Musicians/bands you resisted/avoided for years for inexplicable reasons, and suddenly became huge fans of based on one particular song or album

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For years I managed to scrape by without any Sonic Youth in my collection, never having really explored their work, and never really having had much interest in doing so. This despite their style of music being something I love, for the most part ('80s-'90s alt rock with a dose of experimental droning). Then a few weeks ago I was in a record store and they were playing Goo, and it just hit me: "I need to get Sonic Youth and lots of it."

I also had a ten-years-too-late Pixies breakthrough a couple of years ago. Which is strange, because I bought and instantly began wearing out a copy of the Amps' Pacer in '95, but it took another few years for me to embrace Surfer Rosa, Bossanova, Doolittle, and Trompe Le Monde

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 21:25 (twenty years ago)

This happened with Bjork, too. I'd owned Debut back in high school, but sold it after not listening to it at all. Then over the summer I hear "Oceania" on the radio and suddenly I'm all Bjorked out over here.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed

I've never been much of a VU fan, so I saw no reason to check out his solo work. Last year one of my friends told me that 'The Blue Mask' had some good fretless, so I bought it instantly. It's a great album, and so is 'Legendary Hearts' and 'New Sensations'.

― Patrick South (Patrick South), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 22:56 (twenty years ago)

I always liked/respected Royal Trux, but had only seen 'em live, never bought a record. Now I'm buyin' their shit like there's no tomorrow. And it rules.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 22:58 (twenty years ago)

I never cared for Springsteen until I heard Nebraska - now I've gained an appreciation for about 75% of his catalog, esp. the albums from the 70s.

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

pixies. they were name-dropped by so many 'cool' people that i avoided them for quite a while, thinking they couldn't be that great. boy, was i wrong.

also, the jesus lizard. mainly because i had a certain friend who played them way too much and quoted them non-stop. "use mistletoe, use mistletoe, I CALL POISON CONTROL!" "you break my ARM, you break my AAAAARM!" all day long. i figured it out about a year later...

― 6335, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:04 (twenty years ago)

oh.. the pixies album = surfer rosa; jesus lizard album = liar

― 6335, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

haha - me n hstencil are on the same page re: the Trux. This year's "discovery" for me, no question.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:06 (twenty years ago)

http://img49.photobucket.com/albums/v151/bettymariebarnes/summertimefun/4.jpg

― green uno skip card (ex machina), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

Iron Maiden's album covers scared me when I was a kid, always thought it would be some horrible death metal. Then I got Number of the Beast, and I was like 'Whoa, this isn't scary at all...it's like heavy metal for nerds!' I'm a huge fan now.

Anthrax - husband bought "We've Come For You All" last year, played it repeatedly and I couldn't stand it. Then I found myself singing along to 'Safe Home' one day and I've been cool with them ever since. Plus Scott Ian is hot, so it was only a matter of time. I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan yet, but I'm learning.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:06 (twenty years ago)

i've bought and sold and re-purchased those trux albums, and i know i'm on the verge of doing it again - and this thread certainly enabled it. so even though i'm familiar with the stuff, i'm persistently of several minds when it comes to rtx. black mountain pushed me back to them too, to a certain extent.

for me, it's mainly metal stuff that i knew about, talked with friends out, appreciated, but never bought. now i'm a big judas priest fan. (ditto for black sabbath).

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

Ditto on Sonic Youth. I had a similar experience after seeing one of the videos from Goo.

― Orbit (Orbit), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 01:22 (twenty years ago)

Electric-period Miles Davis. It's tough to remember what finally sold me though. I think it was actually Rated X from Get Up With It.

― Hurting (Hurting), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:03 (twenty years ago)

King Crimson

I remember reading a guitar magazine interview with Fripp where he seemed to come off like a choad ragging on Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page and Pat Metheny short falls as guitarists. I figured if this Fripp guy was THAT great, he really didn't need me to listen to his music. I went out of my way to avoid them for another ten years or so.

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

Jane's Addiction. Someone gave me Nothing's Shocking when I was in High School, I went 'feh' and got rid of it. Avoided them for years afterwards. Many moons later, I realised my mistake.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:38 (twenty years ago)

Iron Maiden applies to me too...also Depeche Mode~!

― deej., Wednesday, 16 March 2005 05:42 (twenty years ago)

yo la tengo. heard about them for years, even saw them open for my bloody valentine, just didn't have a clue until i got handed a tape of 'i can hear the heart...'. fateful day.

