Following a two-year break in response to creative stagnation and exhaustion, ZZ Top reinvented themselves in the late 1970s with a new musical direction and their now-famous public image. Beginning with their albums "Degüello" (1979) and "El Loco" (1981), they experimented with instruments including clavinets, saxophones, and synthesizers. They established a more mainstream sound and gained international favor with the records "Eliminator" (1983) and "Afterburner" (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock. The popularity of their music videos, including those for "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Sharp Dressed Man", and "Legs", helped propel them onto the television channel MTV and made them one of the more prominent artists in 1980s pop culture. Their Afterburner Tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour of 1986. After additional acclaim with the release of their 10th album "Recycler" (1990) and its accompanying tour, their experimentation continued with mixed successes on the albums "Antenna" (1994), "Rhythmeen" (1996), "XXX" (1999), and "Mescalero" (2003). The group most recently released "La Futura" (2012) and "Goin′ 50" (2019), the latter of which is a compilation album commemorating the band's 50th anniversary.