Musicheads ask you to name an artist that changed your mind about their work

Thanks for the music. Will have to check them out and will also have to come back after I think about your question.

Just thought of someone off the top of my head ~ The Cure. Used to love their old stuff but don't like them now. I guess this is the reverse answer to your question so need to mull over the question a bit more.

Will be back.

I loved the movie Evita. Who would have thought Madonna can sing ??? !!!!

Tokyo Police Club, I heard 'Nature Of The Experiment' and was hooked. The Hold Steady too. The first song I heard was 'Your Little Hoodrat Friend' a song I continue to not like as much as their other stuff but I hated that song until I heard 'Sequestered In Memphis' how could anyone not like that song. what a great band. geez. Album of this past summer, don't you think?

I bought Kate Bush's first album, but filed it pretty quickly, I was listening to much heavier stuff at the time. Then a number of years later I heard her song " This Womans work" in the John Hughes film "She's having a baby" It was gorgeous, and I fell deeply in love with Kate Bush.

My most recent example would have to be Fleet Foxes. I was skeptical.. All the reviews were just too good (pitchfork, anyone?) I didn't buy it. I didn't want to like them because i thought they were some retro neo-hippie band, whatever that means. I lumped together with the likes of that "All Hour Cymbals" band (what's their name? I just don't get those guys.) But I heard a couple songs then saw them live on Letterman and basically was floored. I still don't have the album but it's number one on my list right now.

Get ready to roll your eyes guys, but for me it's the band 311. When I was in High School about 10 or so years ago, 311 had their breakout hit "Down". To this day it's probably still their most famous song, AND I HATED IT.

So I had never gotten into them, until a few years later when I was in college. A friend kinda forced their music down my throat because they were his favorite band. I actually ended up enjoying a lot of their material. I STILL HATE "Down", but after listening to a few of their other albums ("Transistor" is my favorite), 311 is a group I actually enjoy listening to now.

Mew..hated the vocals at 1st. Sounded too helium-induced or Enya-like. But then hearing "Frengers" they won me over. In particular the songs "156" and "Comforting Sounds." Then I went back to "And the Glass Handed Kites" and enjoyed it a lot more than before, and the vocals were not a problem.

Between the Buried and Me..more of a whole genre changed my mind about. I found a way to get the screaming vocals to seem like a rhythm guitar part. Once that happened, 'Colors" became like a hugely addictive drug. And then all the tech/death/black Metal bands I never would listen to based on the vocals, I finally could.There's a list of 40 or more of them here.

Minus the Bear album from last year "Planet of Ice" finally broke them through for me. Although, I still don't find them as mindblowing as many other people; to go along with the fact in seeing them in concert twice, they were overshadowed both times by their opening bands.

Come to think of it....I never liked Metallica til I heard "Enter Sandman"...Diehard Metallica fans probably hate when people say that!

For me it's Moby. I've hated Moby from the time he first hit the airwaves, and then for some reason I checked a cd of his out of the library, put it in and voila! I'm a long time Talking Heads and David Byrne fan, and Moby hit me like David Byrne did after he left the heads. Now I dig Moby.

I don't like Journey, but I really *do* have a thing for the song "Lights," which gets me all wistful for San Francisco.

Ok. here's one from my past.. I absolutely hated the Beastie Boys when Licensed to Ill to came out. I thought it was dumb fake rap fratboy rock, which it basically was... plus you couldn't get away from it at the time. For a long while it held the record as the biggest selling debut ever. Then a couple years passed... and Paul's Boutique came out. I read one review ( i think in Spin) and I went out and bought it. It changed hip hop in many ways. It is a masterpiece. and still in probably in my top ten of all time... I even like some of Licensed to Ill since I went back to it after realizing their genius but i don't ever really need to hear Fight For Your Right again.

Embarrassingly enough, Cold Play's new album Viva la Vida has won me over. I'm still not particularly fond of their U2-ish sound, but I can't help but like and respect them as a band now. Kudos.

To an extent, I agree with Kathy P. about the White Stripes. Their album "Get Behind Me Satan" is the one that really changed what I think of them. Although, I still think they're overrated....just not as overrated as I did BEFORE hearing that album. And Jack White alone is WAY overrated.... I don't know why Rolling Stone thinks he's some kind of "guitar god." I just don't hear anything NEW coming from him...

