What band(s) did you stupidly overlook for decades?

The Dead. If you can believe that. I'm 60. Didnt get into them til 2005.

 

Same here

 

I look at overlooking, then discovering an artist to be a positive. These past couple of years I have been able to enjoy tons of The Dead and Porcupine Tree as if they put out lots of music in a really short time span.

 

Bill Withers - odd because I love Al Green & Sam Cooke.
Funkadelic- I thought they’d be disco.

I’m still sleeping on Sun Ra- too many albums, can't figure out where to jump in.

 

Big Star

I posted a list of twenty artists I thought should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and someone later posted a list similar enough that I wanted to hear those recommended artists I hadn't heard.

Once I started, I wanted it all. Those short songs get into your head.

 

Recently it would be Van Halen (DLR era mostly) for me.

I thought that the greatest hits compilation would be enough but then I started listening to their albums one by one. A lot of fantastic music right there. And Eddie is legitimately one of my favourite rock guitarists.

 

My neighbor put together a couple of cds for me of random alternative songs and one of those songs was "Drive That Fast" by Kitchens Of Distinctions.

I really don't know anything about them either (yet), but what a great song!

 

No rock bands.
Jazz: The Boswell Sisters
Country: Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies

 

The Kinks for me, too. I think maybe I knew a handful of songs, literally, probably 5 tracks.

Shortly before I joined this forum I was looking up The Kinks for some reason and threads from this forum pulled up. I began reading what people were saying. I bought albums. I joined the forum. Now I'm a huge fan of everything Kinky.

 

The Clash (late 90's)
Def Leppard (2010 or so,)
Rush (just realized they were a good band at some point, don't love them...)

 

Never bought much J Tull or David Bowie over 50 years+ of record buying, but they have both been on my radar this year. For Tull, the impetus was the Steven Wilson remix sets and a couple occasions recently where I was able to see the Martin Barre band on tour in small venues. For Bowie, the impetus was the touring Bowie exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in March.

Tull and Bowie are a couple of big catalogs, so I am still getting a grip.

 

It’s pretty much a daily occurrence on this board for me to encounter some seriously good music that I’ve never heard before.

To answer the OP’s question directly: Faces, Small Faces, Kinks, the Dead, Neil Young, and a whole host of ‘less popular’- but no less talented - acts. Of course, I didn’t really discover Jazz until well after the golden age had passed, so a whole genre fits the criteria, too.

 

The Church and Simple Minds. Two bands that for some reason, as much as I loved their singles (and are both really right up my ally, style wise), I never really explored the albums. I had Gold Afternoon Fix from The Church, and Street Fighting Years from Simple Minds, but until just a few years ago didn't go any deeper. Now both bands get played at least weekly.

 

Smashing Pumpkins. A roommate had their album, Gish, but I dismissed it without listening because of the group's name, which I thought was a bit silly. Finally did listen to them a few years ago and really got into them. I wish I'd seen them live back in the 90s.

Nirvana. For whatever reason, I was totally turned off by the Smells Like Teen Spirit video at the time and never bothered to listen to Nevermind. I did give In Utero a listen in '93 but wasn't in an upbeat mood when I heard it, so I passed on the group entirely. I think I saw the unplugged session and realized I probably missed out on something big, but still never explored the group any further until 2013 or so.

 

The Pork Dukes

 

Joy Division.

I loved New Order as a kid. I had "Substance" on cassette and listened to it all the time...but had never even really heard about Joy Division until I saw a movie about Ian Curtis called "Control". The movie was depressing but really excellent and told the story of the band and served as my intro into their music.... I bought everything of theirs after that..


I also did not get into The Faces until the last couple of years. I bought "5 Guys Walk into a Bar" based upon all it's stellar reviews...and I was hooked. great band.

 

Same here. All remedied for quite some time now.

 

R.E.M.
I recall hearing some radio play way back when but totally missed the boat on how good they really were.

 

The 90's.
I heard the music. Thought it was good but otherwise did not really pay attention. Then in the late 00's or so I started looking back. Looking over my shoulder I see maybe 80+ albums from just the 90's mostly picked up in the last last ten years.

 

I forgot about The Kinks. I did not own any Kinks until I picked up The essential Kinks in 2014. Honestly I never thought any of there comps covered their whole career...and then this one came out...I loved it and began checking out the rest of their work. What a great, great, band!

 

The Beach Boys.

I know. I know.

 

I slept on The Stranglers until 2013 when I picked up The Old Testament box set. That was a good choice.

 

King Crimson
Porcupine Tree
Nick Drake
Jethro Tull

 

Where do I start???

 

Nina Simone