Line #61 Main/SongStyleShift


1	%%
2	%% Remember that Examples Are Not General
3	%% Each example should be about one song.
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5
6	->''"You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy / We always do it nice and rough / So we're gonna take the beginning of this song and do it ''easy'' / Then we're gonna do the finish ''rough''!"''
7	-->-- '''Music/TinaTurner''', spoken intro to "Proud Mary"
8
9	You're listening to a song on your media source of choice. You're grooving along to the beat and you get to a point where it sounds like you are going to get a BigRockEnding or a TruckDriversGearChange.
10
11	[[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle Not so fast]]! Instead, the music changes almost completely. It gets faster and more aggressive. As if someone rewrote the song in a different style and pasted that part into the middle of the recording.
12
13	If done well, it can result in some Crowning Music Of Awesome. Bear in mind that this is ostensibly the same song, rather than a [[SiameseTwinSongs segue]] (one song, leading to another), a [[FadingIntoTheNextSong crossfade]] or a {{medley}} (parts of different songs put together). In HipHop and pop derived from it, this can be a form of beatswitch.
14
15	Often a component of AlbumClosure. See also MoodWhiplash.
16	----
17	!!Examples
18	* According to a survey done by Komar and Melamid in the mid 90s, this was one of the most disliked musical tropes of the time, resulting in its inclusion in "Music/TheMostUnwantedSong". The song shifts between cowboy music, rapping with opera voice, bagpipe music, children's songs and more.
19	* The TropeCodifier: Music/LynyrdSkynyrd's "Free Bird," shifting from mournful Southern Rock ballad to pure Guitar Attack rock.
20	* Music/PaulMcCartney's "Band on the Run" is composed of three quite different sections.
21	** "Uncle Albert" goes from a dreamy slow pace, to a lively horn-based singalong, to a fast-paced groove.
22	** "Live and Let Die" has the format of a ballad, then an orchestra, then a reggae verse, then back to the orchestra, then back to the ballad, then back to the orchestra AGAIN.
23	** [[Music/TheBeatles "You Never Give Me]] [[Music/AbbeyRoad Your Money"]] is much the same.
24	** Speaking of Music/TheBeatles, [[Music/TheWhiteAlbum "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"]], written by Music/JohnLennon, switches styles and moods radically at least three times, arguably more.
25	* Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' [[Music/StickyFingers "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"]] shifts from a hard rocking howler to a gentler but building sax solo piece that takes up more than the last half of the song
26	* Music/PhilCollins' "In the Air Tonight", after the '''EPIC DRUM BREAK''', goes from slow, dark pop song to faster pop/rock.
27	* Music/SlyAndTheFamilyStone's "Stand"
28	* Music/{{Metallica}}'s "One". Let WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzazqLpD29w show you what we mean]].
29	** Also, [[Music/RideTheLightning "Fade to Black"]].
30	* Music/{{Santana}}'s version of "Black Magic Woman" speeds up for an epic instrumental outro. It's actually a different piece: an instrumental called "Gypsy Queen". That's why most albums (including the original appearance, ''Abraxas'') make a note of this by listing both titles.
31	** "Incident at Neshabur", from the same album, starts loudly and at at fast pace, abruptly slows down and ends in a more gentle mood.
32	* Music/{{Chicago}}'s "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" speeds up into a coda called "Get Away" (usually left off on most radio edits).
33	* Country music band Music/{{Alabama}} shift two of their singles this way: "Dixieland Delight" and "Mountain Music", with both going from mid-tempo to fast-paced bluegrass-influenced instrumentation. The former also uses a TruckDriversGearChange.
34	* "Dance Yrslf Clean" by Music/LCDSoundsystem.
35	* [[Music/EricClapton Derek and the Dominoes']] "Layla" goes the other way: It's a fast-paced guitar-driven rock song, which suddenly shifts into a Music/LindaRonstadt piano piece.
36	* Music/DoctorSteel's "Childhood (Don't) A-Go-Go" has a ''major'' shift halfway through, abruptly going from hard-driving punk to a melancholy waltz.
37	** It's somewhat explained in the music video [[spoiler:(the punk part was from a wind-up music toy)]].
38	* Ike and Tina Turner's version of Music/CreedenceClearwaterRevival's "Proud Mary". It goes from low-key and bluesy to horn-driven show-stopper.
