Got a musician or a group you initially hated and now like?

[stepay]

Sorry loumi, but this was too good a topic not to start (loumi's idea).

 

My three main ones are:

 

Queen

Aerosmith

AC/DC

[resigned]

Laurie Anderson

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Madonna

[NoahZark]

Abba (although I'm embarrassed to admit it).

[Moon Zero Two]

Tom Waits

[Botch.]

J. Geils Band

Hall & Oates (DAMN they were obnoxious when they were permeating the TV channels during their heyday, but if I don't have to watch them it's damn fine "polish pop".

KISS

Red Hot Chili Peppers

[SilverDragonSoun]

Wow lots of choices here. Rather than list the hundreds of songs/bands I'm going to do it by genre.

 

Jazz

New Age

Light Rock

Ambient

Electronica

[ProfD]

Considering the hoopla around here, I am trying to dig some Kenny G and Yanni.

[MidLifeCrisis]

Originally posted by NoahZark:

Abba (although I'm embarrassed to admit it).

You should be embarrased

[Darren Landrum]

I may have to think about this one for a while.

 

It took me a long time to finally get into King Crimson.

 

Collective Soul kinda falls into this category for me. I was never fond of them, but my sister's a huge fan, so I've had to opportunity to find a few songs here and there that I like.

 

Of course, there are a lot of 80s acts that I couldn't stand as a kid, and now that I hear them in comparison to some of the stuff out now, I can't help but think, "hey, they weren't that bad after all." "Tarzan Boy" by Baltimora comes to mind there...

[NoahZark]

Originally posted by MidLifeCrisis:

Originally posted by NoahZark:

Abba (although I'm embarrassed to admit it).

You should be embarrased

I know. The shame, the horror. Perhaps there's a help group that can cure me of this ill?

 

Noah

 

P.S. I also love Judas Priest, the Ramones, and Iron Maiden, so I feel like my manhood is still intact.

[Trill]

Originally posted by NoahZark:

Originally posted by MidLifeCrisis:

Originally posted by NoahZark:

Abba (although I'm embarrassed to admit it).

You should be embarrased

I know. The shame, the horror. Perhaps there's a help group that can cure me of this ill?

 

Noah

 

P.S. I also love Judas Priest, the Ramones, and Iron Maiden, so I feel like my manhood is still intact.

Okaaaay..... Noah we won't call you "Dancing Queen"

[Trill]

I actually like Sinatra a lot more as I get older, I'm starting to understand why people like him so much. I never really hated him though.

 

Things like the Brooklyn Tabernacle choir and the Nashville Choir and some other gospel choirs. When I actually started playing those complex arrangements in a large church band ,and learning all about jazz and big band and horn arrangements and things like that .I just loved it.

 

Randy Newman,is one who really the first time I heard him, I was like "this dude doesn't sing very well." What do I know. You can't go to the movies without hearing him on the soundtrack.

Great songwriter.

[kanker.]

I really disliked a lot of the early 80's Brit pop when MTV came in. In retrospect, that was one of the last large, consistent batches of high quality pop music produced.

[Mark Schmieder]

Lots. Too many to list. There are two basic reasons for this. Probably the most important is that, as I get older, my life experiences broaden more, and so I find more to relate to. After all, music is a form of communication. So more of it speaks to me as I age.

 

The second major factor is overplay. As I only listen to non-commercial radio (for well over ten years now), it is not an issue with newer music. But when I was a kid, whether on the school bus or later in the dorms, I was subjected to hearing the same songs several times each day for months. So it was easy to burn out on songs and bands.

 

There is a third factor, which is political in nature. When I was younger, I boycotted bands and/or genres that I perceived as misogynyst, racist, homophobic, or guilty of other forms of hate. So it wasn't until my 30's that I got over this and began to appreciate Heavy Metal (e.g.).

[ITGITC]

Got a musician or a group you initially hated and now like?

 

 

No.

 

I need to get out more.

 

I initially disliked Country music. I tried to like it. At one point I thought I was OK with it. But now I realize... I still pretty much dislike it. Don't HATE it... it's just hard for me to identify with it.

 

I've been pretty consistent throughout life with my musical preferences. I don't know what that says about me.

 

I like jazz and I want to focus on that.

 

However, I think it's important to keep in mind that many folks like a certain genre of music because they identify with it from a lifestyle point of view. I'm not saying that you have to be a cowboy to enjoy Country music. Nope. I'm not going to be that narrow-minded. That would certainly be a mistake.

