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Post by kds on Feb 4, 2021 13:26:58 GMT
Well, the ultimate for me is the band to whom this board is dedicated. I don't think I ever really hated The Beach Boys. Their music was always on the radio growing up. I grew up on Full House. I loved their Christmas Album. But, in my teens when I really started to become a music geek, I dismissed them. I never bothered with them. But, when I was 25, I started to compile CDRs full of more mellow songs to play in the summer, and out of the blue, I thought Surfer Girl, In My Room, and Don't Worry Baby would be great additions, so I bought a copy of Sounds of Summer. They were a bit of a slow burn, but by the end of the summer of 2012, I was a diehard.
The same summer I bought Sounds of Summer, I came around on another artist. Jimmy Buffett. Now, I did actually used to hate him. When I was in high school, the guy who drove me to school constantly played a cassette of Songs You Know By Heart. I thought it was awful. A song about a cheeseburger and a bunch of country esque nonsense. But, in my early 20s, when out and about, I'd hear songs like Son of a Son of a Sailor or Come Monday, and think, "this ain't bad." Sure enough, I added a used CD of Songs You Know By Heart to my collection that same summer of 2006. It might've even been the same day I ordered Sounds of Summer. I now own my of Buffett's albums, and have seen him in concert twice. His Life on the Flip Side album was my favorite album from 2020.
When I was a kid or teenager, I also didn't much care for the music of Genesis or Billy Joel either, but grew to love both of them in my 20s.
Now, the other way around, I'd probably have to go back to around the early 00s, when I was in my early 20s. I was really getting into hard rock and heavy metal, but I was into the older bands. The rock landscape at the time was absolutely dismal. So much so that I started to follow any band that had even a hint of traditional old school metal, which at that time, was basically any rock band who didn't have a DJ scratching records. So, I kinda got into bands like Godsmack, Disturbed, and Drowning Pool. As I got older, I quickly dismisses these bands, although I do still like a couple songs by Disturbed.
Along those same lines, I tended to gravitate to bands with a more retro sound. One of which was Airbourne. I loved their first album, but the novelty wore off quickly as I thought they were really just an AC/DC copycat band.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 4, 2021 13:41:05 GMT
I have many, and apologies for the old-timers who have heard them all before.
The most dramatic one for our purposes is the Beach Boys. Aside from liking them as a very small child, I mostly hated them through my musically formative years (say, 10-20). It was only Pet Sounds, and then the Smile legend, near the end of the 90s that got me turned around. I still focused on that era for a few years, only getting into earlier and later stuff in the 00s.
I also used to dislike Bob Dylan and Belle & Sebastian, both of which went on to become favorites eventually.
As for going the other direction, I don't think I've ever come to hate a specific album or song I used to love; rather I have gotten bored with many artists I used to follow. So it isn't a strong, focused dislike, but the opposite. I just stop caring. That's true of a lot of artists I enjoyed in those formative years, actually. A lot of classic rock bands, I just don't want to hear them anymore. Pink Floyd, the Doors, Eric Clapton/Cream, etc.
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Post by kds on Feb 4, 2021 13:58:26 GMT
As for going the other direction, I don't think I've ever come to hate a specific album or song I used to love; rather I have gotten bored with many artists I used to follow. So it isn't a strong, focused dislike, but the opposite. I just stop caring. That's true of a lot of artists I enjoyed in those formative years, actually. A lot of classic rock bands, I just don't want to hear them anymore. Pink Floyd, the Doors, Eric Clapton/Cream, etc.
The two big ones for me in this category are Aerosmith and Metallica. I think it's partly because I worked for a radio station from 2002-2006 that played both of these bands constantly. But, I've not worked there in 15 years, and I still almost never play these bands. And when I do, I tend to lose interest pretty quickly.
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Post by jk on Feb 4, 2021 15:49:23 GMT
I've never actually hated anyone or anything -- okay, Hitler and Saddam Hussein, and this gosh darn COVID. But I'll keep thinking anyway.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 4, 2021 17:56:34 GMT
Tell us about Artists/Albums you used to hate and now love or vice-versa. While I wouldn't say that I "hated" them, The Beach Boys and Bob Dylan were never on my radar during my youth and most of my teen years. If you told me I would become a huge Beach Boys in 1974 - when my turntable was full of The Doors, Blue Oyster Cult, Slade, New York Dolls, KISS, and Queen - I would've laughed at you. But, in late 1974 my sister bought Endless Summer and the rest is history.
