This is a thread about music that critics at the time hated, or maybe you hated, that you can come back to and enjoy now that years have passed.

For me the quintessential example is Dookie by Green Day.  Barely acknowledged when it came out, though it sold well with kids. The record was too polished to be punk, the guitar work too simple to be hard rock, the mood and lyrics too upbeat to be grunge.  Green Day were maligned as posers.

But for me it really holds up well. Each drum and bass fill sounds unique, breaking up the repetition. Those two were barely 20 and had no idea how good they were.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel...

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Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel...

Did critics at the time pan their stuff? I don't think they did.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

This one's a challenge for me, because I give zero farts what a critic has to say.

Most of the music that I love is not critic-friendly. I like it, it makes me happy, and that's all that matters to me.

Pretty much everything that I checked out, didn't like, I still don't like. Maybe the biggest one to be a late bloomer for me would be the Grateful Dead. I was never really into them, even when my (now ex) wife was a diehard fan. That changed once I started listening to Garcia Grisman Rice and Old and in the Way, two bluegrass/folk ensembles that Jerry Garcia played in. I really dug that stuff, and after our divorce, moving away from hippie college town, I started listening to some of the Dead bootlegs I collected a few years prior, and they're good songs, catchy, and the musicians are definitely talented. That said, I'd never want to spend a summer touring with them (if that were still an option) and it's rare that I listen to them more than as part of a shuffled mix.

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Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel...

Did critics at the time plan their stuff? I don't think they did.

Oops, sorry, poor reading comprehension on the original question you posed.  You are correct.

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This one's a challenge for me, because I give zero farts what a critic has to say.

Most of the music that I love is not critic-friendly. I like it, it makes me happy, and that's all that matters to me.

Pretty much everything that I checked out, didn't like, I still don't like. Maybe the biggest one to be a late bloomer for me would be the Grateful Dead. I was never really into them, even when my (now ex) wife was a diehard fan. That changed once I started listening to Garcia Grisman Rice and Old and in the Way, two bluegrass/folk ensembles that Jerry Garcia played in. I really dug that stuff, and after our divorce, moving away from hippie college town, I started listening to some of the Dead bootlegs I collected a few years prior, and they're good songs, catchy, and the musicians are definitely talented. That said, I'd never want to spend a summer touring with them (if that were still an option) and it's rare that I listen to them more than as part of a shuffled mix.

For the record, I saw Jerry 29x, mostly with the Grateful Dead and a few times with the Jerry Garcia Band.  It was only after Jerry's death and the advent of YouTube did I really get exposure to David Grisman and their connection is truly amazing.  To this day, I'm evolving more and more toward the bluegrass scene but to a lesser extent (Infamous Stringdusters, Yonder String Mountain Band, Leftover Salmon).   Surprisingly enough, once Jerry died, I haven't gone back to see any of the Dead and Company shows or any extensions of Bob Weir or Phil Lesh thereof since the absence of Jerry's guitar and charisma would be a huge void in the subsequent shows (wow ... that's deep).  Anyway, just thought I'd chime in since you mentioned Jerry Garcia.

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Grand Funk. Critics hated them, the masses loved them. Not saying they hold up great as a collective body of work, but after a recent listen of thier LPs E Plurbus Funk, We're an American Band and Shining On, I still liked a lot more even today than I thought I would.

Eagles. People may not recall this, but critics savaged their 1st couple of LPs. They didn't become the critics darlings till Hotel California.

Kansas. Critics seemed to dismiss them as prog rock lite, but a good bit of thier stuff holds up very well.

Lynyrd Skynyrd. Especially among East Coast critics, they got dismissed pretty regularly early on as a bunch of brawling hayseed simpleton Yahoo's. Critics like NYC based Robert Christgau dove a little deeper than others tho, and liked what he heard, especially the underrated lyrics. Didn't really get widespread critical acclaim until the Street Survivors LP, which sadly, was thier last before the crash.

Alice Cooper. Critics were mostly negative at first, but started coming around after Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome to my Nightmare were released. Cooper has released a lot of crap over the years, but his best stuff is some of the best of his era.

Boston. Primarily, the debut. I recall critics calling them a more melodic yet soulless fusion of Led Zeppelin and Yes. If you've rediscovered that LP recently, you can see how they totally missed it. That sound redefined harmonic pop rock, just as Van Halen would redefine the way rock guitar was played 2 years later. Sonically, that LP still stands up as one of the best engineered and recorded albums in the history of rock. All from the basement of Tom Scholtz.

