Intrigued by the riff to “Keep yourself alive” (I still think it’s a corker), I bought the first three Queen albums before deciding it wasn’t really my kind of thing.
I owned several albums by the reggae band Third World. I went off them quite quickly.
I bought Moondog Serenade by Cashman and West and it only took a few days before I said to myself “What was I thinking?”
Any bands that you all liked and then didn’t?
https://img.discogs.com/yiL38nYyjor8qz6AAYXmX6HtliU=/fit-in/600×601/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1836613-1374757761-2714.jpeg.jpg
Baron Harkonnen says
Not a band but I recently got rid of my Richard Thompson collection including all his solo output on CD & LP, not forgetting DVD. I simply stopped enjoying them.
PaulVincent says
Likewise, not a band, but I had a lengthy phase of Van Morrison enthusiasm, before suddenly realising he was, for the most part, dull, dull, dull. Got rid of everything but Astral Weeks and a couple of Best Ofs.
Neela says
Oasis went from being pretty much the most exciting thing in the world to being…not the most exciting thing in the world.
Though I returned briefly for Don’t Believe The Truth.
Marwood says
I loved the first 2 Oasis albums – which was a good job because every pub you went into from 94-97 was blaring out their music over the jukebox. The radio was awash in the Gallagher’s tunes and the papers, music press and even the news couldn’t print / broadcast enough about the band.
I went to Knebworth. I drunkenly sang Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova and Don’t Look back in Anger at parties and work dos and pubs.
And then the 3rd album came out. The scales fell. I went right off them.
And now? I turn over the station if I hear their music on the radio and I haven’t played one of their albums in 20+ years.
Lando Cakes says
I *adored* Genesis. As Billy Bragg might have put it: Then one day it happened. They released Abacab and I stopped loving ’em. It was like being woken up from a trance.
Abergavenny Thursday says
So Abacab cancelled out everything before it?
Lando Cakes says
Yes. Have listened to them maybe 3 times in the last 30-odd years. Weird eh?
Harry Tufnell says
And Then There Were Three turned me off Genesis pretty sharply, still listen to the earlier stuff except TLLDOB which I never really got to grips with.
paulwright says
ATTWT is the only Genesis album that does anything for me. But maybe it is because of the girl who played it for me, rather than the music itself….
Twang says
I like other ones but that was the reason I got into it too…
Rigid Digit says
Abacab was my Genesis introduction.
1983s Genesis is a great album, but there is more to be gained going backwards than forward with their catalogue
Black Celebration says
I think we have discussed Simple Minds before. They were one of my day-of-release-no-matter-what bands but I dropped them around the Mandela Day and Belfast Child time. Suddenly it all seemed too earnest, pompous and overblown.
pawsforthought says
Yeah, me too. A little too pompous, which was saying something.
dai says
U2
(please put links in box provided on original posts, many don’t do this and then you can’t click on direct link)
Askwith says
Thanks Dai. I put what turned out to be a duff image link in the original post (It’s a shame there’s no edit function).
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51l6AuPWn4L.jpg
retropath2 says
Blimey, loads, 1970 – 1975, Purple, Heep, Sabbath, nearly ever band with a name meticulously drawn onto a then teenagers canvas satchel, caught up in a wave of 4th form enthusiasm before dumping like hot bricks in favour of Yes, ELP, Floyd and Crimson, ultimately going off them too, the difference being I still like some of their early and will keep for (very) occasional remising listens. I went off Bowie after Aladdin, thinking he had sold out (maan), not getting back until, don’t laugh, Lets Dance, then staying back on board, by way of a volte face around his Berlin albums, seeing their worth retrospectively.
I had a brief flirtation with Bargepole perennials Barclay Dogs Breakfast, before swiftly coming to my senses and destroying all trace.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Arf. I certainly went off Bowie when Ashes To Ashes came out. Not because I thought he’d sold out (he did that with the bonds), but because it was shite.
Twang says
The video did for me. The pierrot costume.
MC Escher says
Let me get this right: the reason you went off Bowie was because he dressed weirdly?
so
Wearing a dress on the cover of Hunky Dory
The whole Ziggy / Aladdin Sane / Halloween Jack period
Dressing as a woman for Boys Keep Swinging
these were OK but a clown costume wasn’t? I see.
Mike_H says
Could be clown-phobic, traumatised as a child. It’s a known thing.
Twang says
Silly isn’t it! In truth I lost interest after Aladdin Sane with a brief flicker on Let’s Dance.
