Bands you keep trying to like but can't get into

90% of all popular music released in the past five years

"90% of all popular music released in the past five years"

how old are you?

really, who tries with that stuff?

I'm 25 years old. I listen to the radio. I go to the clubs. I read the Rolling 2007 Best Singles Thread. I look at the Billboard Hot 100. I know what the kids like. I try to get into it, really I do, but most of it just doesn't sound all that good to me.

the beach boys.
i keep trying the various reissues that arrive on the doormat, but no.
still cant stand'em.

galaxie 500

People are "trying to like" the Arcade Fire? Seems to me that with them, what you hear the first time will be all you'll ever hear.

With the Arcade Fire - I like the idea, but everytime I hear them I feel like I am listening to my Mom's new-wave tapes, driving around in the streets of my 80's childhood. Am I wrong?

arcade fire suck ballz, your mom totally had better taste in new wave

arcade fire are pleasant and have some good songs. but the singer's overearnest and much of the stuff is pretty thin. there's probably really not much to "get" as far as they're concerned...

Cosigned on Husker Du

rolling stones
led zep
kinks
the who

most 60s british bands
i like a handful of each of their songs but by and large i just dont like them

Bowie & Pere Ubu - I recently got their box sets from the library (again). I like Bowie's singles and his Berlin period but I can leave the rest. Pere Ubu's early material (singles and first album) are very good as is half of the next couple of albums but I can't get past Dave Thomas's voice - much as folks say about The Fall. I think it'll click one day.

60s UK bands - I like all the singles but I never, ever have the desire to hear The Kinks, Who, etc. Frankly I prefer covers by my favorite artists - Robyn Hitchcock's Dylan covers made me appreciate him as a songwriter much more than proper Dylan albums.

Nuggets is a box I listen to every couple of years. I like much of it but don't love it the way some do. Messthetics is my Nuggets.

Pavement.

Flaming Lips.

zappa, my bloody valentine, genesis, dylan, talk talk, coltrane. respect what they're up to, like some of their stuff, appreciate their impact/influence/what i've learned from paying attention to the people into them, but still feel more obligated by the politics of taste, rather than compelled by how much they rule, to keep trying them out

animal collective. the only way I could really like them is if they did the exact same thing they do now, except they dismember and eat Mike Love (of the Beach Boys) on stage. 'cause they sound like the Beach Boys, if the BBs were, er, tuneless idiots or perhaps just vegetarians who can't cut it. I realize this is perhaps contrarian, but I've tried, like the thread title says.

Tom Waits, too. Tried, respect the dude in his film roles and he's a funny interview. But his music just makes me sleepy.

Stars. I want to like them. I have all their discs, and I love some of the elements to their music (the 80s influences, mostly), but there's something about them that prompts me to reach for the skip button a lot when they come up on the iPod.

Even though they have some absolutely ripper songs, i can see why some people like them but i just cannot absorb what music they are making. Public Enemy are an incredible band. What they did for music in 1988 was unbelievable but the Bomb Squad's production has aged terribly since the release of 'It takes a nation of millions to hold us back'. I still cannot handle the production including that of 'Fear of a Black Planet'.

Soz, the first band i'm talkin about is the White Stripes.

The Doors. I got "Waiting for the sun" and like the singles, and so on.

I think they are underrated if anything, but I can't really got into em.

Pavement seconded. I've tried so hard, because I hear people I respect gushing over them non-stop.
To a lesser extent, Sonic Youth for the same reason.

lots of the bands already mentioned, like pavement, the fall, tortoise, even aphex twin to quite a large extent

but the one i'm most dumbfounded by is lightning bolt. there's no WAY i can dislike this band, in theory, but their music doesn't really make me want to carry on listening :-/

Pavement
PJ Harvey
Hendrix
The Smiths (I like some of their material but most of it is just boring)
My Bloody Valentine
Underworld
Lots of heavy metal
The Orb

The White Stripes. Sorry, but I just cannot for the life of me stand more than a few songs.
I feel like I should love this band based on my musical/listening tastes, but I find them so boring.
Yes, Jack White is a recording machine and super cool, but yeah, I don't get the overall hype of this band. Ever.

