Lyrically, the later albums tend to unfocused expressions of good will and an earnest appreciation for life. The remaining angst now seemed more of pose: a mere colour on the palette, not a daub of raw blood. Interestingly, the Waters-lead era (starting with ''Music/TheDarkSideOfTheMoon'') was itself a {{darker and edgier}} Pink Floyd. Before this point, Floyd albums were known for being spacey and psychedelic rather than particularly dark. Indeed, their original Syd Barrett era was downright whimsical at times.
7	* In terms of singing style, Music/InThisMoment's second album ''The Dream'', which placed a lot more emphasis on clean vocals than the {{Metal Scream}}s of ''Beautiful Tragedy''. [[JustifiedTrope This was because]] lead singer Maria Brink wanted to challenge herself with what she (personally) found a more difficult singing style.
8	* This happened to Music/JoyDivision after they changed their name to Music/NewOrder. Not that New Order doesn't have a certain edge to their brand of AlternativeDance -- indeed, their PostPunk roots are still easy to spot even today -- but they're definitely far removed from the dreary, warbling proto-GothRock that defined Joy Division's sound.
9	* Music/TalkingHeads went through this once TheEighties started to kick in. While ''Music/TalkingHeads77'' and ''Music/MoreSongsAboutBuildingsAndFood'' were pretty peppy sound-wise, ''Music/FearOfMusic'' and ''Music/RemainInLight'' had a noticeably anxious, paranoid tone, with general themes of societal degradation and the world going to shit overall. 1983's ''Speaking in Tongues'' still sounded pretty anxious, but the subject matter of the songs was nowhere near as disturbing and featured heavier emphasis on funk than its predecessors. ''Music/LittleCreatures'' from 1985 completely dropped the band's PostPunk sound in favor of pop rock mixed with old-school NewWaveMusic and CountryMusic. Then ''Music/TrueStories'' from just a year later dropped the country flare too, leaving a blatantly mainstream-oriented pop rock album that critics loathed and fans tolerated. 1988's ''Music/{{Naked}}'' (Talking Heads' final album before splitting up in 1991) seemed to find a compromise, featuring a mix of the band's darker and lighter elements musically and lyrically, and as such was considered a return to form from fans and critics alike.
10	* Music/TheMisfits in the 90s, [[DownplayedTrope sort of.]] The low-budget, dirty hardcore punk turned into cleanly-produced punk/metal. Profane lyrics about sex, rape, and chaotic violence stopped, but lyrics about violent horror movies remain.
11	* HardcoreTechno fans have a huge chip on their shoulder about its lighter and softer cousins: Happy Hardcore and Hardstyle, which charted pretty heavily in the 90s (happy hardcore) and the early 00s (Hardstyle).
12	* The Tubes. The glitter-shock incarnation that did "White Punks on Dope" in the '70s was a far cry from the group that had a hit with "She's a Beauty" in the '80s. Singer Fee Waybill has acknowledged that it was intentional. His reason? "Nothing shocks anybody anymore."
13	* This happened to many HardRock bands in the '70s and '80s as they gained commercial success. An example is Music/REOSpeedwagon. Their first album included tracks called "Five Men Were Killed Today" (strangely enough, a ballad) and "Dead at Last" (about suicide, the end of a relationship, or both). Years later, they would have big hits with the PowerBallad’s "Keep On Lovin' You" and "Can't Fight This Feelin'."
14	* Music/TheVelvetUnderground have an interesting trajectory in this regard. Their first album -- 1967's ''Music/TheVelvetUndergroundAndNico'' -- was a fairly eclectic mix of soft stuff, hard stuff, and hard stuff that sounds soft (consider "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdLSuRECKdI Sunday Morning]]", for instance). Their next album, ''Music/WhiteLightWhiteHeat'', took a definite turn for the experimental and {{dark\|erAndEdgier}} (the title track is about amphetamines, and it gets more macabre -- often [[BlackComedy hilariously]] so -- from there; John Cale stated that it was "consciously anti-beauty"). However, the third album, 1969's ''Music/{{The Velvet Underground\|Album}}'', is a lot mellower (if nevertheless experimental) -- something the band occasionally attributed to having their equipment stolen before recording -- and finally 1970's ''Music/{{Loaded}}'' (so called because [[ExecutiveMeddling the label wanted an album "loaded with hits"]]), which is ''much'' softer musically (but also just as experimental, proving Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad).