Lana Del Rey. Critics were brutal in thier reviews of her in the early 2010s, and sometimes justifiably so. But she started hitting her stride with the Lust for Life LP and she's been a critics darling pretty much ever since. Moderately popular throughout her whole career so far, more focused on atmospheric music than radio pop, she seems to be playing the long game with her music.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

Grand Funk. Critics hated them, the masses loved them. Not saying they hold up great as a collective body of work, but after a recent listen of thier LPs E Plurbus Funk, We're an American Band and Shining On, I still liked a lot more even today than I thought I would.

Eagles. People may not recall this, but critics savaged their 1st couple of LPs. They didn't become the critics darlings till Hotel California.

Kansas. Critics seemed to dismiss them as prog rock lite, but a good bit of thier stuff holds up very well.

Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Especially among East Coast  critics, they got dismissed pretty regularly early on as a bunch of brawling hayseed simpleton Yahoo's. Critics like NYC based Robert Christgau dove a little deeper than others tho, and liked what he heard, especially the underrated lyrics.  Didn't really get widespread critical acclaim until the Street Survivors LP, which sadly, was thier last before the crash.

Alice Cooper. Critics were mostly negative at first, but started coming around after Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome to my Nightmare were released.  Cooper has released a lot of crap over the years, but his best stuff is some of the best of his era.

Boston. Primarily, the debut. I recall critics calling them a more melodic yet soulless fusion of Led Zeppelin and Yes.  If you've rediscovered that LP recently, you can see how they totally missed it. That sound redefined harmonic pop  rock, just as Van Halen would redefine the way rock guitar was played 2 years later. Sonically, that LP still stands up as one of the best engineered and recorded albums in the history of rock.  All from the basement of Tom Scholtz.

Lana Del Rey. Critics were brutal in thier reviews of her in the early 2010s, and sometimes justifiably so. But she started hitting her stride with the Lust for Life LP and she's been a critics darling pretty much ever since. Moderately popular throughout her whole career so far, more focused on atmospheric music than radio pop, she seems to be playing the long game with her music.

Some of those I'm not familiar with, but those that I've listened to, I like.  Of course as a Jax native I've listened to lots of Skynyrd, it was always on the radio.
Boston and Kansas are similar.  Along with Styx they brought falsetto and harmony back into rock.  They got those ideas from the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys were great singers but poor guitarists.  They relied on studio musicians instead.  These later bands had the instrumental and singing chops to bring it all together.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

Grand Funk. Critics hated them, the masses loved them. Not saying they hold up great as a collective body of work, but after a recent listen of thier LPs E Plurbus Funk, We're an American Band and Shining On, I still liked a lot more even today than I thought I would.

Eagles. People may not recall this, but critics savaged their 1st couple of LPs. They didn't become the critics darlings till Hotel California.

Kansas. Critics seemed to dismiss them as prog rock lite, but a good bit of thier stuff holds up very well.

Lynyrd Skynyrd.  Especially among East Coast  critics, they got dismissed pretty regularly early on as a bunch of brawling hayseed simpleton Yahoo's. Critics like NYC based Robert Christgau dove a little deeper than others tho, and liked what he heard, especially the underrated lyrics.  Didn't really get widespread critical acclaim until the Street Survivors LP, which sadly, was thier last before the crash.

Alice Cooper. Critics were mostly negative at first, but started coming around after Billion Dollar Babies and Welcome to my Nightmare were released.  Cooper has released a lot of crap over the years, but his best stuff is some of the best of his era.

Boston. Primarily, the debut. I recall critics calling them a more melodic yet soulless fusion of Led Zeppelin and Yes.  If you've rediscovered that LP recently, you can see how they totally missed it. That sound redefined harmonic pop  rock, just as Van Halen would redefine the way rock guitar was played 2 years later. Sonically, that LP still stands up as one of the best engineered and recorded albums in the history of rock.  All from the basement of Tom Scholtz.

Lana Del Rey. Critics were brutal in thier reviews of her in the early 2010s, and sometimes justifiably so. But she started hitting her stride with the Lust for Life LP and she's been a critics darling pretty much ever since. Moderately popular throughout her whole career so far, more focused on atmospheric music than radio pop, she seems to be playing the long game with her music.