39	* Music/{{Queen\|Band}}:
40	** "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off as a mournful apology song, but after a long guitar solo turns into something faster-paced and more whimsical and finally ends back on the apology tone. The operatic part in the middle makes sense given the album it's in: ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera''.
41	** "Innuendo" starts out as Middle Eastern style hard rock. After the second chorus, it changes into slow acoustic part, then into flamenco, then into opera and finally back into hard rock.
42	* Music/MotleyCrue's "Wild Side" is an inversion.
43	* Music/{{Starflyer 59}}'s "Who Says It's Easy?" starts as a fast (and for Sf59, relatively upbeat) pop-rock song, then slows down to a moody space-rock finish.
44	* Richard Swift's "Buildings in America" starts off poppy, then turns industrial after the second chorus.
45	* At the three-minute mark of Music/LinkinPark's "And One", the song switches from the brand of nu-metal they became famous for to a musically and lyrically strange hip-hop section.
46	* Music/LedZeppelin's "Over the Hills and Far Away" start out as an acoustic guitar folk ballad, and then it abruptly transitions into a faced-paced hard rock tune (with the acoustic guitar providing the rhythm), and then slows down into an echo-y finish.
47	** Hell, this IS Led Zeppelin's MO. "Kashmir," "Stairway," and even "Black Dog" are this trope. Basically, if it's by Zeppelin and over 3 minutes long, this will happen.
48	* "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" by [[Music/CrosbyStillsNashAndYoung Crosby, Stills & Nash]] can be split into four distinct parts: the "I am yours, you are mine" part; the slower "what have you got to lose" part; the "SPAAA-rrow" part; and finally, the faster "do do do do do" conclusion.
49	* "The Nameless" by Music/{{Slipknot}} is a prime example of this. It starts aggressive and hard then switches into an almost pop-like chorus then switches back and builds up until the final chorus retains the melody but is much harder. Its jarring but fits the story of the song as its about the cycles of a dysfunctional relationship.
50	* Music/{{Pantera}}'s "Cemetery Gates" starts out with an acoustic guitar, then shifts into an aggressive heavy metal tune.
51	* "Frozen" by River of Guilt goes from a straight-forward groove metal song to a Proggy solo section that finishes off the song.
52	* {{Music/Pulp}}'s "Like A Friend."
53	* Music/{{Styx}} were very fond of this trope. "Suite Madame Blue," "Come Sail Away" and "Queen of Spades" start out as a soft ballads before dramatically transitioning into a full blown hard rock tunes partway through.
54	* Music/TheDingees' "Blackout!" starts off with echo-y drums and a jazzy flute solo before it turns into a pop-punk song. "Smoke Signals" is a very funky reggae song for most of its duration, then about two minutes before the end, a bunch of synthesizers wash over the song, and the whole rhythm section gets simultaneously louder and fuzzed-out.
55	* Music/{{Sublime}}'s "Seed" rotates from being punk to reggea to ska throughout the song.
56	* Music/TheGuessWho's "American Woman" - a slow one-and-a-half minute intro followed by a slightly harder second part. The intro is commonly edited out for radio airplay.
57	* The refrain of "Should I Be Sweet" shifts repeatedly between "sweet" and "hot" styles with just about every other line.
58	* In Vain's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm6W3W5pvZw October's Monody]] takes this trope and runs with it. Recklessly. Starting with a standard metal acoustic intro, it seems to be a Hammond organ based post-black metal song at first. Suddenly, and "like a thief in the night", it drops the post--hard, launching into an old-school blast beat section. Okay, you say, so we're settling into a back and forth between Hammond organs and black metal. Until In Vain drive a truckload of blues into the song.
59	* In ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound\|1994}},'' Porky's battle theme ("Cease to Exist," more popularly known as "[[FandomEnragingMisconception Pokey]] Means Business") starts off as an almost whimsical-sounding 8-bit boss tune, then suddenly shifts into much more aggressive hard rock/metal about a minute into the song.
60	* "Question" by Music/TheMoodyBlues starts off fast-paced, then slows down in the middle and speeds up again near the end. Justin Hayward originally wrote the fast and slow sections as separate songs, then put them together when he realized they were in the same key.
61	* Iwrestledabearonce is pretty notorious for this, for example throwing a random hoedown into ''You Ain't No Family'' or the strange electronic interlude in ''[[WordSaladTitle Tastes Like Kevin Bacon]].''
