Perhaps a guilty pleasure....

@pmm - they may not have had hit singles, but Rennaissance, with their great singer Annie Haslam, were pretty well-known among people who liked prog-rock and FM rock radio (back when it was independent).... 

In my younger days, I did take the road less traveled compared to my friends... they were Elvis I was Del Shannon, they were the Beatles and I was the Dave Clark Five.  Even though I became a bit more esoteric with Jazz and Classical....my friends couldn't understand my liking Anne Murray. 

Jim:

OT, but wanted to share this link to The Daily Iowan Archives (don't know if you have it).

Been having fun cruising through my I.C. years and also through the time period my older sister was there as I used bus over for visits.

DeKay

Music is food for the soul.

And like food it comes in endless varieties.

Personally, my music collection includes everything from Tool to Mariah Carey.

Vive la difference!

Musical taste is very personal. There is no hierarchy of "right"- you'll see people deeply into classical that can argue endlessly over the best recorded performance of something that is a staple of classical repertoire. Subjective.

Ditto, pop/rock. I can go from Alice Cooper's Love it to Death (which I regarded as a juvenile "shock rock" act when it was released but is a killer guitar band album) to completely obscure garage band/lo-fi psycho-billy. One of the records I used to use as a "demo" (got out of that habit mostly) was a Crystal Gayle comp with "Brown Eyes Blue." Radio schlock maybe, but great fun. 

I thought the jazz peeps were snobs b/c I didn't really know much. The more I dug in, the more I realized it's just a process of exploration. Some of it is pretty out there and with time, my ears became more attuned to what I would have considered cacophony. 

I'd say the biggest "mistake" audiophiles make (and I certainly fell into this trap) was to focus on sonics as a determining criterion. Yes, I'd much rather have a good sounding record than a bad sounding one, sonically, but sometimes you don't have much choice. 

Beyond that, there is so much music out there, old and new, that nobody knows everything. Who is the judge? You. 

There is a bit of esoteric snobism on this site

I don`t think so. A lot of Led Zep, Stones, and Beatle fans here.

Like many fine musical groups, Heart had one, or two, good albums. They were well ahead of the times, then: years ahead of Pat Benetar and Joan Jett.

I loved the music of the LRB. I believe they were regarded as elevator music (soft rock), which was not as popular as the music mentioned above.

Esoteric? here`s one, during the heydays of Heart and LRB: Renaissance. A little known group with great music. 

I always enjoyed Heart. Saw them once at Winterland in San Francisco opening for Sammy Hagar or something; they had an after-show party at a nearby hotel that I went to and had a nice chat with Ann Wilson. I told her that the cover of 'Dreamboat Annie' sure didn't give much of a clue to what their music was like - I thought they were a folk duo from looking at that! She said they hated that cover, too, but were stuck with it by the record company. 

If I had to make a list of bands that I just couldn't stand, LRB would be in the top 5, but that's just me - if you enjoy them, great! 

Ignore the disparaging comments of others.  Enjoy your music

There is a bit of esoteric snobism on this site and since Heart and LRB were successful and played on commercial radio they may not be esoteric enough to be appreciated.   That said, Jazz and femile vocals make up most of my collection and interest.....but i am not limited to them.

I have no idea why you would call that a guilty pleasure.

I saw Heart  a number of times. At least twice playing bars here in Vancouver and once or twice when they were at their peak. Great hits and two dynamite voices.

Little River Band I saw as the backup band to Nils Lofgren.

LRB absolutely stole the show. Fabulous songs and soaring harmonies that never missed a note.