 

And I respect people who may enjoy a different genre than I, and can back it up with reasons why they do. Everybody's different. Everyone is coming at life from a unique vantage point.

 

Wouldn't the world be one helluva boring place if we were all the same?

 

This is why I'm thinking of buying into XM radio. I'm sick of homogenized commercial radio where the suits who sit in a conference room and decide which tunes are going to get their station the best ratings are the ones they'll air. I'm too damn independent to be categorized in that way.

 

I like jazz. But I like to change stations and listen to rock or blues or classical or country or bluegrass sometimes too.

 

So which of their pigeon holes do I fit?

 

I need some new tunes.

 

I'm tired of what they're playing over and over and over again on commercial radio. But in order to grow musically, I need new tunes.

 

 

Tom

[loumi]

Thanks Stepay for the new thread, next time I will do that. I was discussing this topic with my 22 year-old son and he was telling me of a group he absolutely hated with a passion (Coheed and Cambria) and that now is one of his favorite groups. Wow.

 

As far as genres go, I used to hate a lot of jazz, but now like fusion jazz and Big Band a lot, and I am slowly starting to like other sub-genres of jazz. I absolutely hated all Country, but now there are a few country songs I really like a lot. Another genre I hated but now like some of is Bluegrass (believe it or not). I have come to like New Age and even some Ambient. Another one I have come to really like is Clasical Choral (not opera). Not sure if it is a genre, but I still hate elevator music and always will. I will probably think it is OK the day the batteries die in the two hearing aids I don't need yet.

 

To get a little off-topic, I wanted to reply to something Mark Schmieder said,

"The second major factor is overplay. As I only listen to non-commercial radio (for well over ten years now), it is not an issue with newer music."

which is related to something Tom said,

"This is why I'm thinking of buying into XM radio. I'm sick of homogenized commercial radio where the suits who sit in a conference room and decide which tunes are going to get their station the best ratings are the ones they'll air. I'm too damn independent to be categorized in that way."

Guess what? Non-commercial radio also can have play lists. Unless the radion is non-profit and has no interest in connecting money with music, you could have overplay issues. As for XM, they have their own suits in New York or somewhere that decide what to play to make them money. It isn't a college radio station - it's BIG money. And if they decide playing a popular song more often will make them money, they will do it. True, they may lose you as a listener, but they might gain a hundred more. It's a calculated risk they take every day. Independent's should be careful to never organize because once they do, they are not independent any more.

 

OK, I better get back on topic for the thread I almost started

 

In addition to my list from the other thread that included Dr. John, Tom Waits, The Velvet Underground, and Janis Joplin, I would have to include Leon Redbone and Bonnie Raitt.

 

Lou

[K K]

Originally posted by NoahZark:

Abba (although I'm embarrassed to admit it).

I'm not embarrassed. I always thought ABBA were cool.

 

Excellent vocals, very good piano/keyboard playing, good melodies and efficient arrangements. They didn't become billionnaires by pure chance.

 

Benny Andersson now write scores for orchestral works. With ABBA, he played pianos, clavinet, Mellotron and several synths like the Yamaha GX-1.

 

Try his old Intermezzo No.1 on piano, it's not that simple and requires practice and precision.

[ITGITC]

Originally posted by loumi:

Guess what? Non-commercial radio also can have play lists. Unless the radion is non-profit and has no interest in connecting money with music, you could have overplay issues. As for XM, they have their own suits in New York or somewhere that decide what to play to make them money. It isn't a college radio station - it's BIG money. And if they decide playing a popular song more often will make them money, they will do it. True, they may lose you as a listener, but they might gain a hundred more. It's a calculated risk they take every day. Independent's should be careful to never organize because once they do, they are not independent any more.

 

Lou, your points are valid. However, I can't imagine that these aren't obvious to anyone reading this forum.

 

The difference that XM offers is a concentrated effort to identify and categorize the tunes that their customers want to hear - and offer a deeper bench within rotation of songs within each category.

 

The reason that I have hesitated to buy into XM is that we have two very good college-based stations in our area that play jazz. I'm not in my car much, as my commute is very short. The college stations are good enough that it doesn't make sense for me to pay a monthly fee to XM for the time that I listen to the radio (primarily in the car).

 

However, since I'm most interested in hearing new music, if the college stations aren't enough, XM is a logical next step.

 

My biggest objections to the current state of commercial FM radio are too many commercials (spots), and a shallow rotation of songs in their daily playlist. With the business model that XM uses, instead of a bias toward their advertisers when devising their playlist, they can listen and react to what their customers want to hear.

