I'll start with my favorite artist evah, someone who's sure to generate discussion (by which I mean disagreement and irrationality).
Björk
I avoided this girl for a long time, for all the common reasons: her songs seemed weird and counterintuitive, her albums covers were off-putting, and she had a reputation for being totally insane. Fortunately for me, she also had a reputation for quality music videos, and after I had watched a few I was intrigued.
(this is one from each of her first three albums to show you some variety. or just pick one randomly if you want.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOepheinkCM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Z1MpcyqQU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5nNfbTS6N4
So this got me interested and I went through her albums chronologically. And it doesn't feel like I'm exaggerating when I say it was the music I had been waiting for my entire life. I was amazed to see that songs from 15 years ago could sound like they were from the future. Then of course, as happens with all albums, I started to focus less on the immediately catchy songs and more on the slower or stranger ones. Even better.
I realize I'm just saying this all without saying why, so I'll try to explain:
- Björk's voice is unique. And I'm talking old school 'unique,' one-of-a-kind, no adverbs needed. In ability and in performance.
- but it's not just the voice. She acts as writer and producer as well, and though you can throw most of her songs under the category of 'electronica' or 'alternative,' they're always one step ahead or above or sideways of everything else on this planet.
- most importantly, her music is unusual but it's not weird for the sake of being weird. Once you get into it, you can see moments of beauty and intelligence; you can see that it all makes perfect sense, just a different kind of sense than standard pop or electronic or 'alternative' music.
For the unitiated listener, I wouldn't recommend any special starting point besides just going through her albums chronologically, starting with Debut. It's a great introduction, and Post, Homogenic, and Vespertine are the real meat; each in a different style, and your favorite will be one of these. The later stuff is good, but not totally necessary.
I could write a lot more, and I will if anyone is interested, but this seems like enough for one post...
edit: whoa, can't let this go without a live performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVbR3g3Y7BA