Hi,
Never thought of many bands as something that "you need to get", because most of it was so far underneath the world of literature I was born around, and actually appreciated, when so many folks don't.
A lot of the "hippy" thing in the 60's I even said was stupid, like half the social scene and specially the flower power stuff that was mostly an excuse to get laid, and not have to feel guilty about it, as if the guiltless sex was more enjoyable than putting up with the relationship you are on! I find that "abusive" and I believe it was one of the things that corrupted it all, in the first place, and diluted the important stuff into the gutter and trash.
I already knew pop music was just pop music, and most of it was not worth the discussion. But I also SAW, that there were many bands that were trying hard to break out of that mold, and become serious musicians, and this is where the "progressive" music went for the most part, something that many folks think its indulgent, but you don't say that about Jon McLoughlin and Miles Davis, or Igor Stravinsky!
There are, for me, no bands that I didn't "get", because there was nothing to get. What am I gonna buy the Rolling Stones for? To stew my tongue on brown sugar? Plllllleeeezzzzz!
I have a high respect for some bands, like The Doors, Amon Duul 2, and Banco del Mutturo Soccorso, because in the end, what they did was far more literary, than it was "a song", but if you don't know the difference, it won't matter. You can't compare or do a paper on pulp crap fiction against a lot of The Doors lyrics, but you can certainly write a very good paper on some esoteric, mystic and psychedelic books, that a lot of those pieces of music that scare the living sheet of most folks, because of their words. Hell, all the best pieces of literature you EVER read had words that did the same thing to you, if not a story that threw you under the bus!
See the movie "The Trip" about Ken Kesey. It is a documentary, more than anything else, but towards the end, in the last 15 minutes, when he is evaluating the whole trip, there is a set of words that is really important ... that some folks will intentionally ignore, for whatever reason!
It says it all about "music", "literature", "art" that you, I, or others did not "get".
And worse, like Andy Warhol, sometimes there was nothing to get, and that's the part that makes it harder for you or I to figure things out. And this is where an unsuspecting "audience" gets taken advantage of! BADLY!