20 Classic Albums That Were Originally Panned By Critics

Music fans often put their faith in professional critics to decide which records are worth precious time on their private stereo or iPod. These influential word-slingers serve as tastemakers for an extremely wide audience, but sometimes their judgement can be a little questionable. Need proof? Just look at these 20 classic MONSTER records that critics originally ripped apart the first time around!

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Beatles, Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Simon & Garfunkel....Who would dare claim that these greats ever released anything but pure brilliance? We'll be the first to say that music criticism is extremely difficult, and often highly subjective. Plus, our own opinion on a piece of music can change drastically the over time. But it's still incredible that professional music scholars missed the pure awesomeness of these 20 albums. Not only that; the comments are pretty brutal...and pretty hilarious. Head up to the gallery above to see what some misguided music pros had to say about these future classics!

[Photo: Atlantic/Mercury/Columbia/Polydor/Apple Records]