History GrowingTheBeard / Music

* The three founding members of Music/{{Rush}} were Jeff Jones, Alex Lifeson and John Rutsey. Jones was quickly replaced by Geddy Lee. They were a decent if generic rock band with some definite promise. Then Rutsey left the band because he could not handle the rigors of the touring schedule. The second album, ''Fly by Night'' introduced their new drummer, Neil Peart. Not only is he pretty much the consummate rock drummer, but he wrote the band's lyrics. Goodbye cutesy songs like "Need Some Love", hello prog rock history. Rush became famous for their concept albums, evolutionary style and incredibly deep lyrics. They continued the beard-growing process with the next few albums after Peart joined, with ''2112'' often being considered their first true classic.

* Music/DaveGrohl. In his first band, Scream, he was just a regular drummer. This was the case with his first album with his next band (Music/{{Nirvana}}'s ''Music/{{Nevermind}}''), but his songwriting contributions increased by ''Music/InUtero''. Upon Kurt Cobain's death, Grohl started his own band, Music/FooFighters, who became better over the years, culminating with the critical and commercial smash ''Wasting Light''. Oh, and he also literally grew a beard.

* Music/{{Blondie}} always had many influences but their third album, ''Parallel Lines'', showed they could make radio friendly rock songs, ballads, and genre experiment songs in equal measure, whilst attaining popularity for their singer Debbie Harry's good looks.

* Music/EltonJohn grew his beard with his SelfTitledAlbum, which was actually his second album. It featured the hit "Your Song" and made him one of the quintessential singers/pianists of TheSeventies. But ''Music/GoodbyeYellowBrickRoad'' had "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting", a song showing that he was not just a singer-songwriter and had heavier material to write.

* [[OlderThanTheyThink Not many people know]] Music/{{PSY}} during his debut years, but his early songs during TurnOfTheMillennium ("Bird", "Urbanite" and "We Are The One" for example) were DarkerAndEdgier, having foul-mouthed, cynical and gritty tones criticizing on some social phenomenon in a BlackComedy VulgarHumor way that garnered so much criticism from public. Come to TheNewTens, his newer songs (''Music/GangnamStyle", "Napal Baji" and "Daddy" for example) have gone LighterAndSofter, having more-lighthearted and comical tones even if parodied AccidentalInnuendo are present. This results in better reception than when he debuted.

* Sawyer Brown is largely thought to have improved in sound around the release of ''Cafe on the Corner'' in 1992. The album was their first to feature songs written and produced by Mac [=McAnally=], who provided them with tight production, stellar songwriting (including such {{signature song}}s as the tender ballad "All These Years" and the thoughtful "Cafe on the Corner"), and overall improved them from the pink tennis shoe-wearing pop-rock wannabes they were in TheEighties.

* Music/TalkTalk started out as a typical cheesy, {{New Wave|Music}}-y [[TheEighties '80s]] SynthPop band shamelessly ripping off Music/DuranDuran. They grew dramatically over their careers, getting more experimental, culminating in their fantastic final album ''Music/LaughingStock'', which pioneered the genre of PostRock and really showed off what they could do. Unfortunately, they broke up immediately afterwards...

* Music/WillowSmith made a bad first impression with "Whip My Hair". But then her albums of authoral music showed she had better interests than bubblegum pop, with TheNewTwenties in particular bringing in a sleeper hit with her partner, "Meet Me at Our Spot", and the acclaimed indie rock album ''lately i feel EVERYTHING''.

* Music/{{Dreamcatcher|Band}} (originally known as MINX) grew after they changed their name and adopted a DarkerAndEdgier concept with rock and electronic leanings, evolving beyond the standard bubblegum pop that tends to dominate the KoreanPopMusic scene. MINX was unable to stand out among similarly cutesy girl groups, while Dreamcatcher's more fierce and powerful image has been immediately attention-grabbing.

* Music/{{Dreamcatcher|Band}} (originally known as MINX) grew after they changed their name and adopted a DarkerAndEdgier concept with rock and electronic leanings, evolving beyond the standard bubblegum pop that tends to dominate the KoreanPopMusic scene. MINX was unable to stand out in a saturated market with cute girl groups, while Dreamcatcher's more fierce and powerful image has been immediately attention-grabbing.

* Polish BlackMetal[=/=]DeathMetal band Music/{{Behemoth}} has undergone two points which could be called growing the beard. Their first two albums were well written, but not particularly innovative pure black metal, but with the release of ''Pandemonic Incantations'', drummer Inferno joined the band, and they began to experiment with death metal influences. The next album, ''Satanica'', continued to show improvements, but the beard was fully grown with the release of the acclaimed album ''Demigod'', which featured some of the most intense HarshVocals in death metal. With the release of their latest album, ''Evangelion'', it's obvious that it's here to stay.

* Music/BritneySpears really took control of her music with her third self titled album!

* Music/{{Disturbed}}'s debut album ''The Sickness'', despite making waves thanks to the popular hit "Down with the Sickness", didn't go far beyond the simple drum-lines and repetitive riffs present in most NuMetal of the time. A short two years later after an extensive touring cycle the band recorded ''Believe'', a significant leap both lyrically and musically, currently the band's best critically received work to date. Ten years after their debut, the melodic focus remains and the band is still going strong.

* The brutal death band Katalepsy started out as just another unremarkable Russian slam act that sounded like every single other band in the scene and did absolutely nothing to stand out aside from ''maybe'' a serious over-reliance on bad movie samples. They then got an entirely new lineup, released a very well-received promo that featured a complete change of sound, and then got signed to Unique Leader Records and released ''Autopsychosis'', which finished what that promo had started and re-established them as an incredibly unique and interesting experimental brutal death metal group.

* While ''Music/{{Paranoid|Album}}'' (1970) is Music/BlackSabbath's greatest commercial success, hardcore fans see ''Music/MasterOfReality'' (1971) as where they hit their stride, in-part due to guitarist Tony Iommi tuning his strings down to C# Standard Tuning for the first time, influencing many metal bands in the process. The band would continue their artistic and commercial success, reaching a peak with ''Sabotage'' (1975), and then an AudienceAlienatingEra followed by a ''second'' Beard in 1980 with the arrival of Music/RonnieJamesDio and ''Heaven and Hell''.

* Music/TheBeatles had the most iconic, both literal and figurative, beard-growing in rock history, arguably beginning with their move towards more esoteric and impressionistic songwriting on the album ''Music/RubberSoul''.