15	* The first two albums by Music/MotleyCrue, ''Too Fast for Love'' and ''Shout at the Devil'', were dark, gritty HeavyMetal albums with lyrics that dealt with things like drug abuse and Satanism. Starting with their third album, ''Theatre of Pain'', they moved in a more MTV-friendly {{hard rock}} direction with anthems like "Smokin' in the Boys' Room" and power ballads like "Home Sweet Home".
16	* In an intentional case of this trope, Music/{{Prince}}'s ''Lovesexy'' was released as a light, fluffy response to the zany, mean-spirited ''Black Album'', complete with a pink album cover with a flower on it.
17	* Music/{{Gorillaz}} followed up their darkest, most depressing work on ''Demon Days'' with a flashy SynthPop album, ''Music/PlasticBeach''.
18	* Music/VNVNation's 2010 album ''Of Faith, Power and Glory'' was very [[DarkerAndEdgier depressing and cynical]], but the follow-up, ''Automatic'', is much brighter and more upbeat. The band in general are the trope codifiers of the Futurepop sub-genre, the lighter and softer version of EBM.
19	* The Pierces had three dark-sounding, FemmeFatale-like albums out with very little success. Their fourth album, involving gentler songs reminiscent of The Bangles, got them breaking into the mainstream.
20	* A lot of Hip-Hop fans say this is what happened to mainstream rap music. The days of the weed smoking gangstas, and proud to be black Afrocentric political rappers with their gritty [[JustifiedCriminal justified crime tales]], and sociopolitical street knowledge were long gone, only to be replaced (circa early '00s) by champagne sipping pimps, and playas, who love to rap about wealth, cheesy love songs, and club anthems. A trend that continued into TheNewTens, with the watered down version of TrapMusic, and "Mumble Rap".
21	** This is also common when leveled at specific artists within the genre. Primarily HardcoreHipHop rappers and the Blue Collar and Hardcore variants of GangstaRap. A good example would be Music/FiftyCent whom ironically built his image around being the anti-Ja Rule (whom also turned lighter), which to some made Fiddy a hypocrite. Then there's others like Music/SnoopDogg, Music/ThreeSixMafia, Music/JayZ, Music/{{Nas}} (circa ''Nastradamus''), the later years of No Limit records, Music/BoneThugsNHarmony (fans thinking they're still trying to chase [[BlackSheepHit "Tha Crossroads"]], or at least the record label is), Music/WuTangClan circa ''Wu-Tang Forever'' (RZA saying it was a record for white people).
22	** Specific rapper example: The early works made by South Korean rapper Music/{{PSY}} [[OlderThanTheyThink during his debut years]] were dark and gritty, with his ''Urbanite'' took that up to eleven by turning Workaholic {{Crapsaccharine\|World}} social phenomenon into SarcasmMode. Then come to TheNewTens, his recent songs like ''Music/GangnamStyle'' and ''Napal Baji'' becoming brighter and sillier, with a few serious moments.
23	* Music/{{Madonna}}'s ''Hard Candy'' has generally been criticized for being closer to the fluff pop of her earlier style than later works such as ''Ray of Light'' and ''Confessions on a Dancefloor''.
24	* SynthPop duo Future Perfect's first album, ''Dirty Little Secrets'', is dark, {{angst}}y, and depressing at times. Their second, ''Escape'', headed in the upbeat and energetic direction. Conversely, ''After the Fall'' was DarkerAndEdgier than both of their previous albums.
25	* Many thrash metal bands went in this direction around the time of the grunge explosion, partially to keep up with the times and partially because the band-members themselves were growing tired of the musical style they were playing. During the last decade, however, this has been subverted by many of these same bands.
26	** Music/{{Testament}} subverted this trope after their "lighter and softer" ''The Ritual'' flopped. ''Demonic'', in particular, borders on being a full-blown DeathMetal album.
27	* Oshare Kei is this to VisualKei -- it tends to be much lighter and more playful than other visual genres (expect ''lots'' of bright colors and pastels), and, while most other VK subgenres tend to play some form of HeavyMetal, oshare kei generally prefers PopPunk. Just compare, for example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D8xrJZ8L-Y D]] (kote kei, the most common VK subgenre) with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOZvz52hCow An Cafe]] (oshare kei).
