Bands changing their sound
 

You always hear about bands having a "sophmore slump" mostly because of them changing their sound. My question is why do most bands do this? I love their first CD and buy their second CD in hopes of having that same great sound, but they change it and disappoint. Is there reasoning behind this?

Bands evolve or want to try something new instead of recycling the same sound until they break up.

There are very few bands that can get away with not evolving and still retain a following. In these days of commercialism, I would not be surprised to hear record company inteference playing a huge part in band's music.

I don't know if sophomore slumps really have to do with the band changing their sound. I think a lot of the time this is what happens:

1. Band forms, writes music, plays shows, hones their songs, writes more music, plays more shows etc., sometimes for years before they get signed.
2. Band gets signed and records debut album. They pick the best of the best of the songs they have written and fine-tuned over the years to put on this album.
3. Album is successful. Label pressures band to create a follow-up before people lose interest.
4. Under pressure to release something new, band creates an album out of second choice songs that didn't make it onto the first album. Or is forced to quickly write new material without the benefit of being able to play it live a lot and fine-tune it. Or some combination of both options.
5. Presto. Sophomore slump complete.

Progression?

i think this is true for most cases. how many artist do you see paint pictures of apples for their whole carreer?

Well, a lot of artists excelled by finding a niche and exploring as many possible avenues as they could within that niche and similarly so have a lot of musicians. Showing breadth is largely just a case of trying to impress people, rather than creating truly quality music.

Take a look at Rilo Kiley :laughing:

Or bands want money

qft

It's hard for the change not to feel like a betrayal, when the band has built up a fanbase due to the style with which they wrote and performed in the past and then drops it without warning. Of course, bands are made up of real people, who happen to be artists and need to be able to express themselves in a form most suited to the current state of their lives. Sometimes bands just mature or develop new interests. I think the best solution is a compromise, in which a band still has their trademark sound at its core, but tries some new things in some of its songs to stretch out of the old boundaries ( for an example, see Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit).

IF you put out the same sounding CD most bands will get bored so they change. Some bands are static like AC/DC