I do remember watching a Frank Sinatra TV special in the mid-1970's and being very critical of his performance, even saying something like "what's so great about this guy" to my Dad - only to met with a sigh and a shaking of his head like I didn't have a clue. I didn't.
I never thought I would be listening to the likes of Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Nat King Cole, and Tony Bennett, but, thanks to their Christmas music, yep, love 'em now. And not just their Christmas music but their other music, too.
My sister also used to play John Denver records on her bedroom record player. Hated them/him. Then I met a girl who thought otherwise. I got into his music deeper, saw him in concert, and now enjoy his music very much.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 4, 2021 18:59:16 GMT
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica I was really excited when I first heard about this album and how chaotic it was. I found it on the internet and started listening to it nonstop and I really, really liked it's songs and weirdness, but as time went by and I realized what I really enjoy is pop music I kind of forgot about Captain Beefheart. I don't think I hate this album now, but I certainly can't stand it anymore... maybe one or two songs, but I can't even imagine going through it back to back again. Interesting one! (Both jk and I, at least, are Beefheart fans, by the way.) I wouldn't say I can't stand it anymore, or even that I can't imagine going through it again ... but I have to admit, I haven't actually listened to this album start to finish in some years. Five? Ten? It's been a good, long while.
In fact, as I got more into Beefheart it was almost contemporaneous with when I got more into the Beach Boys: late 90s through early-to-mid 00s. And while I began with Trout Mask, I actually probably ended up listening to Safe As Milk most of all. And my favorite now? Maybe SAM or Bat Chain Puller. And a big part of that reason is, like many "out there" artists, he was best when he was reining it in, either within or right on the edge of more common forms and styles.
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Post by jk on Feb 6, 2021 10:16:10 GMT
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica I was really excited when I first heard about this album and how chaotic it was. I found it on the internet and started listening to it nonstop and I really, really liked it's songs and weirdness, but as time went by and I realized what I really enjoy is pop music I kind of forgot about Captain Beefheart. I don't think I hate this album now, but I certainly can't stand it anymore... maybe one or two songs, but I can't even imagine going through it back to back again. As Kapitan pointed out, I'm a major Beefheart fan and even saw him and the Magic Band perform stuff from Trout Mask in London in 1972 (my best concert ever). I hardly listen to anything in my collection back to back these days but I stlll regard Trout Mask (half a century after first buying it) as the greatest pop album ever committed to wax.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 6, 2021 15:50:46 GMT
It isn't an artist or an album per se, but I have changed my mind about disco music. Now, I remember quite vividly when disco came on the scene. It invaded my precious AM radio, the record stores, and TV (especially my favorite shows like American Bandstand and The Midnight Special).
Then, a strange thing happened. I started to DJ and lo and behold... I could USE disco music. Yep, at almost any function, I could pull out KC & The Sunshine Band, The Village People, The Bee Gees, Kool & The Gang, and many others - and you COULD get the people up dancing! I have to give credit where credit is due. It wasn't just the beat; some of the melodies and arrangements were quite good, too. It was a fad (hey, so was surf music ). It came and went, and I guess you could consider it lightweight. But it was also catchy and dare I say, a lot of fun.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 9, 2021 16:32:27 GMT
I've told this story before, so old timers have to forgive me.
In my later college years era--let's say 1996-98?--I was very, very heavily into the Beatles and the kind of creative, highly arranged and produced, tuneful music that they inspired (particularly that music that drew on Rubber Soul through Abbey Road).
A good (non-musician!) friend said that if I liked the Beatles so much, I'd love the Velvet Underground. (He had gotten the then-recent Peel Slowly and See box set.) At that time, the name meant little to me. I vaguely recognized their name and associated them with drugs; I also knew the name Lou Reed, though to be honest I usually conflated him with Lou Gramm.
While visiting a friend in Iowa one weekend, I woke up earlier than anyone else and, seeing the debut album, put it on the boombox on very low volume. I heard the celeste and, soon enough, viola arrangement of "Sunday Morning," a song which I both didn't know and also did (again, here's that word, vaguely) recognize. But it was a lo-fi sound, out-of-tune singing half the time ... this did not call to mind the Beatles!
I listened to the whole album and didn't really know what to make of it. But I wasn't impressed. However, I did buy it while on my oft-discussed project of listening to (and reading, and watching) everything on the decade/century/millennium "best of" lists.
And I'll be damned if I didn't really enjoy the album and the band. By 2000, I had everything they'd done and found it really inspired and inspiring. So there's a massive flip flop for me: the Velvet Underground.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 9, 2021 19:30:21 GMT
I often see Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground being cited as artists people changed their opinion on for better... I always wondered why and if it'll happen to me as well. Still not big on both I would bet the answer to that is mostly in the vocals, and maybe secondarily in the lyrics.
