Off the top of my head:
Rush.
Steely Dan.
Springsteen.
The Eagles.
Cat Steven.
In some cases, I know it might hit me some day - like Bowie did a few years back. I used to appreciate what he did but I just didn't get it. Then one day for no apparent reason, it all changed. Rush probably is on that list - I heard a few songs after a couple of Guinness the other night and I actually enjoyed it.
In other cases, I know it's not likely to change - I don't like Bruce Springsteen. I just don't. Which says nothing against him.
About KISS...
Obviously, I dug them as a kid. Then as I grew up, I started seeing how silly it all seemed and put them down for years. I thought they were ridiculous (though I always recognized that Stanley and Simmons were, at times, decent songwriters.)
Until recently, when I started realizing that maybe my reasons to put them down were the result of a biased perspective - we tend to believe that a band is about 4 or 5 relatively guys playing music but that's really just the surface.
For anyone familiar with KISS' biography, the amount of hard work and dedication those guys put into it is phenomenal. I don't think they could have made it just because of their look - it's their professionalism and their dedication - and years of hard work.
I think they've written some very decent pop rock songs and I'm guessing that it's often people who end up putting so much focus on the make up and the costumes that they discard the musical side. They couldn't have lasted 40 years without a couple of good songs, you know...
I know it's often not well seen for artists to have a business-oriented mind - especially back then. We expect them to be the sloppy type, dreamers and misfits. So a guy like Gene Simmons who's never had a drink in his life and is a business man at heart makes for an odd rock star. But then again, it's called show business...
My perspective changed when I got with my wife. Not only is she a phenomenal singer (and a classically trained one, at that) with tremendous stage presence and charisma, but she has a gift for memorizing lyrics in a blink of an eye, she is an accomplished dancer, and equally proficient with related skills, like acting, stage make up and such. I've learned to appreciate the different layers that make a genuinely great singer/performer, as opposed to just a person who sings.
I guess what I mean is that people with musical talent are a dime a dozen - at least in pop music. I've come to appreciate people with as much related skills. And dedication.