Jersey boy here and I think that Springsteen is a hack.  Went to one concert of his back in the day and I will say they played their butts off.

I'm a firm believer (right or wrong) that most people like the music they heard in their formative years. And carry that forward into adulthood.  I still don't get people who don't listen to any music, I mean not even background crappy FM on a boombox.

My parents loved B'way shows and saw Sinatra a number of times at the Rustic Lodge when he was starting out.  So we had many, many B'way and Sinatra records.  That is what I cut my teeth on as a child. 

I was nine or ten when Beatlemania hit...and yes I still go back to them and find it has turned into a day of listening.

Way to much music to list that I dislike (or just don't get) so I won't bother.  Very rare for me to try and "get" some music because I think I should. 

Regards,

barts 

I never understood what the Deadheads were seeing or hearing, but I never took those heavy drugs .  50's jazz, while I respect, is boring to me.  My jazz started in the 70's with Weather Report and Tom Scott.

This is a great thread.

As for Bruce, his first seven or eight albums have a firm place heart that speaks to by blue collar upbringing and my journey into adulthood, but I understand why people don't connect with him.

Same with the Grateful Dead.  It took me quite a while to get around to them and dive in, but American Beauty and Workingman's Dead were the gateway, followed closely by the Barton Hall '77 bootleg and the live albums that followed American Beauty (Grateful Dead and Europe '72).  I still don't get their second and third albums, though, the ones they supposedly mixed while high on acid.

Dylan is another one of those who took me a while to connect with, and I will say that most of my friends don't understand him, either.

One album that's supposed to be great that I've tried (and failed) to appreciate is Radiohead's OK Computer.

At the top of the "I don't get this" heap would have to be Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica.  Safe as Milk is pretty darn good, but this follow-up is too much like that annoying guy in high school who is genuinely trying to be annoying (and succeeding).  There are many artists and critics I respect who revere this album, but I've tried and been left baffled.  I've been told you have to take it in pieces and let it grow on you, but anything that takes that much work to enjoy can be left by the side of the road for something my heart naturally connects with.

There’s no accounting for taste. One man’s wall hanging is the next they’s door mat.

Rammstein and Hüsker Dü aren’t my cup of barf where as others don’t get the seminal “Kind of Blue”

I will never ever ever ever understand Rush. I don't know what annoys me more, them or black metal.  what is the point of barfing into a microphone and recording it?