MC Escher says
You could be in a small minority with that, V
Black Celebration says
Might be an age thing because I was about 13 when Ashes to Ashes came out – I had already decided Bowie was top notch – and then Scary Monsters and the videos came out and he went pyoooing into an even higher stratosphere of aceness.
It’s almost as if he was saying – “stand aside, this is how itt’s done”.
Moose the Mooche says
Funnily enough, “pyoooing” is exactly the noise that the piano makes on Ashes to Ashes.
TRMagicWords says
Almost too many (and too embarrassing in some cases) to mention…
Inexplicably attracted to Kiss in the mid-70s (despite some inner voice telling me that they sounded basically shit at the time); followed by a metal phase that I also embraced then rejected wholesale when I properly discovered “indie” music for myself (in those days, this meant Joy Division, the Birthday Party and The Gun Club). Think a large degree of self-actualisation was involved: ie the sort of person I thought I should be reflected in the music I then thought I should be listening to. A relief to put all that behind me as I got older and my tastes broadened.
fentonsteve says
New Order. Total collector and gig-attending mania up until 1989. World In Motion was the first I didn’t buy. I bought Regret on single in 1993, but thought the parent album was rubbish, along with everything since. Can’t bring myself to listen to the latest one for a second time.
I even read Barney’s book, I thought he came across as a po-faced twerp. Hooky, however, can write.
moseleymoles says
I think the spirit of the OP has been a bit stretched by @black-celebration and a few others. There are many ‘game of two halves’ musical careers – the Minds up to either Once Upon… or the one with Mandela Day were great, after well not so much. Same, I guess with Genesis, and Oasis who raced through their first half in an album-and-a-half. I can still play Definitely Maybe and really enjoy it. Standing on the Shoulders.. not so much.
But the OP is about a complete volte-face. Respect to @baron-harkonnen for binning the entire RT collection. In my case like @TRmagicwords it’s a teenage awakening, in my case ELO. At 12 I thought they were absolutely great and invested in their whole catalogue, by 14 the light had come on in Manchester and I thought they were awful. And though I’ve embraced many many rockist acts in the decades since, Discovery and the whole Lynne canon remains to my ears dreadful.
NigelT says
There’s a difference between going off a band because they went downhill (Oasis, Stones, you name ’em) and still liking their good stuff, and just going off a band because the scales fall from your eyes. I think a band can also infect their earlier work by a later change – I really love the Eagles earlier albums, but Joe Walsh, who I actually like individually, totally changed them, and they were also revealed to be not the nicest of people. I can’t listen to the early stuff now without that knowledge.
ClemFandango says
Elvis Costello
Loved all his stuff up to around my mid twenties which was when All This Useless Beauty came out.
Didn’t buy that and gradually stopped listening to everything else I’d bought and eventually gave it to the local charity shop.
In fairness it might have been my problem more than going off EC, although I never really liked the tinny production on a lot of the early albums, or the big vibrato and arrangements on the later stuff, but the main problem was that I started to really dislike the majority of the lyrics.
Marjory Razorblade says
Me too but I gave up a bit earlier. I liked him up to Blood and Chocolate/Spike and bought all his albums. I even forgave him Goodbye Cruel World. However, what finished me off was his voice. It’s fine when backed by the Attractions but then he started to expose it and push it to the fore on the likes of The Juliet Letters and the abysmal She. The vibrato! It just grates. His voice just isn’t good enough for ‘proper singing’ unfortunately. Now, I can hardly bear to listen to anything unless he’s surrounded by a loud band.
I have to admit that I had a similar Damascene conversion with Van. I love Astral Weeks, Moondance etc. but his voice? He might be able to sing with passion, but the actual sound of his voice isn’t great in my opinion. I imagine it’s only me as most people consider him god-like but I struggle to get it out of my mind now. Sorry.
paulwright says
And a third off the Elvis train. (Costello that is) Suddenly after Spike I didn’t get it, and fact didn’t enjoy it. I think the only album I have played in 20 years is My Aim is True, and having seen him 4 or 5 times I don’t think I would cross the road now. And to be honest I don’t think I could say why.
attackdog says
I am not surprised by any of the above and never cared. He was a chancer from the outset.
Black Celebration says
@moseleymoles – you’re right, I think I did miss the point. A total reversal is something that might happen when you grow up a bit (e.g. The Rubettes) but a conscious mature reversal is a bit harder. Oh, I know, The Boomtown Rats. The songs all sound terrible now – but were brilliant at the time. I was about 20 around Live Aid – I had begun to actively dislike them at about that time but totally behind what Bob was doing of course.
moseleymoles says
The Rats is a good call. I had Surfacing and Tonic as a 14-year old. Never ever tempted to repurchase or indeed relisten.
