What artist/actors have you recently come to respect?

As in, did you think they were the most talentless hack the first time you saw them, but now you' re actually impressed?

I gotta go with Christina Aguilera. When she first came out it was obvious they were making her out to be just another Britney. She had the generic teeny-pop beats. The generic teeny-pop look. The generic teeny-pop everything. The only difference being she was never as popular as Britney.

...but who' s still here? Exactly. Britney has dried up and all but faded from the mainstream. But Christina didn' t sell herself out. If you' ve heard her new songs, she' s nothing like how she original appeared. She finally has her own style, look, even her singing is different (and vastly better). I actually like her song " Fighter."

I think everyone was pretty positive Christina was gonna fade way before Britney did. But it' s cool to see artist overcome the odds and come into their own like she has.

For me, it was James Taylor, oddly enough.

When I was younger, I always used to think that he was kinda lame, and couldn' t understand why he was my mother' s favorite artist of all time. But after listening to a lot of his songs just a little while ago, I realized that he' s maybe the most talented singer/songwriter in the past half-century, and I really haven' t heard a bad song from him.

Everyone was surprised when his album " Hourglass" won the Grammy for Album of the Year a few years ago, but JT-faithfuls weren' t...now I think I know why. Everyone seems to really love his concerts too. Younger people won' t like him because he' s just not in the " teenager vein" (which is a GOOD thing), but I think a lot of people underestimate his talent and popularity.

Kikizo Staff Writer

I really respect infected mushroom.

Every psytrance album they release, they always seem to do something different.