Well, let the debate begin.

Jessica Simpson is taking a new Direction.
So is X-Tina, judging by "Ain't No Other Man" and her other clip.
Nelly Furtado also did it, and it seems she has a #1 Album on her hands: With #1 and #2 Singles in UK and UK I won't be surprised...
Then we also have people like Yellowcard who have been ruined by a new formula. Their album "Lights and Sounds" has nothing on "Ocean Avenue."

Anyone have other examples?

My Question, and point, is if you think its a good idea to change the formula? Should artists just stick to what made them succesful? What do you think?

I'd like to say stick to the same formula, but it didn't work for me Personally when thinking of "Deja Vu" by Beyonce. Yes, maybe its gonna scorch the charts, because it is Beyonce, but I'm referring more to Music Quality. Its also hard to Top a Great Album with Great Singles.

Anyone feel like discussing this? I'm already running in circles. lol.

i agree its good that the artists are changin a bit and for some its doin wonders for others well maybe not. but anyway its great promo to take a new direction

Here is my take on it

Sometimes changing your sound is best. Take Nelly Furtado, she has been out since around 99 or a bit eariler, the point is that she hasn't been out that long and she had just two albums within that time. She isn't a veteran artist yet so therefore she can change her sound and get away with it because she is still fresh and hasn't really found her knack yet. Same can really go for people like Britney, Christina...although they aren't as popular as they were in their heyday..people still enjoy their ever changing sound..again because they haven't been out that long.

Now lets go into how changing your sound will backfire. It usually happens with people who have been around for a good while. Take Mariah for example...she was pulling off all of this hip hop **** and changing her music till it was almost unrecoginzable. She flopped and radio refused to play her. She was always known for her soft and playful midtempos and fun pop songs. Now she worked with Jermaine Depri like she had in the past and used her old formula and now she is hotter than ever. But changing her formula definately didnt work for her.

Another example is Janet, another artist who has been around for a good while...she pretty much stopped working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis (her proven success formula) and her Damita Jo album sucked and flopped. That album had next to no songs from them. BIG MISTAKE. And now she isn't releasing stuff from them again and it shows with her latest single. It's just not the same Janet....

Madonna though has been changing the formula so many times until it finally backfired. She kept pushing her trash with Mirawis and it was one electronica album after another until she suffered the biggest flop of her career "American Life". Now she is back with dance songs that made her famous and she is going to end up having her most successful worldwide album to date. She went from dance music to music that had something to say to (which worked) , then went from erotica (which really didnt work for her), to hip and rnb (which didn't really work either), to mature ballads (which didnt work) to electronica (which worked with one album and then died) back to dance music (which hasn't really worked in this country but ls unstoppable worldwide).

I think it all depends on how successful your formula really is. Janet and Mariah have proven ones. Madonna changed so fast she never really found one. And new artists have the chance to change their sound

And as much as I try to shy away from them..look at bands for keeping their formula...RHCP, Green Day, etc

It actually quite depends. This is whorrible comparison on this board, as nobody quite knows about her, but I am going to use the J-pop singer BoA for an example. As her career started when she was 13, her singles were based on pure, light pop. However, now 19, as she crosses over into a more mature sound, hence "sexy," the public didn't react well, stating that she should stick with wut she does best (this single has sold, since November, 63,000 copies). Although, her newest single, released in April has returned to her previous style, now selling almost 95,000 copies. Though, her fans now thinks that she has gotten quite repetitive and boring with this same sound. It's really hard to tell, but I guess the only way to go about this is to find a a perfect mix of old and new and not to stay completely the same or stray too far away if the success rate is still high.