Albums or bands you hated at first but came to love

Beck-Sea Change

 

Hated is too strong of a term, but I didn't particularly like Derek & the Dominos' Layla as a teen. It wasn't until my early 20's that it 'got it.' Now it's more or less tied with Exile on Main Street as my favorite album of all time.

I also hated Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door as a teen ("What are these p*ssy keyboards doing on a Led Zeppelin record!"). I actually threw the cassette tape on to the roof of my house in the middle of winter! These days I can appreciate the album.

 

Gabriel-era Genesis and Gentle Giant were both big shocks to me the first time I heard them as a budding young prog fanatic in my teens. Now that I've tuned my ears, I listen to both regularly.

 

Many, but Bob Dylan, for one. I thought of him as a poser, someone putting on an act. I still do, but I can see him as a storyteller. He's fiction. There's room for fiction. I'm glad I hadn't heard him singing Sinatra or Christmas songs when I finally came around to his music. That might have been a hurdle too high, and now I know not to go there. My favourite Dylan album is "John Wesley Harding."

 

Simple Minds

 

Not hate exactly, but it took a while to love The Smiths

 

I hated my freshman-year college roommate, and he loved Rage Against the Machine, so I also hated Rage Against the Machine. Turns out Rage Against the Machine is awesome.

 

Chicago.

My first experience with them was during the MTV era, and I wrote them off as a schlocky power ballad band, just cheesy as can be. Then about two years ago I stumbled onto their vintage stuff, and was absolutely blown away at the songwriting, arrangements and performances. Awesome stuff!

 

I purchased Light as a Feather by Return to Forever because it featured Chick Corea. I knew nothing about Return to Forever, but Chick Corea played electric piano/keyboards with Miles Davis so it should be good. I guess I was expecting something like Bitches Brew. Return to Forever sounded like electric lounge music! Somebody is playing the flute for cripes sake. Once all my expectations were gone however I started to really enjoy Return to Forever.

 

Neil Young's Trans was a huge disappointment for me when I first heard it.
A major reason was that 6 of the 9 tracks employ vocoder, altering his voice.
It took a few weeks for me to come around to the sound.

Upon first release, it dismayed many listeners...
Most notably David Geffen.

 

This one took me decades to appreciate. The first 4 titles always bugged me but once I started ignoring the lyrics, the musicianship shined through.

 

Donna Summer - Cat Without Claws
Eurythmics - Savage
Chaka Khan - ck
The Tubes first 3 studio albums
Chic - Take It Off
janet.
Rufus - Camouflage
Hall & Oates - Big Bam Boom
Daryl Hall - Sacred Songs

 

I wouldn't say I hated Metallica or Motorhead, but I really wasn't into their music beyond what was on the radio or MTV.

But I got into Metallica with the Black album, and I checked out Motorhead's catalogue on iTunes after Lemmy died and heard a ton of great stuff. I'm not into their psychotic imagery at all, but looking past that (and Lemmy's gruff vocals), the musicanship itself absolutely blew me away!

 

1. Metallica: I hated them due to the fans. I refused to listen to them until The Black Album was released.

2. Led Zeppelin: I didn't like the vocals. That changed once I became a teenager.

3. Black Sabbath (Ozzy years): I really don't know why. I just didn't like them. Then I saw them live and was converted.

 

I could list plenty of bands. However, most prominent (and radical) one is:

The Beatles

I never liked the music. When everybody in school was into them (and I am talking about the early nineties here), I was just laughing at them. I was already into Jazz, Prog, classic, all sorts of rock, metal and so on..
When somebody (mostly girls) tried there guitar skills with (mostly) “Yeserday” I found it embarrassingly cheesy.

Decades later (around 4 years ago), I was in a record store in Munich and coincidentally listen to a first mono press of the Beatles. I can’t remember the title, but I do remember how fresh and lively it sounded. I thought: “wow, this music stood the time extremely well”. And I was just amazed and impressed by the sound of the record.

Then I bought the mono box (after checking the prices of the originals ;-) and now I do like them (without being obsessed with them, actually I am not listen to the Beatles very often, except to my favorite album: “hard days night” which I consider an all-time masterpiece in popular music - I love it!).

That’s that.

 

I hated Forever Changes when I bought it (first time buying from a review). But in 1980 I rediscovered it and it's been a favourite ever since.

 

Bob Dylan
Kate Bush
Frank Zappa
King Crimson
Peter Gabriel
Rush
Yes

Most of the ones I listed were a real challenge due to either their voices or I wasn't used to their material.

 

Hate isn't the right word, but I instantly disliked David Bowie when I was first exposed to him, which was the video to Let's Dance. I was 10 or 11 when it was on MTV all the time, and was just starting to figure out what kind of music I really liked. I couldn't stand Let's Dance when the video would come on. But it must have been a quick turn around because I liked China Girl and loved Modern Love. Go figure, now he's one of my most loved of all time.

 

Agree - “On A Plain” is an awesome song - so simple yet in a way not so simple, sounds almost like the kind of song that wrote itself or existed forever...only to be brought to light through a gifted songwriter’s muse.

Love Grohl’s thunderous drums and backing vox in the middle part too.

 

Live! Bootleg - Aerosmith, released in 1978.

When this first came out my girlfriend bought it and I was not happy with it at all. I was hoping for a classy album, instead we got a raw “bootleg”. What was this "I Ain't Got You" and "Mother Popcorn" crap? There were so many better originals they could have put in their place. Did we really need a Beatles cover too? Even the outside album cover with its drink stains on it left a lot to be desired.




The gatefold is nice though.




And they did put on the new single, the great “Chip Away The Stone”. And they even added “Draw The Line”, though it was hidden after the boring Popcorn and you had to listen to that to hear it. Or you had to needle drop in the middle of the track to find it.

Decades later, needing some new Aerosmith, I decided to buy it.

There are a dozen great songs on here that are played at speed freak speed. This thing just rocks!

I should have bought it in 1978 and had years of enjoyment from it.

 

The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. Borrowed from Wimbledon library circa 1996. What a joke of a singer! Amateur. Taken back to the library. The Unincredible String Band.
Then I heard it again and again at a friends house. Genius! Really interesting lyrics. Intricate melodies. Occupies a really unusual artistic sphere. The singers are still not great but serviceable but I now really like their ramshackle vibes! A very fine album indeed!

 

The National

 

Another: Duran Duran

When they were big in the 80s I considered them "girl's music" - whatever that means! And I really wasn't into _that_ kind of music back then since I came from classic rock and then went into punk; minus the odd Police album.

After playing GTA: Vice City, which features a lot of 80s music, I went on a big buying binge of albums from that era, including DVDs. It was the Duran Duran video of "Save a Prayer" that made me start to like them. Now I have their first four albums on Japanese vinyl, a large stack of their 12"ers, and a few other odds 'n' ends. A big fan now.

 

Johnny Mathis - he was my dads favourite, which alone qualifies any artist for you to have a dislike - you can't like your dads music...especially if your a kid of the seventies.

....but when my dad died, my mum asked me to compile a tape of Mathis songs for his funeral.....so I was forced to sit through albums and albums of Mathis and listen to the properly for the first time... a chore I thought......and (gulp!!) it was great.....really great.....a few area's needed skipping, but such a wealth of great material.

however.....James Last and Joe Longthorne are still s***!!!

 

Yeah, for someone who had already cut his teeth on Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Deep Purple when I started to listen to music seriously, this was an uphill battle for me. I'm glad I got into their mid-period work though as it is their best.