Nicolay illustrated things with a fairly confusing zoo creature analogy: "In the Hold Steady, I was kind of a fox in a hedgehog band. The Isaiah Berlin thing about the hedgehogs who have one defining idea and the foxes who have a lot of different ideas. So this is going to let me indulge a lot of those different ideas."
via pitchfork.com
I've often thought of rock bands in this way, although I always expressed it as there are some bands who write the same song over and over ("but it's a really good song" as Peter Buck once said of AC/DC") and those who dip into many different styles.
The Rolling Stones would be an example of the former, the Beatles the latter. Both bands went through stages where they tried to be the other kind (the Stones at various points in the 70s and early 80s, the Beatles earlier in their career) but they had the most success when they were true to their essential natures.
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