Obsessed with the meticulously arranged pop of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, Buckingham helped the band become one of the most popular groups of the late '70s. By the mid-'70s, Fleetwood Mac had relocated to California, where they added the soft rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to their lineup. Originally, guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer provided the group with their gutsy, neo-psychedelic blues-rock sound, but as both guitarists descended into mental illness, the band began moving toward pop/rock with the songwriting of pianist Christine McVie. Ironically, they had the least influence over the musical direction of the band. Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie - the rhythm section that provided the band with their name. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few of them experienced more radical stylistic evolution than Fleetwood Mac.