― jergins (jergins), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 06:22 (twenty years ago)

Frank Zappa, who I avoided like the plague for the same reasons most people do. Friend kept telling me about 'Hot Rats', which I reluctantly gave a spin at the record store. A few months later I owned most of his pre-80s output...

― Baaderonixxx le Jeune (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

The Kinks. Not so much avoided, just hadn't got around to them (beyond the radio hits) until I heard Ray Davies covering his own "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" on The Sopranos, and realized this is one of the great bands. And just in time for all these reissues!

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 15:29 (twenty years ago)

I sold all my Dylan at age 13 to buy Clash and Cure records...

Now I have 5 cd-rs of Basement Tapes and more assorted crap than I want to admit I spent hard earned cash for.

― b b, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:22 (twenty years ago)

Never gave two shits about The Fall til about 5 years ago. "Palace of Swords Reversed" fixed that.

― Silky Sensor (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:25 (twenty years ago)

if i ever say this about bob dylan, please kill me.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

I think my favorite was Gang of Four, who I somehow managed to avoid hearing at all over the many years I grew up living in the same house as my dad, who is an ENORMOUS fan of theirs. Finally one day I was just like "okay dad dude, it's time, lemme borrow your Entertainment! record" and thus like 45 minutes, a big bowl of weed, and a ridiculously clean kitchen later, I was instantly a fanboy.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunately for me, it was Jay-Z's final album that made me realize how good he was. Luckily, I can always look forward to his next final album.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 16:30 (twenty years ago)

I don't think it will ever happen for Dylan (or Springsteen) with me. I sold a few Dylan CDs awhile back after buying them out of, for lack of a better term, "duty". I got some good credit for them, I might have even used it to stock up my Bjork.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:23 (twenty years ago)

Early Van Morrison

― Dave Vinson (Gaughin), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:30 (twenty years ago)

im also ashamed of how long it took me to realize the difference between Syd Barrett Pink Floyd and that Dark Side of the Moon business.

I have a friend who refuses to listen to the Fall simply because he knows it will spark and obessession.

― b b, Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

Roxy Music (even though I had plenty of Eno stuff.) Mostly because of Avalon (which I still don't much like.) It was Velvet Goldmine that convinced me to check their earlier stuff out, finally.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 17:40 (twenty years ago)

Depeche.. Hated them aside from being fond of "It's No Good," then heard "Lie to Me" at an 80's night & realized they were the greatest thing ever.

Cabaret Voltaire, "Why Kill Time When You Can Kill Yourself."

― daria g (daria g), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

The Chameleons would almost count, except that I have reasons (I don't like "Up the Down Escalator" and "In Shreds" at all) and I still only have Strange Times. It took their cover of "Splitting in Two" to draw me in.

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:34 (twenty years ago)

Early Simple Minds definitely counts, though. I never would have listened to anything of theirs if I didn't read all the praise about their early records. Then I heard "In Trance as Mission (Live)" and "Theme for Great Cities" and BAM!

― Quit glaring at Ian Riese-Moraine! He's mentally fraught! (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 17 March 2005 01:35 (twenty years ago)

I was well into my twenties before I had heard anything by David Bowie other than "Let's Dance". Also had only a vague awareness of the Beatles and all that they entail until the late 90's, as astounding as that may sound. This after spending at least two years c. 89-91 worshipping 50's/early 60's rock, soul and doo wop, don't know how that happened. Idly pulled out Abbey Road from my mom's dusty record stash and fell hard, obviously. I hadn't consciously avoided either one, the radio climate was just such that I was able to ignore them.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 17 March 2005 02:27 (twenty years ago)

Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Oasis... shit thats my 3 favorite bands...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Thursday, 17 March 2005 02:58 (twenty years ago)

Depeche Mode.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:03 (twenty years ago)

I had weakly considered listening to them a few times, but I didn't; my girlfriend wound up turning me onto them with "Enjoy the Silence" and I've been hooked ever since :)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

I'm about due to add Depeche Mode to this list actually. I'm the 'before' picture.

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

I'm CAUTIOUSLY approaching Frank Zappa after decades of avoidance. The earlier stuff w/loads of guitar like Hot Rats & Burnt Weenie Sandwich feels like a safe intro. The dumb dirty jokes on Overnite Sensation benefit from some hot riffing. Let's see how far I get.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:44 (twenty years ago)

I started getting into Uncle Tupelo as soon as I left mid-Missouri. Don't know what you got until it's gone sometimes.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

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