I have terrible taste in music

Greeper

I basically listen to the same few albums over and over obsessively on a semi-rotating schedule. I don't really know how or understand how people's tastes in music naturally open them up to new stuff. I basically like anything if I listen to it enough and so my genres are all over the place.

How do I expand my tastes into new stuff and figure out if I like it quickly? (It's not like I'm going to like any album the first time I listen to it)

knitdan

Do you ever watch TV or movies and hear a song you like? That's how I discover a lot of my music. Or I'll go on ITunes (or Amazon), find something I know I like, and look at the "people who bought this also bought X" page.

knitdan

Most music on iTunes lets you listen to a sample of the track to figure out if you like it or not.

WiseManTobes

Greeper wrote: »

I basically listen to the same few albums over and over obsessively on a semi-rotating schedule. I don't really know how or understand how people's tastes in music naturally open them up to new stuff. I basically like anything if I listen to it enough and so my genres are all over the place.

How do I expand my tastes into new stuff and figure out if I like it quickly? (It's not like I'm going to like any album the first time I listen to it)

I swear I used to be able to do this in the caveman days of the pre-internets, but I've become the same now, who knew having to trudge thru all those songs on the radio to get to the good one was actually helpful in building other artists into my brain.

Lately I'm like Knitdan, mostly from shows and movies, with a bit of the listen to it enough and like it added in because I usually won't notice a song until the 3-4th viewing of the show/movie.

I have started trying to use the radio ( sometimes local, sometimes sirius) when I'm able to in places I would normally just toss the mp3 player on, and I've slowly been picking up on some new songs.

Dhalphir

Grooveshark's Radio mode is great. You put on a song (or series of songs) you like and tick Radio mode. Once it finishes playing your song/s, it will start randomly feeding you songs that it thinks you will like based on the songs you started with. Then you can smileyface or frownyface each song to tell it whether you liked it. It's decent at first, but it gets pretty smart once you smiley/frown half a dozen songs or so.

LoveIsUnity

Come post in the metal thread with us in D&D. We'll get you sorted out.

wrong_button

Podcasts aren't bad, depending on your musical bend. I like NPR's All Songs Considered (more of an alt/indy bend), and both Twang Nation and Freight Train Boogie (more alt. country/americana/roots) but there's lots of others that sort of walk through a bunch of stuff - hit up whatever your site of choice is and look for podcasts in whatever genre trips your trigger. I listen to podcasts/shows at work and chase down tracks/albums/discographies on the weekends or when I get home.

Spotify has a big selection of curated playlists - worth tracking through a handful. Some are based on style, time, artists, or curated by someone (debatably) interesting. Might be an ok place to start too.

TychoCelchuuu

Listen to KEXP all day every day. Or at least just their song of the day.

bsjezz

get a turntable! there's such a great history of music pressed to vinyl - most of which never gets listened to anymore - that is ripe for exploration. with a cheap record player you can hit up thrift shops and record stores for bargains - when the stake invested is a buck or less, you'll never think twice about marking one off as a failed experiment. but the ones you love you'll love even more; and it'll create branches to travel down on your next expedition!

Creagan

You can look for what influenced and what was influenced by what you listen to now. (A basic example would be if you like John Lennon, to try music by Buddy Holly and John's kid, Julian.)

You can track musicians who worked on things you enjoy and see if they did anything else. (Say you like the music in Riverdance. Bill Whelan put out at least one similar sounding album, and Micheal Flatly has an album of flute music.)

You can also use the internet to research what kind of music was being put out within the same genre as the album you enjoy during the time the album was released, and see if any of that music appeals to you. (Say you really like the Singing in the Rain soundtrack. Back then, studios were producing musical movies all the time, and both the male leads, Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor were in many of those productions.)

Or you could look at my suggestions, and decide I have bizarre tastes in music and shouldn't be allowed to give advice to others.

LostNinja

knitdan wrote: »

Do you ever watch TV or movies and hear a song you like? That's how I discover a lot of my music. Or I'll go on ITunes (or Amazon), find something I know I like, and look at the "people who bought this also bought X" page.

This as well as just making stations using artists that I know I like on internet radio like pandora or spotify is how I discover new music for myself.

bsjezz

also remember that there are thousands of streaming radio stations all around the world - nothing beats an actual DJ. i listen to wwoz for jazz, soul, and everything funky; triple j is a local station that is hyper-conscious of supporting new music. whatever you choose, when your set's got a host you absorb a lot more information about the music and its context. that's something you don't get even with the smartest generated playlists.

flowerhoney

I used to listen to pandora radio all the time when I lived in the US, now that I live in the UK I stream hype machine (http://hypem.com/popular) pretty much every day. Its pretty heavily skewed towards electronic/remixes but I've discovered a lot of new stuff that I really like through their popular playlist.

Also an easy way to expand your tastes is to ask your friends what they're listening to! This is how I've discovered countless artists, my friends and partners have always shared their music with me. It doesn't just give you new stuff to listen too, but more things to bond over. And you have someone to go with you to a show when said band is in town

Iruka

I've often used PA to help me find bands, because sometimes people see a thread in your music tastes that the algorithms just cant catch onto. For me, whats best is to go at looking for new music really hard, and then when I find a few new albums hang back and obsess over them until I want to buy all their stuff/go to a show. Personally, I cant just sit back and let the radio pick for me, so I will click around spotify like a spazz and see if a hook on a song strikes me and slows me down.

I have no idea if our tastes line up, but here's all the threads I'vemade on music:

My unsuccessful d&d thread http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/165515/music-pen-pals-spotify-last-fm-groove-shark-mog-music-sharing-that-s-legal-and-fun/p1

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/136435/music-that-says-i-m-so-fucking-great#latest
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/140353/recommend-me-some-rock-with-a-country-twang#latest
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/82446/recommend-me-upbeat-punk-alt-indie#latest

The nice thing about having these threads is that I will still go back and look at what people recommended to me, because there is a bunch of stuff that I like listened to one song, loved, and never went back, or hated at the time but like now. My core favorite bands/tastes haven't changed much, so a lot of the suggestions stay relevant.