62	* "Religion Song (Put Away The Gun)" by Music/EverythingElse starts with a gentle string section, then goes to a church song, then to a rock song, then to spoken word, then back to the church song.
63	* One of the more noticable differences between pre-Aramary and post-Aramary Music/SoundHorizon is that, besides [[EpicRocking getting significantly longer]], songs have taken to shifting gears or even musical genres in the middle of them.
64	* Music/FrankZappa was very fond of this. "Brown Shoes Don't Make It" packs about [[GenreRoulette 20 different sections]] into 7 1/2 minutes, with tempos including "Slow shuffle," "Corny Swing," "Tempo di Cocktail Lounge," "Tempo di Beach Boys" and "No Tempo With Random Keyboard Effects" before ending on a "Fraudulent Dramatic Section."
65	* "Rocket Queen" by Music/GunsNRoses starts as standard ''Appetite for Destruction'' song (fast, distorted guitars and dirty, [[IntercourseWithYou dirty lyrics]]) before changing tempo and moving into a PowerBallad-ish love song in the final 2-and-a-half minutes of the song with a suitably epic BigRockEnding.
66	* Music/MrBungle built their entire career around switching from metal to funk to jazz to swing to crooning and back again within the same song.
67	* Music/ElectricLightOrchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" goes from happy, jangly pop to an uptempo rock style reminiscent of a Broadway show number.
68	* Sometimes, at the end of "Head Over Heels" by Music/TearsForFears, you'll hear a fast-paced instrumental jam known as "Broken".
69	* "Body Shot" by Music/ElectricSix spends most of it's run-time as a straightforward uptempo disco-rock hybrid - then for the final minute the tempo slows down and it becomes dub-reggae.
70	* Music/{{Weezer}}'s six minute "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)", which seems to be inspired by "Bohemian Rhapsody". It starts out with classical piano, suddenly shifts into RapRock, and there are about 10 other change-ups in style and tempo from there, including nods to Music/JeffBuckley, Music/{{Aerosmith}}, Music/{{Nirvana}}, and Music/LudwigVanBeethoven, among several others.
71	* Music/GreenDay's ''Music/AmericanIdiot'' album contains the two nine-minute tracks "Jesus of Suburbia" and "Homecoming".
72	** "Jesus of Suburbia" goes from a windmilled, power-chord hard-rock first act ("Jesus of Suburbia") to a wave-your-lighter-in-the-air stadium ballad ("City of the Damned") to a hardcore, dissonant punk sound ("I Don't Care") to a quiet acoustic, almost country-Western ditty ("Dearly Beloved") to a bassline-driven, "Ring of Fire"-inspired, hard rock finale ("Tales from Another Broken Home")—which is interrupted by a soft piano interlude.
73	** "Homecoming" goes from a melancholy, mournful vocal opener to a pounding, beat-driven hard rock number ("The Death of St. Jimmy"), to faster, more dissonant punk intermingled with percussive acoustic guitar ("East 12th St.") to a slow, singsong, acoustic self-pity ballad ("Nobody Likes You") to a rollicking autobiography of drummer Trè Cool ("Rock and Roll Girlfriend")—complete with jazz piano and saxophone—to the lighter-in-the-air, marching-band tempo, funereal closer ("We're Coming Home Again").
74	* "We Are Young" by [[Music/{{Fun}} fun.]] is a fast-paced low-key song for the first 50 seconds, but it then kicks into [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome "TONIIIIIIIIGHT...."]]
75	* Music/JohannSebastianBach used this in the 18th century.
76	** Unique among J.S. Bach's organ fugues, the ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4t10hWcGwc Fugue in E-flat Major]]'' shifts between three themes with radically different characters and styles while maintaining the fugue's underlying melody, which appears several times throughout the whole work.
77	** Another Bach piece with a Song Style Shift is the {{cantata}} ''Erfreut euch, ihr Herzen'' (BWV 66), specifically the fourth movement. ''[[http://youtu.be/o73shN739YU?t=17m57s Bei Jesu Leben freudig sein]]''. This movement is technically a recitative, but it actually shifts styles two times. The movement starts out as a solo recitative. The first time it shifts, the movement turns into an interesting and unique duet (see the LetsDuet page for more details). The second time the movement shifts styles is directly after the duet; the movement shifts back to a recitative format, only now it is a dialogue between the two duetters.
