Have you ever noticed that when someone says, "Hey dude, you've got to check out this band, they roxx0r my s0xx0rz!!!1" and they put whomever their current favorite is in, and you think to yourself..."Meh, they're alright."
I can only think of one time that someone said, "Listen to these guys. You WILL like them." and I did. Okay, two times, but it was the same person. Modest Mouse and Cake.
It seems like it's more difficult to appreciate a band when someone has told me about them, as compared to if I have done some searching and perhaps stumbled across a band name in an article and decided to give them a listen for myself.
Granted, I once spent over $4000 in a summer on a cd collection that got ripped off a month later...I still have some urge to just pick up a cd of some band I've heard of once or twice somewhere, perhaps, and just buy it. I'd say about 2 out of every 5 cds I buy is a good cd (and yes I say buy cds...I do not support the downloading of songs).