Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
71–80 of 133 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#72If you are interested in classical music - here's a couple of good books on the 20th century. "The Rest Is Noise" by Alex Ross "Modern Times, Modern Places" by Peter Conrad The first is just music, the second one covers art and culture in general but has a lot about music. "America's Musical Life: A History" by Richard Crawford is also great, focusing on America obviously and covers more than just the 20th century.
I second The Rest Is Noise recommendation. I really enjoyed it. Make sure to check out the companion website, which has tons of samples of the music he discusses.
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#73The book Range, by David Epstein has a pretty interesting chapter on music and the history of improvisation. I knew that Django, the Python web dev framework, had been named after some obscure dutch musician. But after reading the book I had a wholly new appreciation for Django Reinhardt [1], the artist. Man was truly a great jazz improviser, whose legacy now lives on in the framework. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org…
Django Reinhardt is neither an obscure musician nor Dutch... It's the father of a style called Jazz Manouche. Maybe is not well known in the US.
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#74If you like literature then focus on lyrics. The country genre, folk and rap can be appreciated from a literary angle if you can’t hear well or recognize intervals or anything. If you like movies, try on some musicals and then wade into opera. The lines between the thee areas op mentions are somewhat artificial. You can spend more time reading about music than listening, and that still counts as enjoying music.
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#75idk, but here's Adam Neely explaining lo-fi -- the channel in general might be of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4KIwA8O9LU
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#76Knowing what music you like would be helpful in a discussion like this. (Context: I've spent a lot of my career working in music or music software.) It's difficult to expand your musical horizons just by shooting in the dark at things you should like. But often you can build bridges to new things by exploring their musical ancestors and descendants. Like classic rock? Start listening to some blues, then go from there…
For people looking for an “in” into classical music I tend to recommend Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9.
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#77idk, but here's Adam Neely explaining lo-fi -- the channel in general might be of interest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4KIwA8O9LU
Adam Neely is fantastic at explaining musical concepts. Good recommendation.
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#78You might be going about this in the wrong order. Instead of trying to become an expert in an art form that does not currently appeal to me, wouldn't it make more sense to first find instances of this art form that DO appeal to you, and then branch out from that? So the order I would suggest is: 1. Find music you like particularly 2. Seek out music related to #1 3. Start thinking about why you like what you like So,…
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Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#79start with mid-period beatles, probably sgt. peppers. they are without a doubt the greatest band of all time and it's my contention that people who say they don't like them haven't listened to them enough or just don't like music.
if you are interested in harder edge lineage of rock music, then start with the american beatles-- the velvet underground. the 8 minute version of 'what goes on' on live 1969 is the single greatest rock recording of all time and will be studied by scholars for as long as the recordings remain. a good starting point would be the self titled album or the one with nico
also listen to ALBUMS over and over, not playlists-- in general, that's how that artists intended for their work to be consumed
Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?
#80Nobody mentioning "the internet's busiest music nerd"/ The needle drop?
He has a very active youtube channel talking about various records. He usually talks about new releases, but here is a playlist of his reviews for albums considered "classics" https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP4CSgl7K7or_7JI7RsEs...