Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#81

Post by grawprog » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 2:59 PM UTC

I usually start with music I like, then work back and outwards from there. I'll find similar artists, artists from that time period, previous artists that influenced them, then go check them out and repeat the process.

Once I find some music I like, I start looking into the details of that genre. How it's constructed where it came from, what genres influenced it.

It's fascinating when you start getting into it.

But, if you don't enjoy it, I'm not sure how well it's going to go. It's hard to be a fan of something you don't really like that much.

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#82

Post by lloeki » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:06 PM UTC

ben7799 wrote: post #54

Start playing an instrument and get some lessons. IME there is nothing that makes you appreciate music more than learning how it works at a really intimate & deep level. You have a super deep connection with the music when you're playing it instead of just being a listener. I know for me there are whole genre's of music I couldn't appreciate till I started learning to play pieces in those genres. You start to see the…

Another similar angle: music theory. And with music theory, music history often comes as a side effect.

Those are a good start:

https://tobyrush.com/theorypages/index.html

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#83

Post by screye » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:06 PM UTC

I approach it the way I would approach a reinforcement learning problem.

1st exploration -> then exploitation.

Start by randomly listening to the most popular stuff from random genres, until something somewhat sticks.

Then reduce your search range to the type of music you liked, go to the "enthusiasts forum" for that genre (usually a subreddit) and find the 'true gems'.

Then do periodic MCMC random walk, where I go from my current genre to the most likely adjacent genres to branch out.

For the music I listen to, the chronological journey goes as follows: (with each genre capturing a couple of decades)

Jazz, Blues -> Rock -> psychedelic rock, metal -> prog rock , Frank Zappa, death metal-> prog metal -> experimental prog

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#84

Post by grenoire » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:09 PM UTC

spanhandler wrote: post #67

grenoire wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for RYM. It's one of the greatest curated resources with a ton of ratings and metadata. I think a good start for you might just be going to RYM Charts ( https://rateyourmusic.com/customchart ) and selecting a genre. You'll find the top rated albums, and can further filter by the decade. That's my #1 music discovery source.

That's a damn fine looking list. I cannot understand why people like King Crimson no matter how hard I try, let alone well enough for In the Court... to place at #5, but otherwise, looks great to me. For anyone starting from nearly-scratch with popular music I'd recommend a chronological approach to lists like this. Don't start at #1—cut the list off with however many you're willing to commit to listening to, then or…

An API has been on their to-do list for quite a long time, not sure how the progress is on that. It would be absolutely great, bringing opportunities to make automated curators and whatnot.

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#85

Post by deltron3030 » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:09 PM UTC

>If not, what is?

Follow your current taste, and go backwards from there. What are the influences of the musicians and groups you like? What are the influences of their influences? This is how most people I know, including myself discovered music.

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#86

Post by arrakeen » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:15 PM UTC

sailfast wrote: post #58

ben7799 wrote: post #54

Start playing an instrument and get some lessons. IME there is nothing that makes you appreciate music more than learning how it works at a really intimate & deep level. You have a super deep connection with the music when you're playing it instead of just being a listener. I know for me there are whole genre's of music I couldn't appreciate till I started learning to play pieces in those genres. You start to see the…

I agree 100% with this. While you can appreciate music it's hard to be a "buff" unless you can try to understand the effort or absolute virtuosity that goes into playing a really complex piece. Knowing that you like the way music sounds is great, but understanding _why_ a particular harmonic shift / change is unexpected, novel, or unique is even better. That said, understanding that sort of theory takes a lot of work…

+1 to bernstein-- his young people's concerts are a very approachable introduction to classical music

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#87

Post by chrisandchips » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:16 PM UTC

>Is there a music buff's roadmap, some sort of a chronologically-ordered list of the best and most influential albums that gives a coherent picture of how music evolved over the 20th century?

This is a huge undertaking as a LOT of music has been made during that time period, covering a huge amount of genres and cultural movements. I think you're going to get overwhelmed.

Is there a reason why youre more concerned with the history of the medium than current releases ? We are living in one of the best times in history to access new music. It can be as simple as finding a reviewer/website you like and following their recommendations.

With that said, there are a lot of amazing albums that have been released in the past, this goes without saying. But like other people have mentioned, the best approach is an organic one. Find compilations of famous albums or singles, listen to them, focus on what you like, read up about the genre and find other recommendations. I find youtube is especially good at taking you down rabbit holes.

If you dont know where to start, you can look at 4chans music boards "essential" albums [1] and see what appeals to you. Never thought I would recommend something from that site but it actually did expose me to a lot of new stuff 10 years ago. Other popular sites like Pitchfork and Sputnik music tend to write articles about influential albums or genres.

If you are interested in the "why" behind some of the history, David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads) wrote a phenomenal book on the subject called "How Music Works", that explains a lot of important shifts in the mediums history.

[1] https://4chanmusic.fandom.com/wiki/Essential_Charts

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#88

Post by Yhippa » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:20 PM UTC

Honestly I would focus on figuring out a way to get access to a large body of music where you can arbitrarily access almost everything. So a Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. If you have any music you like those services will likely have suggestions and you can go down the rabbit hole.

Alternatively, search Google for "top [insert genre here] songs".

The most important thing IMO is to start listening to as many different things as you can and dive deeper from there. Then you can get all academic on your preferred genres like everybody mentions here.

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#89

Post by 3131s » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:20 PM UTC

jemsouse wrote: post #73

Pandabob wrote: post #65

The 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.

For anyone, OP included, who hasn't heard Django Reinhardt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QATIHWbN-sM

Re: Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#90

Post by adamors » Wed, Aug 19, 2020, 3:22 PM UTC

mike_mg wrote: post #27

For modern music, the definitive resource (in my experience) is RYM: https://rateyourmusic.com/ . It has several advantages: 1) extremely broad coverage - it is almost "list of all music ever" 2) the community has rated all of this music and "has good taste" 3) nice sorting and search capability How to use: a) For overview of most important albums which is at the same time a reasonable overview of modern music histor…

Seconding RYM, imo the best place to find music worth listening if you don't have time to go through everything. The community is also very good in curating lists for various tastes.