Neither Dylan nor the various singers of VU (but especially Reed) are exactly the kind of sweet voices people tend to gravitate toward. And secondarily, the lyrics aren't always easily grasped "The moon in June" kind of things, but are challenging and sometimes of difficult subject matter.
So my guess is, people start off being turned off by them because they aren't ear candy, but in some cases over time people learn to appreciate them more.
What's interesting--and you hinted at this in your first quoted sentence above--that trend does tend to be "for the better." You pretty rarely hear someone say "I used to LOVE [Dylan/VU], but honestly now I don't think much of them." And that's interesting.
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Post by kds on Feb 9, 2021 19:59:50 GMT
I often see Bob Dylan and the Velvet Underground being cited as artists people changed their opinion on for better... I always wondered why and if it'll happen to me as well. Still not big on both I would bet the answer to that is mostly in the vocals, and maybe secondarily in the lyrics.
Neither Dylan nor the various singers of VU (but especially Reed) are exactly the kind of sweet voices people tend to gravitate toward. And secondarily, the lyrics aren't always easily grasped "The moon in June" kind of things, but are challenging and sometimes of difficult subject matter.
So my guess is, people start off being turned off by them because they aren't ear candy, but in some cases over time people learn to appreciate them more.
What's interesting--and you hinted at this in your first quoted sentence above--that trend does tend to be "for the better." You pretty rarely hear someone say "I used to LOVE [Dylan/VU], but honestly now I don't think much of them." And that's interesting.
Maybe I'm wrong here, but I feel like once you get well into adulthood, you might tire of an artist and take extended breaks from their music, but you're less likely to go from love to hate. The artists that I mentioned going from love to hate are really artists for whom I had pretty brief and fleeting interest in.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 9, 2021 20:11:53 GMT
That actually makes a lot of sense. It's much easier to find (positive or negative) passion about music in a teenager, maybe still a twentysomething, than in a full-on adult.
So you're probably right that things fade in, fade out, come and go, but not with the "OH MY GOD I [hate/love] THIS BAND!" Music is just more of a peripheral thing for a lot of people, or it becomes a kind of collectibles market for some people, but for most it isn't quite such a big emotional deal.
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Post by kds on Feb 9, 2021 20:35:47 GMT
I also think that, as we get older, it's somewhat natural to expand our tastes a little bit rather than go in the opposite direction.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 9, 2021 20:41:49 GMT
I also think that, as we get older, it's somewhat natural to expand our tastes a little bit rather than go in the opposite direction. Now that is a fascinating question!
On one hand, our openness to new experience is almost always greater in our adolescence and youngest adulthood than in our full adulthood. Exploring, experimenting, etc. Whereas adults are often more set in their ways and not interested in finding new things. (Think of yourself as an example: you've talked about just not having the time or interest to keep digging through new things when you know you aren't going to like a lot of them.)
On the other hand, adolescents and young adults are probably more prone to feeling the pressure of their peer groups, so while they might otherwise have been open to more things in a vacuum, peer pressure steers or limits them unnaturally. Whereas a 40-year-old (hopefully!) will say "oh, you don't like [whatever band]? Oh well. I do."
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Post by kds on Feb 9, 2021 21:04:46 GMT
I also think that, as we get older, it's somewhat natural to expand our tastes a little bit rather than go in the opposite direction. Now that is a fascinating question!
On one hand, our openness to new experience is almost always greater in our adolescence and youngest adulthood than in our full adulthood. Exploring, experimenting, etc. Whereas adults are often more set in their ways and not interested in finding new things. (Think of yourself as an example: you've talked about just not having the time or interest to keep digging through new things when you know you aren't going to like a lot of them.)
On the other hand, adolescents and young adults are probably more prone to feeling the pressure of their peer groups, so while they might otherwise have been open to more things in a vacuum, peer pressure steers or limits them unnaturally. Whereas a 40-year-old (hopefully!) will say "oh, you don't like [whatever band]? Oh well. I do."
I will admit that I'm far less willing to really actively look for new groups to like. But, I've also found that, in particular my late 20s / early 30s, I begin to open up to more lighter fare like The Beach Boys, Buffett, and even some yacht rock type material. I've also grown to appreciate other genres like I never really used to like, such as country music and even some pop from the 80s and 90s. I haven't really made a financial commitment to anything, but Pandora and Spotify have allowed me to check some of this stuff out over the years.
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