I was catching up on some stuff on my DVR today and I took a look at an episode of Austin City Limits from a few weeks ago with Nine Inch Nails. I’d heard a bit of their music several years ago and it really didn’t do anything for me, so I never really paid any attention to them. I almost just deleted this episode, but I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. And lo and behold - I dug the shit out of that show! Now I think I need to go back and revisit their stuff again.
What bands/actors/authors/other artists have you dismissed, but later came to enjoy?
I hated Jane Austen until I was in my 30’s. I had a teacher who loved her; I think she even wrote her dissertation on Austen’s work. When she told us it was fascinating and funny, I thought she was nuts. It was boring and old fashioned, and who cares.
Then I watched one of the movie adaptations, loved it, and went back and read a few novels. Get this, they’re funny and quite interesting!
I wouldn’t say that I enjoy Kesha now, but after finding out she was in Mensa and her appearing on a Robot Chicken episode…I’ve relocated my hate to Iggy Azalea.
Somehow I’d gotten the idea (probably by being shown one of the Huntyr Chase strips in a bad context) that the creator was a PUA type. Then when I discovered his other current comic, Broodhollow, and the fact that he was the guy behind Candle Cove, I realized that couldn’t be right, and checked out Chainsawsuit again. This time I actually saw the joke, and now, actually like the comic a lot.
Sorry, Kris…not sure how I didn’t get the joke before.
When I was in high school, Johnny Winter and the Allman Brothers were probably at or near their commercial peaks and I just couldn’t give a crap about either. Now they’re both at the top of my iTunes list.
Took me a while to warm to Ke$ha, but of the pop stars that came out around the same time (Lady Gaga was a deep favorite there for a bit), she’s the one who has endured for me. She seems very intelligent and savvy, and far more entertaining IMO. Plus, I think she has more aggressive and interesting producers and remixers on her discs.
Justin Timberlake was a huge surprise. Love his solo stuff, but when he first went off on his own, everyone I danced with scoffed at his attempt. Proved quite wrong there.
Prince. Grew up in an evangelical scene, Prince was persona non grata, and it was common for people to mock him simply based on his carefully-cultivated sexual ambiguity, and very weird nearly perpendicular approach to pop compared to his concurrent chart-toppers. Never gave him a chance. Then a friend “came out” to me that he really liked Prince, turned me onto his stuff. Made me watch Purple Rain, and I even ended up going to see Graffiti Bridge a few times in theaters. I grudgingly accepted his tastes and stopped mocking Prince, got to hear more over the years… and at this point he’s probably my favorite musical artist/genius. I got to do my own evangelizing for him over the years, and have gotten a slew of friends to become fans as well.
I was too into my little underground scenes (punk, industrial, noise) when I was younger, turned my nose up at pop/dance acts. I hated the overly-marketed teen pop star stuff. Then, I learned that I liked the activity of dancing in nightclubs, and started to seek out a lot of the stuff for which I’d shown disdain or even hatred. Ended up really digging the non-ballad work of Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, and Christina Aguilera. Spears’ Blackout album is a definite favorite in my collection now, Circus was genius, most of her dance stuff over the years remains in rotation on my phone. (Also helps that I kinda like the crazy, so when she had her public meltdown a few years back, it piqued my interest.)
When The Simpsons first came on, I dismissed it as utter crap not worthy of my time. I had seen the sketches on the Tracy Ullman Show, and I was a fan of Life In Hell, but it just didn’t grab me.
A few years later, I watched and was glued to it for years. It also spawned my on-going love affair with all things Adult Swim, Harvey Birdman, Venture Bros, Sealab 2021, etc.
Getting near perfect SAT scores qualifies one for Mensa(SAT’s are one of many tests Mensa recognizes); very few people who qualify for mensa actually join though. Are you questioning if she qualifies to be a member or if she decided to join?
