When ‘Back on the Chain Gang’ came on the radio the other day, my wife said “I hate The Pretenders but I love this song.”
I found that a funny and bizarre statement but it made perfect sense coming from her. She forms strong opinions quickly and a little contradiction like that is hardly enough to derail her. I’m a lot more tortured when it comes to matters of taste, so if I found myself loving a song by a group I hated, I’d start to question whether I could really hate the group, or really love the song. Maybe I’m the bizarre one.
Then I started wondering if there are any songs about which I could say the same thing.
The first one to jump to mind was ‘Desperado’ by The Eagles. I dislike The Eagles… not sure if I’d go so far as to say I hate them, but I’m definitely not a fan. But ‘Desperado’ is a special song. And it actually took a version of the song performed by a little girl in the movie In America for me to realize that (wish I could find that clip on YouTube).
I dislike Madonna as a person, but I like many of her earlier songs. I don’t like Green Day but I like their concept album American Idiot quite a bit. Jack Johnson generally bores me but I love his Curious George song. That’s all I’m coming up with right now.
How about you? Do you love anything by somebody you hate?
Meet Me In Montauk 
I’m curiious how many other songs Alex knows of the Pretenders other than this one to form such a hatred. I always thought Brass in Pocket was a cool song. What are the hated songs by Alex?
As for your question, I’m not sure if I can say that I truly “hate” an artist if he./she/they have done at least one song that I either love or really like. One group that comes to mind, however, is the Doors–i generally don’t care for their sound, but I like People are Strange (but don’t really love it). I too am not a Madonna fan, but like a few of her songs, including Live to Tell, Beautiful Stranger and Papa Don’t Preach. I’m not a fan of Michael Jackson, but still like a number of his songs. That’s all I got for now:)
I agree with some of the ones you mentioned.
I would add Queen to my list. I have no taste for their music, but I love Under Pressure.
Dana makes an interesting point. How familiar are we with certain groups or singers?
If I was only familiar with what the radio plays, I would probably dislike a lot of singers that I actually like. Someone like Bruce Springsteen or the Clash are good examples.
I don’t like Glory Days, Hungry Heart, Should I Stay Or Should I Go etc. If I was only familiar with those types of songs, I wouldn’t like either artist.
I posed your question to Alex and she said it’s not any particular songs but rather Chrissie Hynde’s voice that she hates. But she can get past it enough to enjoy ‘Back on the Chain Gang.’
Are you not a fan of Michael Jackson because he’s such a freak? Or because you don’t like many of his songs, despite liking a few? I think I fall into the former category, because I am definitely turned off by him but I like most of his music.
Well, Hynde’s definitely has a unique voice. It just happens to be one I kinda like.
As for Jackson, I certainlty don’t hate is music, and, truth be told, of what I have heard of him (which I assume is a lot), I probably like more than I don’t like. So, perhaps he isn’t a great example–except for the fact that he is such a damn freak!
I hate The Who but I like You Better You Bet.
Hmmm…. what musician/groups do I hate? I usually tune out so much that I feel far more apathy than hatred regarding the music, though I might form a stronger opinion about the personality of the musician.
Well, the first one that popped into my mind was “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk,” as it’s the one song I consistently like by Rufus Wainwright, despite the fact that I generally can’t stand his voice.
That’s all I got at the moment. Any others are probably the odd pop song that is catchy and gets you singing along though you’d likely never want to own the album or devote blog space to voicing appreciation of said song, but, at the moment, I can’t think of one that satisfies this nebulous description I’m forming.
So I’ll stick with Wainwright 🙂