78	** The cantata ''Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis'' (BWV 21) is practically made of this trope. Almost every movement has some sort of Song Style Shift, and they all help make this cantata one of Bach's highest quality works.
79	** Bach's Mass in B minor also has many movements with Song Style Shifts. One quite jarring example is from "Gloria in excelsis deo", in which the loud, epic chorus transitions to a slow, soft one before gradually becoming as loud as it was at the start of the movement.
80	** Another example from Bach's works is the 2nd movement of ''Christ lag in Todes Banden'' (BWV 4). Each movement of the cantata ends with a "Hallelujah!". The "Hallelujah" from the second movement is in a different style than the rest of this movement.
81	* Music/WillieNelson and Music/{{Aerosmith}}'s duet "One Time Too Many" is first done as a country ballad, then as an uptempo rock song.
82	* Music/{{Autechre}}: "Augmatic Disport" is a [[ProceduralGeneration generatively sequenced]] glitchfest for most of its 9 minutes, but turns into an orthodox ambient breaks number in its last two minutes.
83	* Music/MiracleOfSound's ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''-inspired song "Dream of The Sky" goes from faux-Christian hymn about the game's city in the sky and WhiteMansBurden, to a soul music anthem of rebellion that sounds like it could be sung by a [[WorkingOnTheChainGang prison chain gang]], to an Irish folk song about the opression of that minority within the city, back to the hymn for the chorus, to an oddball section about quantum physics, and finally to a LonelyPianoPiece that serves as a CallBack to his song for the first ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' game. All of that in ''one'' song!
84	* Music/DeepPurple's "Child in Time" starts with an organ solo, which is followed by a low-key ballad part, which gets more intense, seguing into the guitar solo, then cycles back to the ballad, and ends with a chaotic BigRockEnding.
85	* "In The End" off of ''Music/FlyByNight'' by {{Music/Rush\|Band}}. The first half takes things nice and slow, and then, BAM, Alex Lifeson out of nowhere.
86	* "I Wonder" and "Holyman" by Music/BlindMelon.
87	** The first fifty seconds of "Galaxie" is ''technically'' a separate composition, an unlisted song officially titled "Hello". Since it's indexed on the same track, it still comes off as this: a slow, jazzy, brass band piece unexpectedly segueing into faster guitar-based AlternativeRock.
88	* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "Bedrock Anthem" parodies two very different songs by ''Music/RedHotChiliPeppers''. The opening riffs the slow "Under the Bridge", then the rest of the song riffs the fast-paced "Give It Away".
89	* "Shangri-La" by Music/TheKinks is soft enough to be a lullaby, albeit a very sardonic one. Then it picks up a lot of speed and volume before the end.
90	* Music/{{Zedd}}'s "Hourglass" starts off as a drumbeat-heavy pop rock song with a ticking clock and then switches midway through to progressive house.
91	* Music/{{Live}}'s "Lightning Crashes" starts off as a quiet electric guitar theme then slowly adds more drums and guitars and turns into a loud, moderately fast-paced alternative rock song.
92	* Music/{{Awolnation}}'s "Knights of Shame" fuses a TON of music styles.
93	* Music/{{Coldplay}}:
94	** Once in "42", which starts out as a LonelyPianoPiece before turning into a jaunty, fast rock song with a prominent guitar solo.
95	** Twice in "Death And All His Friends". It also begins as a LonelyPianoPiece before becoming a complicated, uplifting instrumental rock song and closing with choral chanting.
96	* "Home Sweet Home" by country group The Farm does an Alabama-esque shift into a faster-paced bluegrass coda at the end.
97	* Most of Music/TheWho song "Baba O'Riley" is standard hard rock, but the coda of the song changes into a fast-paced polka that rapidly builds to a climax.
98	* Music/{{Stereolab}}'s "Mass Riff" starts off as the band's usual style of retro-futuristic Krautrock-inspired pop, then halfway through, it turns into a disco song.
99	* Eurobeat Brony's "Luna" changes from Eurobeat to DeathMetal at the end to represent Luna's corruption into Nightmare Moon.
100	* Music/EricChurch's "Cold One" does this twice. The first verse is laid back with nothing but acoustic guitar and Dobro, and then the rock instrumentation kicks in at the first chorus. Then after the second chorus, the song shifts again to a blistering acoustic guitar solo before returning to the usual tempo.
