I think Dale Earnhardt Sr. was the evil bad guy in NASCAR until he died, then he became its patron saint.
Michael Jackson’s career got redeemed by his death. ABBA is loved by a certain group of people and Neil Diamond is considered good by “ironic” people (and he’s considered great by lots of cool people unironically).
Earnhardt Sr. had picked up a strong fan following before his death, in part thanks to Jeff Gordon. When Gordon hit the scene, many fans would rather cheer for one of the old guard like Earnhardt Sr. The biggest thing that the fans realized after Sr.'s death was that love him or hate him, he got a reaction out of almost everyone. There was a tremendous vacuum of star drawing power left by his death. This led to his saint status.
Why not just say rock music, period.
The films of John Waters
certainly Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol were once widely despised & ridiculed and are now, generally speaking, taken to be geniuses
Duck Soup with the Marx Brothers. Considered a flop with audiences (though it did OK) and a critical disaster when it came out, it was slowly rediscovered and is now considered one of the all-time top film comedies.
“The Fatal Glass of Beer” with W.C. Fields. Audiences hated it, mostly because the deadpan satire went over their heads. Now it’s considered a classic.
Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole was hated by critics when it came out for its dark cynicism. It’s now often listed among the greats. Wilder’s Kiss Me Stupid was also hated at first, but its reputation has improved (though it’s still not usually called great).
The later Chaplin films – Monsieur Verdoux, Limelight, and A King in New York – were hated by audiences and critics. They are all considered classics now.
Edward G. Ulmer’s Detour was savaged by critics (the few that noticed it). Now it’s considered a classic of film noir.
(A lot of film noir films have a better reputation today than when they were released because audiences are more attuned to them).
I’ll stretch the original question way out to add:
espresso (in the US)
tough girls/ass-kicking women
chicken, and to a lesser extent, ham.
That’s why nobody likes you.
Yet.
It’s a Wonderful Life didn’t do so well when it was first released. We all know how that’s changed.
So do I. Space Oddity was Bowie’s 2nd album, in 1969, so there weren’t actually that many misses before it came out.
J.S. Bach’s music was all but forgotten during his lifetime, and for the next few generations. He was better known for fathering some composers than for being one himself.
This is the most famous I can think of. If I remember correctly, Melville died without knowing that Moby Dick would be a hailed a classic and read decades and decades after his death.
Yes, but WTF were The Carpenters and The Bee Gees doing on that list? I do not think there is any possible world where it would be cool to like The Carpenters. (The Bee Gees, maybe, but it is not this world.)
My suggestion would be The Monkees, who, although very popular, were decidedly uncool in their time, but who are now widely recognized as having produced some excellent featherweight pop (and Neil Diamond’s partial rehabilitation probably owes something to theirs).
The reputation of The Beatles actually went through a decided dip in '70s, but they have surged back. My currently teenaged kids love them.
Johnny Cash. It wasn’t so much that he was considered uncool, it’s just that when I was growing up (late 80s through early to mid-90s) he wasn’t really on anybody’s radar. His was the type of music your granddaddy or perhaps your 50-year-old uncle listened to. This was also the era when the likes of Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson were coming up and beginning to dominate country radio. You would have been hard pressed to find any college students or 20-something hipsters who listened to him or even knew him for anything besides “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues.”
ABBA is highly respected among pop music fans and critics and have even been embraced somewhat by the “credible” crowd - mostly because of the realisation that their massive hits are just one layer of their discography and they did some amazing and very mature work with lesser-known albums like The Visitors and songs like ‘The Day Before You Came’.
You wouldn’t go shouting that you like ABBA if you wanted to prove how hip your music tastes were, but I’d say they fit the narrative of being popular, then totally uncool, then back to popular.
This Cracked article mentions a few foods, such as lobster, that fit the bill.
As I understand it, pubs started serving hot wings because they could get the wings cheap because nobody wanted them. They became more and more popular, probably because people associate them with drinking and having a good time. Nowadays hot wings are so popular that they’re kind of pricey and there are sometimes shortages of them.
Troll 2. There’s even a documentary about it called Best Worst Movie.
Buzz cuts or baldness.
This describes a lot of “edgy” rock music from the 70s thru early 80s - Metallica, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, etc.
These days everyone is an expert on those bands and pretends that they were childhood fans all along. That is mostly BS. Back then, only a few of the more badass kids liked that stuff. Everyone else considered them sick, “talentless” and Satanic. Most kids also lived in households where the parents would confiscate and destroy those types of records.
The Bee Gees pre-disco were actually pretty good, and I’ve always liked their music from that era. (In fact, I’ve just realized that How Can You Mend a Broken Heart? is missing from my collection. Off to Amazon!)