 

As you say, "As for XM, they have their own suits in New York or somewhere that decide what to play to make them money."

 

And that's OK since their decisions are based on what their customer base wants to hear instead of the commercial radio model that requires getting higher and higher Arbitron ratings so that they can increase their profits by demanding higher rates to air their advertiser's spots. A desire to continually increase profits leads to more air time devoted to spots and less to broadcasting the music and information that I want to hear. (And I haven't mentioned that bugaboo called Payola and how it influences song selection.) The cycle continues until people like me get fed up with it and buy into XM.

 

XM has little or no advertising. Without the need to please the advertisers, they are free to concentrate on making profits by satisfying their customers instead.

 

Makes sense to me.

 

Take care.

 

Tom

[Jazzwee]

Originally posted by ProfD:

Considering the hoopla around here, I am trying to dig some Kenny G and Yanni.

Ok I'm guilty as charged on the Kenny G hoopla, so I'll pass on this funny story. I was playing music at a Christmas party. Basically I was playing Christmas music and I had strings layered and I was just playing background by myself.

 

One of the guests came from the next room and said, "Wow -- I was going to ask what CD that was. That was you", she says. "You're great! You sound just like Kenny G!"

 

I had to think about that. Did I get a compliment (or not)?

[jefflovestone]

As weird as this may (or not) sound, I grew up during an era when it was very uncool to like the Beatles. It wasn't until the very end of the 1980s that I 'got' the Beatles and even then it was mainly Lennon's and Harrison's input that I really liked. I disregarded McCartney as too 'sugary' compared to the more 'bitter' and 'sour' work of Lennon and Harrison.

 

Yet over the last couple of years I've really started to appreciate and value Paul McCartney's work and now prefer a lot of it over other Beatles material I'd previously championed.

[loumi]

The reason that I have hesitated to buy into XM is that we have two very good college-based stations in our area that play jazz.

Hey Tom,

 

I'm in the same situation here. I have often times thought of going to XM or Sirius. The one thing that made me think twice about it was that, although most channels are commercial free, they are not DJ free. Sometimes I like a DJ, but with satellite radio the song name is already displayed so I don't feel I need them.

 

The college stations are good enough that it doesn't make sense for me to pay a monthly fee to XM for the time that I listen to the radio (primarily in the car).

Almost all the public radio stations I can get around here (Ann Arbor, Michigan area) have gone all talk. One college station in Ypsilanti (EMU's public radio) does have some interesting jazz on at nights, but I have a hard time receiving them sometimes. But a public station out of Detroit (WDET) has a block in the morning that is pretty nice. Never any repeats, and a wide variety of stuff, eclectic even.

 

My biggest objections to the current state of commercial FM radio are too many commercials (spots), and a shallow rotation of songs in their daily playlist.

I agree. Something fun to do is take a stopwatch and measure the amount of time the station spends actually playing music per hour. I think it is somewhere in the range of 35 to 45 minutes max.

 

With the business model that XM uses, instead of a bias toward their advertisers when devising their playlist, they can listen and react to what their customers want to hear ... their decisions are based on what their customer base wants to hear.

You are right, and I hope it keeps working that way. It is very tempting for the "suits" to go after easy big money. I think you are right in that XM knows its customers want things a certain way and know they had better be careful how they run things. But be on the lookout for the subtleness of the advertising. It will probably come on like the way PBS does it: This next hour of music brought to you by Chevy - like a rock! (I just had to throw that one in there for those that hate that song).

 

While at work, I listen to streaming radio on Live 365. Some stations have commercials some of the time, but not much. If it gets to sound too much like FM, I will leave it. Actually, the ultimate way to go is to load up an MP3 player with your own playlists. It is the most expensive way to go, but guaranteed to be exactly what you want.

 

Lou

[eric.B]

When I was a (young) child, I used to dislike all classical music and also hated the piano and therefore all songs in which you could easily hear one. No idea why, I had no annoying father, uncle or whatever torturing me with his or her playing.

 

I did, however, like music and making music. As I started playing on a keyboard, I discovered that it didn't differ that much from playing the piano (now this seems very logical, but, as said, I was very young).

 

Now I play a lot of songs with piano parts and I even like several classical songs; not that I listen to them a lot, but now I can appreciate them much more.

[ITGITC]

Hi Lou,

 

Yup. It will be interesting to see how commercials will infiltrate XM radio. In turn, it's exciting to see how local radio is changing in order to compete with the alternatives, including iPods, CDs, in-car DVD, etc. Will local FM radio lose many customers due to over-advertising or will we simply continue to tolerate them? Are there lots of folks like me who now listen to college stations instead of Clear Channel programming? If and when will XM and Sirius have the majority of the market share? This may sound outlandish, but with many new automobiles including built-in satellite radio, it could become as prevalent as cable TV.