28	* Played straight, then modestly averted with Music/{{Underoath}}. Those familiar with their most commercially successful material such as the ''They're Only Chasing Safety'' and ''Define the Great Line'' albums might be shocked upon listening to their first two releases, ''Act of Depression'' and ''Cries of the Past'', both of which are full-blown DeathMetal albums. The [[MeaningfulName aptly-titled]] follow-up ''The Changing of Times'' marked a break away from their original Death Metal sound into the more melodic and accessible PostHardcore sound they became known for today. However, after ''Only Chasing Safety'', their (relatively) Lightest and Softest album[[note]]containing lines such as "Sleeping with the girl next door, I always knew you were a sucker for that" that were a stark contrast to the punishingly dark themes on the first two albums such as suicide, abortion, rape and damnation[[/note]] marked by a change in vocalists from their original [[TheUnintelligible unintelligible]] Death Metal shrieker Dallas Taylor to {{Hardcore}} vocalist Spencer Chamberlain and switch to a more radio-friendly "screaming verse, singing chorus, rinse and repeat" SopranoAndGravel style, each release afterward was [[DarkerAndEdgier noticeably darker and heavier than the last]]. The departure of long-time drummer and clean singer Aaron Gillespie left the band in a position between the dissonant Death Metal of the debut and the commercial melodic Hardcore of ''Chasing Safety'', sporting a DoomMetal-esque sound with emphasis on [[MasterOfNone neither heaviness or melody]].
29	* The Break Up, while still slightly dark, are definitely lighter than Severina X Sol's previous bands; Diva Destruction, Fockewolf, and Cylab.
30	* Music/DefLeppard was once considered one of the major bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, alongside Music/IronMaiden and Music/{{Motorhead}}. These days, most people only know the band for their radio-friendly HairMetal hits that started with their third album, ''Pyromania''. The band-members openly admit that they adopted a softer, more mainstream sound in an effort to become more popular and successful. It worked ''big time''.
31	* CountryMusic band Music/{{Lonestar}}. They were a bit edgy and more rocking on their first album; the second was smooth, almost Music/{{Eagles}}-esque; the third was anchored by the PowerBallad "Amazed" and other songs like it; and all the successive albums contained a mix of "Amazed"-style power ballads (e.g. "Not a Day Goes By", "Let's Be Us Again"); [[SweetnessAversion mushy, bland, family-friendly, soccer-mom-targeting fare]] (such as "I'm Already There", "My Front Porch Looking In", and "Mr. Mom"), and otherwise safe, totally de-fanged, light country-pop. It's hard to believe that this is the same band whose first #1 hit, "No News", had a [=KKK=] reference {{bowdlerize}}d from it.
32	* Music/AcidBath could have been said to have done this with their second album, which toned down the abrasive sludge, death metal, grindcore, and post-hardcore elements of ''When the Kite String Pops'' while bumping up the stoner, blues, gothic rock, folk, and country influences. Of course, given that it ''was'' Acid Bath, ''Paegan Terrorism Tactics'' was still incredibly dark and nightmarish, just a lot more prone to LyricalDissonance. It was also a perfect example of Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad and how to pull this trope off the right way.
33	* Music/BreakingBenjamin did this [[PlayingWithATrope somewhat]]. Their first two albums, ''Saturate'' and ''We Are Not Alone'', were both had heavier AlternativeMetal influences, drawing inspiration from Music/AliceInChains and Music/{{Tool}}. Their next two albums, ''Phobia'' and ''Dear Agony'', had more of an {{alternative rock}}[=/=]{{grunge}} sound and were a little bit softer musically. Lyrically though, they were the same, with the later two albums possibly beng a slight bit darker than the first two.
34	* Music/TriciaBrock's departure from Music/{{Superchick}} saw her take this route, ditching the rock sound and teen angst inspired lyrics.
35	* There's two versions of Andrew Belle's "Sky's Still Blue": The original and the version made for a commercial. The revised version is significantly fluffier, with a lighter tone, an acoustic sound, and different lyrics, compared to the melancholy original.
36	-->'''The original''': Never see clearly 'till you stop crying/I never found it until I stopped trying/I stumbled upon you/Fell through the ceiling tiles.\
37	I started out a fire to smoke out my treason/Tore down the building to pick up the pieces/And now on the clear glass wall I can see our fate/But it's a little too late\
38	'''Second version''': Your heart is a city/Your eyes are a fixture/Your mind tells a story of ten-thousand pictures/We stumble upon it/Fell through the ceiling tiles\
39	We drew up a landscape/We climbed down a ladder/Carved out a memory/To follow the pattern/And now on a clear glass wall I can see my fate/You know it's never too late
40	* In the beginning, Music/{{Sevendust}} gradually got lighter with each release. Their SelfTitledAlbum was very aggressive, raw metal with some songs bordering on [[ThrashMetal Crossover Thrash]], a far cry from the more accessible sound of their later albums. ''Home'' and ''Animosity'' featured more clean vocals and less screaming, but are still relatively heavy. ''Seasons'' and ''Next'', however, really toned things down, with half the songs being borderline radio rock that wouldn't sound out of place on a Music/LinkinPark album. Which makes it rather jarring to hear the album that came after ''Next'', ''Alpha'', which is their angriest, loudest, and heaviest album to date.