And Frick! the Discount Musical Prankster brings up a good point about the Decemberists...well, actually it's about the Current. Okay, once again I'm going to be very critical of the station I love:

The songs from "The Crane Wife" that the Current plays SUCK!!! I mean, "O Valencia!" is a great song, but the only other songs the Current play are "Sons & Daughters" and "The Crane Wife 3." They're great songs...beautiful! But only in the context of the album as a whole. As RADIO-songs, they're horrible. There are much better songs that the Current could be playing from that album, like "Yankee Bayonet" and "Summersong."

Also, Peter M. mentioned 311.

I pretty much agree 100% on what he said. "Transistor" was a great album - it's the one that changed my opinion of them. Hmmm...maybe that's also my answer for the week. I remember one time back when I was on 770 Radio K when I played the song "Use of Time." Good song. Many good songs there.

After too many years of hearing Dave Matthews Band singles on the top 40 station I used to listen to in Phoenix I usually groaned whenever I was forced to listen to them.... until I was exposed to the song "Grace is Gone" two summers ago. Goodness, what a fantastic song. I've become more open to their stuff since then... but I still usually skip their singles.

This had ended up being a pretty interesting question.

I wasn't a fan of the Decemberists until I heard the Crane Wife album either. Dan you are allowed to think what you will!

Wells T, I totally agree with you about the Beastie Boys. I changed my tune with the Check Your Head album!

The Kinks.. i grew up hearing Lola and All Day and All of the Night on the raidio, and not that they are bad songs, but I think that they were way overplayed. about a year ago I picked up a copy of Muswell Hilbillies, and then Village Green Preservation Society, and now I see a whole different side to The Kinks. A side that is very cool, and a side that I really like, it's also made me search out other music from that genre, and now the Small Faces, and early Yardbirds have worked there way into my playlist.

Luna.

The first song of theirs I ever heard on the Current was that boring ditty about the owl and the pussycat. Hated it at first listen, even to the point of changing the station on the car radio.

But eventually I began to hear their older material, and my ears perked up and took real notice of the lovely guitar and vocals of songs like California All The Way, Black Postcards and Bewitched, Sideshow by the Seashore and 23 Minutes in Brussels. I eventually started looking for used copies of their CDs, and have loved them ever since. The end.

I could not listen to a "Brazilian Girls" song when it would come on the radio, but then this past summer, at Lollapalooza, I saw them perform on stage, and I LOVED THEM! I have all of their albums now, and I listen to them almost daily.

I wasn't a fan of Damian Rice until 'The Blower's Daughter' from Closer soundtrack dropped, now I'm a fan!

Y'all are too hip for me. The musician who turned my head after I'd L-edMAO at how ridiculous he was is Willie Nelson. Seriously. My roommate freshman year of college went to sleep every night listening to him. Lo and behold (see, I really date myself) I realized I'd been too quick to judge. Willie is a diamond. And he ain't country.

The other musician who switched my gears is John Denver. I'm not a fan of Grandma's Feather Bed or Sunshine on my Shoulders, but he came out with Calypso and I haven't been the same since. In fact I plan on having my own private concert listening to Mr. Denver when I get to Heaven.

Josh White. Once I heard his pre-folksinger recordings from the early 30s I realized that he was the real thing.

Franz Schubert is another. I can't think of the piece that changed my mind but I couldn't stand him for many years.

This has probably happened a million times to me. I come around to everything late, but have been getting better.

The National are still growing on me. Thought it was just okay at first, but you have to live, sleep and cheat on them with their own records to love them.

The Hold Steady I didn't really get upon seeing them play at the Cities Page anniversary/b-day part whenever that was a few years ago. Before Boys and Girls. But I forced myself to listen to it slowly went backwards and forwards to Separation Sunday(new classic) and now am now loving the folktale lore of Lifter Puller.

Braid. I had friends who loved this band, but didn't really see it. I just once again forced myself to live with Frame and Canvas and now its currently my most played album in iTunes. Another classic that should not be forgotten.

Interestingly enough, I resist bands arbitrarily. Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes, Ratatat among others. I have a preternatural gut instinct about music I like these days.