New Order!

xp: Yeah, I got out a bunch of their albums from the library after listening to Jack White's episode of WTF this summer. He seems like a great guy, but the music is so plodding and generic to me.

Scott Walker, idgi

^co-sign. Never tried very hard, though.

me too. i find scott walker's shtick just repulsive. i find hinmtotally unbearable. he seems to take himself so bloody serious when he sings.

I don't think there's much to get with the White Stripes. I don't like them as they're just not interesting enough, on all fronts.

i agree concerning the white stripes. they always make the same song which is a super simple song. i always thought jon spencer was so much more interesting in doing this kind of blues rock but somehow he didn't have the same success.

Scott clicked for me a few years back but it did take repeated exposure.

New Order is a band that I like bits and pieces of but own no albums.

I bought one of their records on an ilxor recommendation that it was as good as Disintegration or Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. I didn't agree at all.

Opeth.

Scott Walker takes himself so seriously when he sings?

Ulver. I listened to 3 late-period albums without liking any of them before admitting defeat. I like the early black metal stuff though.

here's a short list of shit i've tried my damnedest to like:

Burial - yuck. what do people see in this?
MIA - this takes terrible crap to another level
Radiohead's OK Computer - this seems largely mediocre with a couple exceptions. how is this one of the greatest albums ever?
Afghan Whigs - I feel like I should like this, but I don't
Camper van Beethoven - no thanks
Smiths - 90% of it could be great but is ruined by Morrissey
Galaxie 500 - i like a lot of stuff by other groups that sound like them, but this band is just mediocre
GBV - with a couple small exceptions, this does nothing for me but i feel like it should in theory
Tom Waits - generally sounds phony and annoying and I can't get into him
Tortoise - plodding and boring
The Fall - liked the A sides but cannot get into the albums
White Stripes - dull as shit
Tribe Called Quest - i like jazz, i like hip-hop, i like other groups that combine these things, but I have no use for this.

Scott Walker, yeah. but not his 60's stuff.
Radiohead
arcade fire etc

The Doors
Pink Floyd.

I think this means I'm a bad person

both of those took me a long time to get, but now I love them both!

They seem like they should work on paper, given the amount of similar stuff I listen to, and yet....

Too many attempts to count and lots of money spent trying:

John Fahey / most Takoma stuff in general
Ricardo Villalobos
Anything Charles Mingus did with a group larger than a quintet

but David Bowie owns this thread for me

okay the mingus thing is kinda crazy. i would say the bowie thing is crazy too but what the hell i don't care if you listen to bowie. maybe you'd like the man who sold the world though you like freak folk shit. or at least diamond dogs for heaven's sake how can anyone not love diamond dogs?

I like a lot of Bowie stuff - Low especially - but I just don't really get the slavish devotion. But it's all relative - I own more records by the people I listed above than most self-proclaimed 'fans' of these folks probably do.

Mingus...man, I love his playing. I love him in small groups. I even love his autobiography. But when it gets even remotely 'chamber,' I can't hang. My wife's a fanatic, so it's not a question of exposure.

richard strauss

Cheap Trick always seem like they should be right in my sweet spot but i've had trouble finding any affection for anything besides the big undeniable hits

see its just that mingus wrote so much amazing stuff for big(ger) bands. some of my favorite jazz. saw the mingus big band at fez many times years ago and even that could shake the friggin' rafters. i love the workshop/big band stuff. i kinda love it all though. even his solo piano album.

i seen some of the beast minds of my generation etc ect ah boollocks

you just need to listen to this whole album really loud on good speakers. on vinyl. stoned. and drunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQdq8bZOhmU

Wikipedia says United States originally ran about 8 hours and that most of what's not on the box set was chiefly visual.

I saw her on the Strange Angels tour. It was one of the most remarkable performances I've ever seen.