Musical maschocism - hit me with your rhythm stick

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   I've been amused reading other threads where folks are confessing listening to an album over and over, because the first time they didn't like what they heard, which was the case  the second time, however, by the 5th replay they were starting to like it. Sounds to me like self-imposed torture - although I hold my hand up and say I used to do it. But in part I've learned that critics/reviewers in the press and indeed my friends, don't have identical tastes to me. Also I've learnt there is a helluva lot of good music out waiting for me to hear it and be moved by it ,so why persist with something that leaves me cold even after the second play? However,  that is not to say my tastes have changed - for instance listening to Terry Reid around 1970, I wondered what the fuss was about, then a fresh excursion into his music last year and I found I had changed and so have lapped up most of his albums. 

So is this a case of some people feeling  compelled to get the 'point ' of an album because some pundit has written thus about it, even though on purchase the enquiring listener doesn't get it the first or second times at least? For instance, how goes Beefhearts Trout Mask Replica for those who purchased it on the back of "glowing recommendations" by pundits from John Peel down and upwards, stating it is THE classic rock album?

Edited by Dick Heath - October 23 2009 at 08:02