All of the fan stuff is actually the reason I initially started watching MLP. I was looking through random songs I'd found on youtube, then strolled along dA looking through some of the stuff until finally I said "Heck with it, I might as well see what all this hype is about." I watched the first episode and I thought it was alright, then it grew on me and I had to keep watching, and that's how I watched the entirety of the episodes up to Season 2 Episode 19 in 3 days
And, to keep myself mostly on topic: AcousticBrony's renditions of the mane 6's them songs are just so much win, I recommend everyone have a good listen if you haven't already ^^