Rigid Digit says
But …
in defence of The Rats, their debut is a fantastic slab of Stone-lite R&B, and the next two albums aint too bad either.
(it all gets a bit sticky after that)
fishface says
Rat Trap still sounds great to my ears, especially the intro.
Sax, finger clicks and a fine bass line.
For the life of me I cannot think of another song mentioning a “Meat factory Door”
Not sure that’s a plus mind.
duco01 says
I used to listen to the following artists a lot, but now I don’t.
I can’t really give you a decent reason why.
It’s not that I now think they’re rubbish, it’s just that I … prefer to listen to other artists.
Neil Young
Crowded House
10,000 Maniacs
Bobby Womack
The Oyster Band/Oysterband
John Martyn
Graham Parker (and the Rumour)
Joan Armatrading
attackdog says
I could list many artists who’s music makes little impression on me now but surely John and Joan just mellow along with your age. I could not imagine getting older and not having these two to rejuvenate the youth of my mind.
retropath2 says
You clearly haven’t heard any new Joan (aka since this century)……It is not up to much and her live shows so self-reverential as to forget the majesty of those epic years 1970- 90ish
Moose the Mooche says
I was recently offered free tix to see her… couldn’t get any enthusiasm together.
Pessoa says
When I was in my early twenties, I was into Throbbing Gristle and some associated Industrial artists, but I no longer have the patience or mental space for that bleak, shock aesthetic and so have left it all behind. It belongs to a particular cultural moment that I don’t feel the need to visit any more. That said, I recently heard Cabaret Voltaire’s ‘Voice of America’ for the first time in years and liked it.
Vincent says
Generalising from the above, it sounds like ‘earnest’/ ‘received wisdom’ bands and acts are most subject to being dropped.
paulwright says
ATTWT is the only Genesis album that does anything for me. But maybe it is because of the girl who played it for me, rather than the music itself….
attackdog says
Clapton – came to him late via his late ‘80’s ‘comeback’ album (can’t for the life of me remember the title – had Old Love. Pretending, etc).
Led me to explore his early work up to my personal favourite 461 Ocean Boulevard, and then read a biog. What a self serving shit.
Good night Mr Clapton.
Twang says
Ooh I can forgive Eric a lot because he’s God.
Rigid Digit says
Metallica – first three albums (Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets) absolutely top notch.
… And Justice For All is dogged by sh*t production, obscuring any decent tracks in there.
The Black Album is good, but not as good as the “legend” suggests.
After that it all went a bit south – all a bit one-dimensional, trying too hard and formulaic.
I am happy to report that Hardwired To Self Destruct is one those actual “return to form” moments
(just hope they keep heading in that direction)
Moose the Mooche says
Master of Puppets… that was going to be the title of Van’s new album until he discovered it was taken.
Rigid Digit says
“Bands you liked then didn’t”
or how about “Genres you liked then didn’t”
Heavy Metal – still like some of it (a lot of it, if I’m honest), and dare I mention NWOBHM.
I was buying Keerang regularly and “obtaining” by fair means or foul just about every bigged up album in it’s pages.
And then I could no longer find the thrill in a trebly guitar solo, histrionic vocals and a 20 minute drum solo.
Plus I got a hair cut – maybe it was a Samson moment
# quietly hums Hammerhead to himself #
Beezer says
Yes, me too.
I never really saw the magic in Iron Maiden, in particular. I think it’s because they don’t swing. Oh yes, they can all play and they put on a display but in what I’ve heard there’s very little rhythm to it. There’s either the ‘gallop’ or series of riffs but swing there isn’t.
Its not meant to be dance music and no bootys are required to be shaken at their shows, but a bit of groove and space in the onslaught might get me in a bit more.
I’m sure they’re worried about my thoughts on the matter.
davebigpicture says
Live, it’s all about the show. Even when I saw them in 1981(?) at Brunel University, they had Eddie running around and some fairly basic lighting/smoke effects. These days the budget is bigger although they don’t go in for loads of video, just thousands of lights. A good night out live, on record not so much for me although my son likes the albums, but then he’s more their target market, just as I was.
Sitheref2409 says
Oh, I still take ver Maiden out for a run on a frequent basis.
My usual test for blast-it-loud music is the Interstate 81 test. If I don’t think I’ll hammer the steering wheel and singalonga – or shoutalonga – with the windows open on a bright sunny day driving dow the mountains, it doesn’t make the cut.
Quo, Maiden and Foo Fighters all pass
Arthur Cowslip says
Bear with me here, but….
Enya.
From her debut up until about 1994 or so, I genuinely thought she was a trailblazing ethereal artist on a par with Kate Bush and I couldn’t understand why everyone else in the world didn’t agree. Then something switched and ever since I’ve found her nigh on unlistenable.
Black Celebration says
I still like Enya.
Arthur Cowslip says
It’s going to be all right.
Sitheref2409 says
Oh, I still take ver Maiden out for a run on a frequent basis.
My usual test for blast-it-loud music is the Interstate 81 test. If I don’t think I’ll hammer the steering wheel and singalonga – or shoutalonga – with the windows open on a bright sunny day driving dow the mountains, it doesn’t make the cut.
Quo, Maiden and Foo Fighters all pass
dai says
Should have mentioned Elvis Costello, I never play his good, early stuff anymore. Just grates. I absolutely loved his work until the late 80s, and kept buying the albums for another decade or more.
Declan says
I still listen to pretty much everything I’ve ever enjoyed, so the damper usually involves finding out stuff about my “heroes”. Jagger/Richards and Page/Plant stole copiously and were pathologically unwilling to credit their sources, that first ELP album was really fine until you realise Emerson “composed” music already composed by Bartok and Janacek, Beefheart was appartently a very unpleasant individual in terms of sharing money and credit and couldn’t even play an instrument (nor sing!), the list goes on.
All issues of morals and decency then. Stealing a living. No easy answers.
Mike_H says
I get the impression with Jagger and Richards that if they knew and admired whoever had written a song then they’d credit them. If they didn’t know, or they’d changed it a fair bit, then they claimed it for themselves. Or possibly they just couldn’t be arsed to find out whose it was originally if they weren’t sure.
Back to the subject.
At the time I really liked Mahavishnu Orchestra, but after a while I tired of the frantic pace of the playing. I still don’t like McLaughlin’s playing for that very reason. He still rushes at everything he plays, determined to play as many notes as possible. See also the late Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai etc.
Declan says
Well, that Mark I Mahavishnu did their frantic adrenaline-fueled forward motion thing for a mere two years, after which McLaughlin eased off considerably, I suppose unfortunately. Unique bit of catalogue though.
Last stuff I bought was a couple of items with Joey de Franco on organ, and Elvin Jones on drums. Pleasant traditional stuff basically, 20 years after the aforementioned. He’s been coasting for decades.
Mike_H says
Having heard a reasonable amount of his more recent albums I still find JohnnyMc too speed-widdly for my taste. His bands may have slowed down but his playing style hasn’t. I don’t mind it so much on his Indian fusion Shakti/Remember Shakti stuff, because lots of fast runs of notes are more normal in that style.
What it boils down to, I suppose, is individual taste.
Speaking of Joey DeFrancesco, I’m going to his only UK gig this year, this coming Saturday evening. A fantastic jazz organist, probably the best in the world. A good trumpet player too.
fishface says
Going the other way, I was a fan of Van Halen from the get go.
Went off them during the Sammy Hagar years but (re)learning the guitar and a quite substantial upgrade to the stereo system bought me back.
I now regularly listen and via YouTube, look for tips and even after 40 years since the debut am still gobsmacked.
The Good Doctor says
Yeah loads, my music tastes change subtly over time- some music works in a certain time and place but never quit hits the spot again. As a child I used to be mad on The Smiths and U2. I can’t abide either now -not even as nostalgia but can’t deny they moved me once. I’ve got loads of glitch techno CDs from the early 00s that sounds shit now, and recently binned off some mid-period Mogwai and Low CDs. I think my tastes are getting broader as I get older – I’m gradually appreciating bits of Jazz, Prog, Hip Hop etc which I’d have previously run a mile from – but fundamentally what I *really* like hasn’t changed – there are certain moods, melodies, chords changes, odd sounds and rhythms that just grab me and always did – it’s just that I’m finding them in unexpected places.
Hamlet says
Ah, all the indie music I listened to in the late 90s! What I thought were cool, cutting edge bands now just appear to have been bloated posers. Living near Manchester doesn’t help, as it’s not a city shy of banging on about its musical legacy.
I’m sure a lot of it is just overkill – you can just listen to too much music. I try to ration what I listen to now, as the thrill was going for me, and it’s really stopped feeling precious. Then again, it could just be an age thing.