 

Not trying to hijack this thread. However, in discussing a musician or a group that we initially hated and now like, we need to talk about new music and where it comes from. As someone mentioned earlier, they heard songs over and over because they were living in a college dorm where this was being played. You may have just bought into XM radio or received an iPod for Christmas. The environment in which you first hear a piece of music certainly can affect whether you enjoy it initially, or come to enjoy it later when you look back at your memories. I used to carry a portable CD player and try to purchase a new CD whenever I travelled so that I would later associate that music with my trip.

 

I think there is truth to the belief that many of us continue to enjoy the music that was on the radio when we were in high school and college. What's even more interesting is - How far have we moved from that genre in our current listening habits? If we listened to classically-influenced rock in college, do we find ourselves listening to pure classical music today? If we listened to Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, & Steely Dan in college, have we moved on to other jazz-influenced music since then? Many people don't seem to move much in that way. They are content listening to exactly the same music they enjoyed in high school. Sometimes I wonder if the blame can be put on the individual, or the outlets for new music, or both.

 

In order to grow musically, I'm pretty sure that I should continue to seek out and listen to new music. XM seems like a good place to start. If anyone has ideas about what hardware to buy, or pros & cons of XM vs. Sirius, that would be helpful as I think I'm going to pull out the plastic pretty soon.

 

Thanks.

 

Tom

[RABid]

Originally posted by Is There Gas in the Car?:

... This is why I'm thinking of buying into XM radio. I'm sick of homogenized commercial radio where the suits who sit in a conference room and decide which tunes are going to get their station the best ratings are the ones they'll air. ...

Been there. Done that. All you are going to get is the same thing but without commercials. They are all going for the same audience, and we are not it. They want the masses that make formulated pop, rock, country, etc. popular and profitable. XM is not waht is was a few years ago when you could find stations dedicated to music from India, Africa, Latin Jazz, Indi music, etc. Satallite radio started loosing subscribers and suits panacked. Now you find more pop, more rock, and lots of channels dedicated to weather and traffic.

[RABid]

Lynyrd Skynyrd - First they were okay, then I got in my first cover band and was forced to play their songs until I wanted to puke. After not playing any of their songs for about 20 years I am starting to like them and appreciate just how tight they were.

 

Robert

[ITGITC]

Originally posted by RABid:

Been there. Done that. All you are going to get is the same thing but without commercials.

Aw, Maaaan.

[Trill]

Tom, take the money you are going to spend on XM and get a auto Ipod docking station that plays your Ipod thru your car radio. Take the rest of the money and have fun downloading tunes and finding new things to listen to. That way you hear what you want to hear. Thats my plan

 

As far as TV ,I going to get a HI def satelite and hook up a computor to my TV and drop cable.

My son did his, you don't even have to wait to record programs. You get it off the internet .

[ITGITC]

Trill,

 

I've got an iRiver iFP800 flash player.

 

http://www.iriveramerica.com/images/prod/ultra/800.jpg

 

I feed it with WMA & MP3 tunes from my 400 Gig hard drive. It lives in my van, or I connect it to one of these Tivoli Audio PAL radios in my 'library', on the ceramic shelf behind the throne.

 

http://www.tivoliaudio.com/images/P/PALBLK_main.jpg

[marino]

It took me several years to warm my ears to the music of Bela Bartok. It sounded quite unnatural to me at first. But by knowing it better and better, I realized two important things:

 

1) It's music that has a strong grounding in popular music (not 'pop' music, to be clear), masterfully done but with none of the ethereal gloss which surrounds most European classical music. In a way, it's closer to the essence of music itself.

2) The popular music of the Balkans has accents and metrics which are totally different from those found in the Mediterranean area. I had to rethink my whole conception of 'ethnic' music... a good thing, btw.

 

Today, I couldn't do without Bartok's music. I consider him one of the giants of the century, and a big influence on my musical growth for sure.

[Andre Lower]

- Marillion

- ELP (and I'm still frowning on some of their stuff)

 

I was pretty impressed upon reading about someone not liking the Beatles (Jefflovestone) and Queen (Stepay) instantly. I had the notion that these are two cases of real universal recognition, and it must be the second or third time in my life I get to know of someone not liking them (well, at least initially).

 

Only goes to show yet again how difficult it is to please everyone.