Some of those I'm not familiar with, but those that I've listened to, I like.  Of course as a Jax native I've listened to lots of Skynyrd, it was always on the radio.
Boston and Kansas are similar.  Along with Styx they brought falsetto and harmony back into rock.  They got those ideas from the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys were great singers but poor guitarists.  They relied on studio musicians instead.  These later bands had the instrumental and singing chops to bring it all together.

I’m a beach boy fan.  Say, didn’t that Charlie Manson guy try to be a member? Or have ties?

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Some of those I'm not familiar with, but those that I've listened to, I like.  Of course as a Jax native I've listened to lots of Skynyrd, it was always on the radio.
Boston and Kansas are similar.  Along with Styx they brought falsetto and harmony back into rock.  They got those ideas from the Beach Boys.  The Beach Boys were great singers but poor guitarists.  They relied on studio musicians instead.  These later bands had the instrumental and singing chops to bring it all together.

I’m a beach boy fan.  Say, didn’t that Charlie Manson guy try to be a member? Or have ties?

Charles Manson was briefly friends with Dennis Wilson.  All three Wilsons were big into smoking pot and partying in mansions up and down the West Coast, so it's not surprising they met up.
There are rumors that Manson sang and played guitar with them, but as far as I know, no recordings survived.  
Manson recorded some songs under his own name briefly before he went on the murderous rampage.  Guns N Roses covered one of them.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

I’m a beach boy fan.  Say, didn’t that Charlie Manson guy try to be a member? Or have ties?

Charles Manson was briefly friends with Dennis Wilson.  All three Wilsons were big into smoking pot and partying in mansions up and down the West Coast, so it's not surprising they met up.
There are rumors that Manson sang and played guitar with them, but as far as I know, no recordings survived.  
Manson recorded some songs under his own name briefly before he went on the murderous rampage.  Guns N Roses covered one of them.

You’re telling me GnR covered a Manson song? Interesting.   Never knew that.  Which song was that?

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Charles Manson was briefly friends with Dennis Wilson.  All three Wilsons were big into smoking pot and partying in mansions up and down the West Coast, so it's not surprising they met up.
There are rumors that Manson sang and played guitar with them, but as far as I know, no recordings survived.  
Manson recorded some songs under his own name briefly before he went on the murderous rampage.  Guns N Roses covered one of them.

You’re telling me GnR covered a Manson song? Interesting.   Never knew that.  Which song was that?

Its on the Spaghetti Incident.  It's called "Look at your game, girl."

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Faure, etc.

I dig classical music. Composition, etc.

Susumu Hirasawa, Nobuo Uematsu & Jeremy Soule are some of the more modern composers that I enjoy listening to for nostalgic reasons and gaming reasons. Always been drawn into their soundtracks growing up.

Same goes for the old composers with films. John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Ennio Morricone especially.

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"What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie? I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky. The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing; Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king."

Critics hated the first few Led Zeppelin albums. In fact, they may have also hated the later ones, too. Kind of a controversial band for "borrowing" a lot of their riffs, but it's undeniable how well they have held up and musically proved the critics wrong.
Rush, Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Yes were universally panned by critics. While Rush can be classified as metal, the other 3 produced music that critics called "art for art's sake." Errrr.... no. Ironically, ELP did an anthem that is played at today's sporting events all the time.
And since I mentioned metal, both Judas Priest and Iron Maiden have been criminally ignored by music writers. Maiden was a band I "came around" to, and I'm glad I did. I thought they were gimmicky, like a poor man's Kiss. When I listen to them with headphones without seeing all the crazy show, I get why they are so beloved.

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Ram Jam's version of Black Betty still kicks [BLEEP]..

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Ram Jam's version of Black Betty still kicks [BLEEP]..

You aren’t lying.

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Ram Jam's version of Black Betty still kicks [BLEEP]..

You aren’t lying.

Love that.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

Ram Jam's version of Black Betty still kicks [BLEEP]..

Something we can all agree on.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you.

Man, the list of people that owe me 1.29 (and sometimes.99) is growing like crazy.

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Missing hearing the Gin Blossoms. Critics didn't hate this group, but it's pop music that does hold up well IMO.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption