This thread is for bands or artists that you liked before they became popular, or you were the first one in your crowd to "discover."
Van Halen. Heard their 1978 debut album played in its entirety on a radio station and was hooked. I was the first person I knew to buy that release (on an 8-track).
Metallica. A friend had borrowed a cassette of "Kill 'Em All" from another friend, who in turn lent it to me. By that time I was buying vinyl albums, and I grabbed it the first chance I got.
Others: Accept, Cheap Trick, Iron Maiden, Triumph, Motorhead.
Honorable mention: Chicago. I was a huge fan of their 60s and 70s stuff. Lots of people who were introduced to the band in the mid-80s cannot comprehend that the same band that did "You're the Inspiration" or even "Stay The Night" was also responsible for "25 or 6 to 4," much less "Poem 58" or "In The Country."
Having lived in Europe, there were a few artists I knew would find stateside success like George Michael and Depeche Mode in the 80s, and Blur and Oasis in the 90s. Closest thing to a modern band I was an early adopter of was Arcade Fire.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
https://youtu.be/bvjsAIpNy6I
Every now and then when I'm out at a brewery or something I'll hear one of their songs.
The Gaslight Anthem.
In terms of someone I heard before he was famous but I can't say I particularly liked, I remember when I attended my class welcome picnic in Charlottesville in August 1991 there was some guy with a whiny voice playing an acoustic guitar. We wondered who this clown was and they said he was a local musician who was hoping to make it big in the next few years. We all laughed at that idea.
His name, of course, was Dave Matthews.
As someone who mostly likes music that existed before I was born, I'd say my chances of liking something first are pretty low.
Certainly not everyone, but I have introduced my group to Mercury Tree, Knower, Charming Hostess, Thinking Plague, Bubblemath and a few others. Mainly proggy stuff with some microtonal.
I don't listen to much of anything that was ever popular, or it was in vogue 4-400 years before I'd heard it. Once or twice an artist, performer, group, band got "promoted" in a movie soundtrack years after I'd discovered them, but that's about it for my jumbled listening tastes.
I think I can think of one...2 Live Crew was a really average rap group with a decent DJ and their gimmick was that they were offensively horny. Which meant they were the ultimate thing to listen to on cassette (probably bootlegged) when you're 12 years old. In 1986, they were pretty much unknown outside of Miami and South Florida, and almost none of their songs could be played on the radio without a lot of editing, so word of mouth was the way to hear them if you didn't happen to live in the projects of Liberty City. They had a radio song two years later, which was a parody song of Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman and that attracted controversy, but the rest of the album attracted enough nationwide attention because record store clerks would get arrested for selling it to minors (and not over the parody). The album was banned, for a time. I remember just walking into a mall and casually buying it about 3-4 months before it all got out of hand.
Arguably, I'm confident that "everyone else DIDN'T like it", but they sold a ton of albums from the free publicity. I don't remember what happened to that once-holy cassette tape; I stopped listening to it after 2 years, so it's probably in a Waste Management landfill.
I happened to be watching MTV when the video (yes, they used to play music videos) for "Eat It" first aired. I had my mom take me to Musicland (a store in malls that sold records) the next day and bought his first two albums. I've bought every one of his since the very first day they were released.
Quote from: cabiness42 on February 17, 2021, 08:19:47 AM
I happened to be watching MTV when the video (yes, they used to play music videos) for "Eat It" first aired. I had my mom take me to Musicland (a store in malls that sold records) the next day and bought his first two albums. I've bought every one of his since the very first day they were released.
There's a "MTV Classics" on cable that plays just music videos.
The 1980's videos are truly a classic.
I can't think of a single thing I liked before the rest of my friends; I just went along with what they liked back then (i.e. Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, Eddie Money, Beastie Boys). I'd like to think that their tastes in music were pretty much diverse.
Eric Clapton songs as many did not know of his talents until the song Tears In Heaven came out in 1992. Sure many followed his 70s music and Cream era, but for a while he was just in the background in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. The iconic song, followed by his Unplugged album and his From The Cradle album made him a superstar throughout the mid 90s.
"Queen" and "Queen II" really rocked me before Queen took off commercially. I saw them in concert at the Santa Monica Auditorium and had a front row seat that I was escorted to as if I was some sort of VIP...LOL! Live performance then was not as good as their studio ones but we all know how that changed.
Rick
I liked "It's A Heartache" by Bonnie Tyler years before she had a much bigger hit.
Quote from: cabiness42 on February 17, 2021, 08:19:47 AM
I happened to be watching MTV when the video (yes, they used to play music videos) for "Eat It" first aired. I had my mom take me to Musicland (a store in malls that sold records) the next day and bought his first two albums. I've bought every one of his since the very first day they were released.
