How do I get into music???

The main that stopped me from getting into music when I was younger was that I had absolutely no idea where to look for new artists/bands. I used to hate pop music and I hated listening to all the same 80s music over and over. Even with the internet, I couldn't find any music that I really enjoyed on Youtube. I didn't know the names of any artists and I didn't know the names of any genres. So for the most part, I grew up listening to video-game OSTs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I always wanted to explore music but never had an enterance point.

Why am I telling you this? Well I'm mainly making this section for people who were in a similar situation like me. Music is great! It's fun to explore and hear all the different sounds people can come up with and play! So if you're trying to get into music, here's a guide on how to get into music and where to find music.

Where do I start?

Generally I would recommend checking out what's considered the best of every genre. Some people in the music community consider this as "genre touring." Genre touring is essentially skimming through genres at a very surface level, not really looking into the genres beyond the albums that stand as pivitol and iconic for said genre (A couple examples would be In The Court of the Crimson King for prog rock, and American Football's self-titled album for mid-west emo). Often it's seen as a superficial look at music and makes you look like you're not really that interested in music, you just want to hear what you're told is the best and that's about it. Personally, I don't see much of a problem with it as other people do, but regardless it's a good way to gain a sense of what your taste is.

After you've given a few albums a listen through, you should pick which ones you liked the most and then dive deeper into the genres they're a part of (I'll give a brief list of albums I'd recommend checking out for most genres). This is how I found a lot of the albums that I really love, and quickly got me listening to stuff I would have never expected I would have been into.

List of albums I'd recommend to check out

Keep in mind, this is for people who are brand new to exploring music. If this looks familiar to you at all, and you're upset that there's no super obscure albums then I don't know what to tell you, it's not made for you. Be patient though, I'll help you gather some resources to find stuff on your own in a bit.

Rock

Rock
  1. King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King [Prog Rock]
  2. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico [Art Rock]
  3. Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album) [Alternative Rock]
  4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennae to Heaven [Post-Rock]
  5. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless [Shoegaze]

Rap

Rap
  1. Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) [Boom Bap]
  2. De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising [Conscious Hip Hop]
  3. Madvillain - Madvillainy [Abstract Hip Hop]
  4. Nas - Illmatic [Boom Bap]
  5. Death Grips - The Money Store [Glitch/Industrial Hip Hop]

Electronic

Bleep
  1. Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children [IDM]
  2. Justice - Cross [Electro House]
  3. Burial - Untrue [Dubstep]
  4. Meat Beat Manifesto - 99% [Breakbeat]
  5. Atari Teenage Riot - Delete Yourself [Digital Hardcore]

Where do I go to find new stuff???

This is the big question that I'm sure everyone is wondering. Where do I go to find new music? Sure you can get recommendations from Spotify or Youtube, but that's probably not what you're looking for. Getting auto-generated recommendations isn't the same thing as searching for the music yourself, which often times can feel a bit more gratifying than having some computer code dictate what you listen to and when you listen to it. Here's a few websites that I've been using to search for new albums.

Sonemic

Gnoosic

Music-Map

/mu/ charts