41	* Music/FaithNoMore really had no way to go ''but'' LighterAndSofter after the nightmarish ''Angel Dust''. ''King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime'' had its share of disturbing and brutal metal tracks ("Cuckoo for Caca", "Ugly in the Morning"), but the contrasting songs were noticeably way more laid-back, usually alternating between AlternativeRock, lighter takes on {{Grunge}} and {{Novelty Song}}s in the styles of {{Jazz}} and {{Pop}}. ''Album of the Year'' mostly followed suit, with the occasional ''Angel Dust''-esque metal number ("Collision", "Last Cup of Sorrow", "Paths of Glory") surrounded by more upbeat {{Punk\|Rock}} and AlternativeRock tracks as well as experiments with ambient {{electronic\|music}} sounds, and even an RAndB style ballad ("She Loves Me Not", which its cowriter Billy Gould compared to Music/BoyzIIMen). Though both of these albums came after the departure of original guitarist Jim Martin, they are still noticeably DarkerAndEdgier than ''Introduce Yourself'' and ''The Real Thing''.
42	* Music/SugarRay ''embody'' this trope. After their BlackSheepHit "Fly" brought them an unexpected #1 hit, they dropped much of the heavy rock jams of their first two albums, and on their third album, ''14:59'', they embraced {{pop}} music for real, to the biggest success of their career. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkE1ZmvjP_E Their early stuff]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQSCKWfJlXs their later stuff]] are like two different bands.
43	* Music/{{Chicago}} built a grand reputation for themselves in TheSeventies as a SpiritualSuccessor to Music/BloodSweatAndTears, mixing ProgressiveRock with {{Jazz}} instrumentation and {{Funk}} rhythms, then turned into an AdultContemporary soft rock act during TheEighties after the success of [[BlackSheepHit "If You Leave Me Now"]] near the end of the prior decade. One need only hear their two most well-known songs, "25 or 6 to 4" and "You're the Inspiration", to understand the contrast.
44	* Psyborg Corp's ''The Frozen Shrines of Obsÿdÿana'' moves away from the harsh aggrotech of ''The Mechanical Renaissance'' towards goth-electro and futurepop territory.
45	* A lot of indie rock made since the TurnOfTheMillennium falls into this, perhaps as a reaction against NuMetal, PostGrunge and HipHop. Modern indie generally features softer, melodic songs with predominately acoustic and orchestral arrangements derived from BaroquePop, folk and electronica while avoiding HarshVocals.
46	* ''Music/OutToLunch'' by Music/EricDolphy has a track called "Something Sweet, Something Tender".
47	* Chillstep is the lighter and softer cousin of {{Dubstep}}, which features less distorted bass, a more spacey sound, little to no wobble riffs, less emphasis to near-absence of drops and a generally "angelic" or "uplifting" feel.
48	* Music/TheOcean released three albums filled with heavy, aggressive, dark, and doomy progressive sludge metal. Cue ''Heliocentric'', and there's a lot more melody and clean singing. There's even a ballad!
49	* Music/BringMeTheHorizon started out as a {{deathcore}} outfit on their first album, they quickly changed to a lighter yet still hard-sounding {{metalcore}} band afterwards. This stayed for a long time and they became one of the faces of metalcore. Naturally, it was a surprise when all of this was tossed aside with ''That's the Spirit''. They abandoned metalcore entirely for a ''much'' lighter, radio-friendly sound that incorporates {{nu metal}}, {{emo\|Music}}, {{alternative rock}}, {{pop punk}}, and electronic rock. Listening to "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWggPLXeOkU Pray for Plagues]]", then "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJEahE-4juQ Shadow Moses]]", then "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_qI_F2ZJI Throne]]", they sound like three completely different bands.
50	* Music/{{Katatonia}} was a TropeCodifier for the death/doom metal sound on their first few releases, but they proceeded to drop the DeathMetal elements in favor for AlternativeMetal, while keeping a heavy DoomMetal influence still. Compare "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umbko1vFy6Y Without God]]" to "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66QYYdN9F0 Dispossession]]".
