re: "Two career" bands/artists

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There was the rockin 'Baracuda' and 'Magic Man' Heart of the 70's and then the power pop ballad Heart of the mid to late 80's.

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Although the core of the band has always been Ann and Nancy, as they allowed the record company make more decisions, "encourage" more collaborations with other songwriters, push Nancy to the forefront (as Ann decreasingly looked the part in the 1980s), they suffered a little crisis of artistic integrity. I do dig the eponymous album and Bad Animals, but it was a big change - not only more ballads (now, keep in mind, your '70s "rockin'" Heart had Dreamboat Annie - a fantastic album, but loaded with mellow numbers), but the more polished, "overproduced" sound of the 1980s.

So, while their sound was more like mentors Led Zeppelin, or mainstream rock acts like Grand Funk and so forth during the 1970s, the '80s stuff was more like Boston or hair metal (and the softer side of hair metal, at that). I guess they are a good analogy to Aerosmith who saw similar changes.