101	* [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner "The Cheat Is Not Dead"]] is for the most part a fairly slow-paced ballad - until it breaks into an incredibly upbeat groove for the last 40 seconds.
102	* As a ProgressiveMetal band, Music/DreamTheater is naturally prone to this on occasion. One of the most notable examples, however, is "Ministry of Lost Souls", which is mostly a slow, mournful ballad until it gets to the instrumental section, where it switches to a far more up-tempo triplet feel. [[BrokenBase The jury is still out as to whether the song benefits from this]].
103	** Even more striking is "Illumination Theory", which for the most part is stylistically fairly normal for the band. Then comes the middle section, where the music rather abruptly transitions into a drawn-out ambient soundscape, followed by an equally long orchestral section... [[MoodWhiplash then hits you square in the face with the return of the song proper]].
104	* "Born to Be Blue" by the Judds. The first 1:05 is a slow, bluesy piano piece, then the guitars and drums kick in and the tempo increases. Averted with the radio edit, which excised the intro entirely.
105	* Music/GordonLightfoot's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" goes from upbeat to gentle ballad and back again.
106	* "Larks' Tongues In Aspic, Part 1" by Music/KingCrimson covers a number of genres, including avant-garde, heavy-metal, funk and jazz-fusion.
107	* "Supernaut" by Music/BlackSabbath is a heavy boogie, but has a Caribbean flavored acoustic shuffle in the middle. "Symptom Of The Universe" does something similar, starting as a heavy metal tune before going into another acoustic shuffle at the end. In the case of "Symptom Of The Universe", the ending was originally an unrelated in-studio jam.
108	* "Wasn't Born To Follow" and "Old John Robertson" by Music/TheByrds are country rock tunes that briefly go into different genres in the middle - psychedelic rock in the former, baroque in the latter.
109	* Music/{{Deadmau5}}'s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnwfTHpnGLY Raise Your Weapon]]" does this twice. It starts out as a somber piano piece, gradually builds into some mellow House music, then halfway through [[{{Dubstep}} the bass drops]].
110	* Music/BabyMetal have a few of these - "Iine!", "Uki Uki ★ Midnight" and "4 No Uta/Song 4".
111	* Dry the River's "New Ceremony" starts out as dreary Music/FleetFoxes-esque folk. Then the chorus hits and it explodes [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic amazingly]] into life.
112	* "A Bass Renaissance" by Josh Powell & Dave Hewson (the original composer of "A New Renaissance", also attributed as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DiKV744NWk "Polyhymnia" by Scout McMillan]]), it starts out as Orchestra, but in less than a minute, it drops the bass into Main/{{Dubstep}}
113	* [[Anime/JapanAnimatorExpo ME!ME!ME! feat. daoko]] shifts song style constantly, [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by the story telling of the AnimatedMusicVideo.
114	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZrG1wKOy1I "Thanks for Playing"]] by synthwave magnate Mitch Murder turns into a {{chiptune}} in the last 40 seconds.
115	* "[[VillainSong The Smell of Rebellion]]" from ''Theatre/{{Matilda}}'' starts as a swing jazz tune, then becomes a fast PatterSong when Miss Trunchbull "double times" her phys-ed discipline, then a PowerBallad about "[[ChildlessDystopia a world with no children]]" and "a dwarf called Zeke", before ending with a LastChorusSlowdown BigRockEnding.
116	* "Vicarious Redemption" by [[{{Music/CultOfLuna}} Cult Of Luna]] is a slow and dreary post-metal epic that suddenly drops into Dubstep, before going back into a crushing rhythm.
117	* Happens a few times in "Ectasian" by [[{{Music/TheOcean}} The Ocean]]. Starts off with piano, cello, and viola, before it goes into a slow sludge doom track, only to turn on a dime into high drive on a Pantera-influenced romp. It changes again into a bizarre robot-voice section towards the end.
118	* Music/GaMetal songs frequently feature this, mostly to acoustic guitar, but occasionally to orchestra or techno, or once even 8-Bit.
119	* Music/DanielAmos:
120	** “Cloak & Dagger”, from ''Music/{{Alarma}}''. The verses and chorus are zippy “spy music”; the extended outro slows down to half-time, with a languid guitar solo playing over it.