51	* Music/{{Alabama}} went through this as the decade turned from TheEighties to TheNineties. Their sound had most of the rock edge turned down, and they began doing more contemporary, mainstream country with slicker production while phasing out their IntercourseWithYou tendencies almost entirely. 1989's ''Southern Star'' seems to be the turning point, as it was when they switched producers to Josh Leo.
52	* Music/TheHumanLeague started out playing electronic music with a cold, clinical sound and lyrics that frequently went into MindScrew territory. One lineup change later, they released ''Dare'', which moved the band into the slick SynthPop sound that defined their career.
53	* Music/{{Eminem}}'s ''The Marshall Mathers LP 2'', which is probably the most light-hearted album he's ever put out. It has the humor of his first two albums, but rarely the dark, twisted nature of them. ("Bad Guy" aside.)
54	* In 1993, brothers Ricky Lee and Doug Phelps quit their respective roles of the Southern rock/country band Music/TheKentuckyHeadhunters to form the duo Brother Phelps. Ricky Lee wanted to sing straight-up country instead of the band's harder-edged Southern rock, so the two albums that Brother Phelps did were noticeably lighter in tone than the previous band. (Doug rejoined in 1995, taking his brother's former role.)
55	* Music/{{Caravan}} were already light and soft relative to many of their contemporaries in the {{prog\|ressiveRock}} genre, but they too went through this in the late 1970s and 1980s, with much of their output during that period featuring SillyLoveSongs with fewer [[IntercourseWithYou racier numbers]] to balance them out. Nearly all of those songs also eschewed the [[UncommonTime odd time signatures]] that were more common on earlier albums, often leaving the songs more similar to pop rock than prog.
56	* The lyrics for Lisasmith's "For All I Am" were re-recorded to be "less aggressive" in describing a dysfunctional relationship before being used as the theme song for the ShowWithinAShow ''Moody's Point'' in ''Series/TheAmandaShow''.
57	* DarkWave band The Frozen Autumn's 2017 album ''The Fellow Traveller'' has a less gloomy and more dancey vibe, which [[BrokenBase not all fans]] [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks agreed with.]]
58	* Compare the "Whisky in the Jar" versions, e.g. that of Music/ThinLizzy, which is probably more close to the traditional original (if such a thing exists with folk songs), with that of Music/TheDubliners. In the first, he shoots Captain Farrell with hot lead (and still gets caught and rots in prison, we have a lacuna here). In the second, he shoots him with cold water and gets caught immediately, but he still has hope his brother in the Army will bail him out. The music style accompanies the change.
59	* Music/{{The Cure\|Band}} followed the dark ''Pornography'' with a series of deliberately LighterAndSofter singles (subsequently collected as ''Japanese Whispers'') and the accessible pop album ''The Head On The Door''. They did a similar "reset" a few years later after the brooding ''Disintegration'', following it up with ''Mixed Up'', a consciously commercial collection of dance remixes. ''4:19 Dream'' compared to its predecessor ''The Cure'' is another example.
60	* After two albums of metalcore with HarshVocals, Cave-In shifted to a mix of AlternativeMetal and ProgressiveRock with melodic vocals for the albums ''Jupiter'' and ''Antenna''; this was in part because vocalist Stephen Brodsky didn't want to end up damaging his voice. On subsequent albums, the metalcore elements would return: Brodsky and bassist Caleb Scofield became a VocalTagTeam, where the latter would handle all the harsh parts.
61	* Music/TylerTheCreator’s music has gone through this. ''Wolf'' slowly started culling the dark shock rap that he was previously known for in exchange for more introspective lyrics, and by ''Flower Boy'', it was completely gone. His production has shifted from dark and abrasive to more soulful and polished, and his lyrics are considerably less vulgar.
62	* Music/TheChalkeaters' [[https://youtu.be/jpw2ebhTSKs "Count to Three"]], a song that pokes fun at Creator/{{Valve}} and Gabe Newell specifically, is notably more hopeful and lighthearted than its spiritual prequel [[https://youtu.be/YPN0qhSyWy8 "It Just Works"]], a straight-up VillainSong written for Creator/ToddHoward and Creator/{{Bethesda}}. The Chalkeaters has said that they originally wanted to make a darker toned song similar to "It Just Works", but they eventually ended up making it [[https://www.youtube.com/post/UgxG_F-c6PA5_R9F4BV4AaABCQ "more motivating than punishing"]].

Context LighterAndSofter / Music