I was a fan of Weird Al starting spring 1982, before his first album was released, when Dr. Demento was playing My Bologna, Yoda, and Another One Rides The Bus. The first two were later re-recorded for the album versions.
Quote from: Finrod on February 17, 2021, 10:28:00 PM
Quote from: cabiness42 on February 17, 2021, 08:19:47 AM
I happened to be watching MTV when the video (yes, they used to play music videos) for "Eat It" first aired. I had my mom take me to Musicland (a store in malls that sold records) the next day and bought his first two albums. I've bought every one of his since the very first day they were released.
I was a fan of Weird Al starting spring 1982, before his first album was released, when Dr. Demento was playing My Bologna, Yoda, and Another One Rides The Bus. The first two were later re-recorded for the album versions.
Anyone remember "Mr. Frump In The Iron Lung"? I used to buy all of Weird Al's records.
Quote from: cabiness42 on February 17, 2021, 08:19:47 AM
I happened to be watching MTV when the video (yes, they used to play music videos) for "Eat It" first aired. I had my mom take me to Musicland (a store in malls that sold records) the next day and bought his first two albums. I've bought every one of his since the very first day they were released.
Weird Al was it for me, too. I was also a big fan of Weezer's debut (the Blue Album) before anyone else I knew, but the rest of their career was hit or miss, in my opinion.
duran duran. don't judge me. heard them on a local college station when i was a kid months before they hit mainstream radio.
still love 'em.
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on February 18, 2021, 08:06:52 PM
duran duran. don't judge me. heard them on a local college station when i was a kid months before they hit mainstream radio.
still love 'em.
I thought they sucked when they hit mainstream radio. Synthetic, formulaic synth dance pop elbowing aside good old rock 'n' roll. But I was wrong, for a few reasons:
* they
are good musicians and good songwriters
* even if they were not, the pop music that came along later in the '80s would make Duran Duran sound like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
* good old rock 'n' roll was walking out on its own. College music was good, and you had to wait a few years for alternative and grunge; and now it doesn't matter what's on the radio because there are better choices
Quote from: kurumi on February 18, 2021, 11:05:11 PM
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on February 18, 2021, 08:06:52 PM
duran duran. don't judge me. heard them on a local college station when i was a kid months before they hit mainstream radio.
still love 'em.
I thought they sucked when they hit mainstream radio. Synthetic, formulaic synth dance pop elbowing aside good old rock 'n' roll. But I was wrong, for a few reasons:
* they are good musicians and good songwriters
* even if they were not, the pop music that came along later in the '80s would make Duran Duran sound like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
* good old rock 'n' roll was walking out on its own. College music was good, and you had to wait a few years for alternative and grunge; and now it doesn't matter what's on the radio because there are better choices
i still listen to the same college station (KCSU) because they are one of few that work in the canyon that i live in. my car is old enough to not have bluetooth (tho i have a bluetooth-cassette thingy to play music from the phone if i'm so inclined) so its a nice altenative.
My mom tells the story of going to a concert (maybe Poco?) when she was younger, and the opening artist was an unknown musician named Bruce Springsteen.
Quote from: kurumi on February 18, 2021, 11:05:11 PM
Quote from: zachary_amaryllis on February 18, 2021, 08:06:52 PM
duran duran. don't judge me. heard them on a local college station when i was a kid months before they hit mainstream radio.
still love 'em.
I thought they sucked when they hit mainstream radio. Synthetic, formulaic synth dance pop elbowing aside good old rock 'n' roll. But I was wrong, for a few reasons:
* they are good musicians and good songwriters
* even if they were not, the pop music that came along later in the '80s would make Duran Duran sound like Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
* good old rock 'n' roll was walking out on its own. College music was good, and you had to wait a few years for alternative and grunge; and now it doesn't matter what's on the radio because there are better choices
My wife's a Duranie. And a Moder (Depeche Mode fan.)
Andy Taylor's solo album "Thunder" was excellent, and I thought it was a huge departure from Duran
2.
Susudio by Phil Collins was heard on WNEW before WPLJ and Z100 overplayed them.
In fact One More Night made the charts long before Susudio did and both from No Jacket Required. Yet WNEW played them both together upon release, where Top 40 stations had no clue the song even existed until weeks later when it hit the charts.
Quote from: hbelkins on February 19, 2021, 10:31:05 PM
My wife's a Duranie. And a Moder (Depeche Mode fan.).
Fellow DM fan? Nice!
Quote from: STLmapboy on February 25, 2021, 09:47:57 PM
Quote from: hbelkins on February 19, 2021, 10:31:05 PM
My wife's a Duranie. And a Moder (Depeche Mode fan.).
Fellow DM fan? Nice!
i like old DM, newer not as much. like back in the 'speak and spell' days, when vince clarke was still there.
i also like some of the bands that clarke became involved with like yaz(oo), erasure, etc.
gonna spin me some now as a matter of fact.