121	** "Sudden Heaven", from ''Music/FearfulSymmetry''. It starts off as a weird fusion of country and new wave, but for the bridge and final chorus it slows down and goes psychedelic rock.
122	* Music/BabylonZoo's "Spaceman" starts out like an electronic dance track with sped-up vocals, then [[LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand abruptly shifts]] into a down-tempo alternative rock dirge. The sped-up section returns at the very end. A Levi's jeans ad used only the sped up section, so many listeners who first heard the song in the commercial were surprised that the bulk of the song was much slower.
123	* A cornerstone of {{Music/Zomboy}}'s works, to the point of an ExaggeratedTrope. While best described as a {{Dubstep}} artist, his songs typically shuffle between multiple genres in the span of a few ''measures''. [[https://youtu.be/Wwrx6tGnkVQ Gorilla March]] provides an excellent example- the song starts in {{Chiptune}}, builds into hardcore {{Reggae}}ton which drops into [[{{Glitch}} Glitch Hop]] which becomes HarshNoise and escalates into a full {{Grindcore}} assault before downshifting into pure Glitch and then flirting with what could be described as a {{Trap\|Music}}-influenced musical version of MoreDakka which suddenly flips into {{Ambient}} building into full-on orchestral ProgressiveRock, and finally ends in glitch once again. This song is only four and a half minutes long, mind you.
124	* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
125	** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRAI1gM7AKM Never Turn Back]]"[[note]]performed by ''Music/Crush40''[[/note]] from ''Videogame/ShadowTheHedgehog'' starts off as a slow, melancholic piano piece, before the percussion kicks in and the song becomes guitar-heavy rock for the rest of its duration.
126	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKjOJuPjiu4 Infinite's theme]][[note]]performed by Tyler Smyth of Music/{{Dangerkids}}[[/note]] from ''Videogame/SonicForces'' starts as a generic [[{{Glitch}} glitch hop]] beat. Then it drops, and immediately shifts into some of the heaviest metal in the entire franchise, with the occasional dubstep/glitch hop shining through.
127	* Music/ChildishGambino's "This is America" starts out sounding like a South African choir song, before suddenly switching to a heavy, booming trap beat.
128	* [[https://youtu.be/f3PbqVq_9O8 "Airborne"]] by Music/CutCopy starts off as a new wave/funk throwback, before it suddenly switches to an atmospheric piano ballad at around the 3 minute mark.
129	* Music/TravisScott and Music/{{Drake}}’s “SICKO MODE” is a hip-hop song throughout, but the instrumentation and vibe changes twice — starting off with a rap-sung verse by Drake over a pipe organ, continuing with a bass-driven trap segment led by La Flame, and concluding with verses from both over a ringtone rap-esque beat.
130	* Gerard Joling's "Ticket to the Tropics" is a {{sexophone}} {{power ballad}} for the first 3 minutes, then switches to a bossa nova instrumental for the latter 2 1/2 minutes.
131	* Music/ThankYouScientist has "Birdwatching" from Terraformer, which starts off as a slow, almost melancholic synth and guitar driven song before suddenly switching to breakcore.
132	* {{Music/XTC}}'s "Respectable Street" starts with a lo-fi recording of Andy Partridge singing quietly over piano chords -after about 20 seconds, it segues into a loud electric guitar riff and the rest of the song is jumpy NewWaveMusic. The melody and lyrics from the intro show up again as a bridge, but this time in the same style as the rest of the song. Not unlike "American Woman", the single edit drops the whole piano intro.
133	* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bid5Ygf8PqU "Fuzzy Logic"]] by Music/Apollo440 starts out as slow-paced, before switching to a more typical electronic rock style after 3 minutes and 37 seconds.
134	* Music/{{Pentagon}} has a song called "You Like", which starts off as a ballad with Hui singing over a piano accompaniment. Then Hui coughs and the song changes into a hard hip-hop beat, before finishing as a ballad once again.
135	* "[[https://sunispoison.bandcamp.com/track/lamb lamb]]" by ''sun is poison'' is BlackMetal for the first 41 seconds of its runtime, at which point it switches to indie folk.
136	* Music/{{Eminem}}:
137	** "Sing For The Moment" opens as a ProgressiveRock song with a descending harpsichord and rising bass melody, before breaking into a RapRock anthem.
