Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Black Eyed Peas, Great White
This seems an appropriate place to link to Susanna Hoffs’ cover of “Different Drum.”
You and I could totally hang out. I heard so much “And She Was” and “Once in a Lifetime” that I never wanted to hear any more. Now I love them and can’t get enough of the songs I never knew back then. My current favorite is “Slippery People,” and I even like “Burning down the house” now.
Lots of people wrote them off because they were girls, and girls didn’t do real music in real bands, and that’s unfortunate. They both made some (not all) good music.
Love that version. She’ll never match Linda but that’s a pretty high bar.
I pretty much hated The Doors during their early 80s resurgence in popularity, but I came to appreciate them after seeing the Oliver Stone film.
After Briefly liking the Rolling Stones I started hating them because I thought their early 80s albums sucked. It took me a long time to come back around.
I just saw Chicago and I thought they put on a pretty impressive show even though I had never really cared for them.
And I’ve pretty much been conscripted into liking the Grateful Dead since I’ve become part of a circle of friends who are hardcore Deadheads.
As a teenager in the 70s, I was kind of “meh” about Johnny Winter and the Allman Brothers, and now I can’t get enough of 'em. Years of not thinking about them collided with one of those Oxford American Southern Music Samplers and a newfound passion for Southern Blues Rock.
***Led Zeppelin
The Stones
Rush
Didn’t really hate these bands (Rush would probably come closest because for the longest time I couldn’t stand Geddy Lee’s voice), and now and then they’d do a tune I liked, but to my younger self they were just bands of guys who recorded songs and I wasn’t particularly fond of any of them.
But now that I’m older and have developed the knowledge and perspective necessary to recognize and appreciate their talent, I’m more or less in awe…especially of Led Zeppelin. Four utterly brilliant musicians, each a master in his respective role. I find it embarrassing now that I didn’t appreciate them more in their heyday.
AC-DC – I hated the high-pitched sound of the lead singer’s voice. Maybe it’s just me losing my hearing as I get older, but it doesn’t bother me anymore, and I actually kind of like some of their songs now that I can stand to listen to them without cringing.
Queen – some of the lyrics were just too silly for me, plus the music was simply overplayed by people in my college house (if I heard “I Want to Ride my Bicycle”, “We are the Champions”, or "Silly Little Thing Called Love"played over and over and over again, I would feel like I needed to kill someone and go on a rampage and destroy speakers). I think it was the whole oversaturation effect, in retrospect, and the fact that the music would be played so loudly that I couldn’t hear my own music over it (I wasn’t one to play my music at deafening a volume, and never understood the appeal of doing so, even with music that I understand is traditionally played at that loud volume).
But I really do like whatshisnames voice (yeah, my hearing isn’t the only thing that’s going).
David Bowie. When I was younger, and he was younger too, he appeared to be only part human. I didn’t care for his shows or music. As time passed, both he and his music evolved into something I could relate to and enjoy.
Metallica was a band that I once considered head banger music. I"m not fond of guitars being driven like a Harley. I also don’t care for a lead singer who screams the lyrics or attempts to sound demonically possessed. But over the years, I have been surprised to come across a few songs put out by Metallica, that today I place among my top 10 favorites.
I’m a huge Bob Dylan fan, but I never found the appeal of Tom Petty, MOSTLY because of his voice. I’ve tried to explain that to friends, but they just scratch their heads. I like Bob Dylan – if you listen to his early stuff, he actually has a mellow voice, but it had no mass appeal to it. It wasn’t until he tried to emulate the gravelly voices of the old blues singers
that he became a commercial success.
On the other hand, I find Tom Petty to be just too nasal. That said, I don’t dislike him. He has some decent songs. But I don’t particularly like him either. I definitely get why someone might not like him.
I’ll second Rush.
Man I hated that guys voice. It was grating to my very soul.
Somewhere along the line, I stopped changing the radio channel when they came on. Eventually I started singing along.
So, where was I before I (all of us) were so rudely interrupted?
Ah, yes…as I was saying, Prince… Wait, WTF???
That was always a feature, not a bug.
I’m another former Rush hater. The classic rock station in Raleigh apparently thought “Tom Sawyer” was the only song they ever did. Played it constantly. I got so sick of it I never wanted to hear another Rush song again. Then I ran across “Roll the Bones” and fell in love. I started going through their back catalog and now I appreciate their talent.
But it’ll be a cold day in hell before I listen to “Tom Sawyer” again.
Yes…GAWD YES(!!) about how 106.1 WRDU ran “Tom Sawyer” into the ground and all the way to China. And when they weren’t being horrible about that, they were over-saturating the airwaves with Led Zeppelin (at one point, I swore they played three/four Led Zep tunes in one non-marathon/event hour o_O).
As for bands I used to hate that I now appreciate…The Smiths, The Cure, and Echo and The Bunnymen. Until my extreme late teens, I used to think of all three as bands that were too mopey and ‘emo’ for their own good (and I will admit that to this day and forever, I still somewhat can’t disagree with that). But then VH1 Classic and my addiction to that channel in its 2000-2006 heyday woke me up to the fact that all three outfits had at least a few quite good songs.
I recently discovered Supertramp. Hated them with a passion back in the day, but now I hear them and like what I hear.
King Crimson.
Hate them, love them, hate them, love them. GOTO 10.
For me, it’s Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. I hated them for the same reason that a lot of people don’t like Bob Dylan. Tom has kind of an odd voice that can be a bit grating and he doesn’t seem as rock and roll as he appears to be.
Then a friend dragged me a to a concert because she didn’t want to go alone. I really didn’t want to go. I wasn’t going to know any songs and didn’t like them.
Turns out I knew nearly every song (which was a surprise to me) and it was an amazing concert. After that I became a huge Petty fan and I’ve been to something like 9 or 10 concerts since then.
His studio songs are great, but he puts on shows that are mindblowing (musically, anyways). What you don’t realize, listening to the his songs on the radio, is how good Mike Campbell (and previously Howie Epstien) are. Stretching out songs for 7, 8…10 minutes and getting the whole crowd involved is an amazing experience. Even if you don’t think you like him, I suggest that everyone see him at least one.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people write him off based on his voice*, but his shows…my god his shows.
*It’s the reason I can not stand Rush. Great drums, great guitar, even great bass, but those vocals kick in and I have to change the station. Nails on a chalkboard.
I feel the same way. I think I’ve seen him four times now and his concerts are great! I love the garage band covers he does as encores.
I still dismiss country music but I’ve become much more appreciative of Disco. My choice of the biggest hate to bestest love is Kool and the Gang.