138	** "So Far" veers hyperkinetically between reggae, 60s rock, a modern bubblegum-pop sound bordering on children's music, and - amusingly - Y2K-era pop-rap as the beat morphs into that of Eminem's old songs "I'm Back" and "The Real Slim Shady" to reinforce a couple of jokes.
139	* Music/RayStevens' "Unwind" has fast-paced verses that gradually slow down into a slow and relaxing chorus. This is because the song is about escaping the pressures of the workday to come home to his wife.
140	* Music/TheBlackAngels' "Yellow Elevator #2" becomes much slower and spacier at the halfway mark.
141	* Blue Amazon's "Trip To Heaven" is 9 minutes of progressive trance followed by 5 minutes of chillout ambience.
142	* Music/MannheimSteamroller does several ChristmasSongs (like "Fum, Fum, Fum" and "Masters In This Hall") that start out sounding Medieval or early Renaissance before transitioning to New Age rock. (Interestingly, this was inspired by their treatment of "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" in which the two versions were separate tracks; the mid-music shift took a few years to become a thing.)
143	* "Tonight Belongs To You" from ''Theatre/TheProm'' begins as swing jazz, then shifts to hard rock for the third verse, then to disco for the finale.
144	* [[KoreanPopMusic K-Pop]] group Music/{{NMIXX}} had this as their SignatureStyle for their first two singles, calling it "Mixxpop". The two tracks, "O.O" and "Dice," both start as some variation of EDM ("O.O" with baile funk, "Dice" with jazz-inspired trap), then abruptly switch to a different genre after the chorus, roll with ''that'' for a verse, then switch ''back'' to the original genre (sometimes with a twist) for the ending. This was dropped on the ''expérgo'' EP but brought back on the ''[=Fe3O4=]: Break'' EP .
145	* "[=MacArthur=] Park" by Creator/RichardHarris is a big-band power ballad for two verses, then becomes a mellower torch song, then goes into a fast rock instrumental break before finally reprising the chorus of the first section.
146	* Music/TheMenThatWillNotBeBlamedForNothing take "Margate Fhtagn" back and forth between 'jaunty seaside tune' and 'guttural cosmic horror black metal', eventually settling somewhere in the middle.
147	* Creator/BoBurnham's SignatureSong, "Welcome To The Internet": Starts off as a jaunty, calliope-driven tune, gets faster and more deranged as it goes along, before stopping and restarting as a torch song, then jumping back to the runaway carnival music.
148	* Music/RoyClark's "Thank God and Greyhound" starts with a couple of slow verses mourning an ended relationship. The tempo picks up with the first TitleDrop as the narrator reveals he's happy to be free of his ex.
149	* "Sex, Violence, Suicide" by Ghanian-American singer Music/{{Amaarae}} starts out as a standard chill RAndB ballad, before shifting into a PunkRock breakdown in the second half.
150	* "Rocket's Tail" by Music/KateBush starts out a capella, with Kate being backed by the Bulgarian State Television Female Choir, the instrumental drops and the drums and a guitar solo come in.
151	* "I Am The Beast" by Music/LinguaIgnota builds and builds, with her singing only accompanied by a harpsichord and some eerie creaking noises, before [[JumpScare suddenly dropping]] into a loud, {{Industrial}} wall of noise and screaming.
152	* "The Way Home/Coming Home" by Enuff Z'nuff is a [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]]-inspired number that shifts from a slow, gentle love ballad to a hard rock song about how WarIsHell.
153	* "Ruler of Everything" by Music/TallyHall steps up from moderate-tempo swing to high-speed rock for the third verse, then returns to the original tempo for the final chorus.
154	* Many Music/{{Opeth}} songs, mainly from before their GenreShift from TechnicalDeathMetal to ProgressiveRock (but not completely dropped afterward), have frequent shifts, usually between heavy sections with death growls and gentler sections with acoustic guitars.
155	* "Concrete Angel" by Music/HannahDiamond starts out as a SynthPop ballad, before the {{Trance}}-like breakdown in the midsection--then the final [[LastNoteNightmare thirty seconds]] brings in some [[HarshNoise abrasive, glitchy synths]]. Interestingly, this version is a [[CoverVersion cover]] of an EDM song that originally doesn't have any style shifts whatsoever.

Context Main / SongStyleShift