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Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

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Ask HN: How to Become a Music Buff?

#1
Music has always been the least appealing art form for me out of the music-film-literature trio. Now I am looking to get more familiar with its history, evolution and simply discover good music.

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? And is that a right approach to becoming a music buff? If not, what is?

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

#2
Are there particular genres of music you'd like to learn about? There are lots of genres--classical, jazz, rock and roll, R&B, many flavors of "world", and more--each with its own history and evolution and literature, with influences between genres and lots and lots of cross-fertilization. I'd suggest starting with one that's a current favorite and branch out from there.

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

#6
I've been listening to the Music Exists podcast by Chuck Klosterman and Chris Ryan (unfortunately available only on Spotify). It's quite good and definitely introduced me to some new stuff.

While I feel like I've been doing a fairly good job of keeping up with music for the last decade, their knowledge of music, even from before they were born, is extensive and got me interested in exploring stuff that came out before I really cared about music.

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

#8
There are so many radio shows that explore the exponentially growing music-verse out there.

Bandcamp is a great place for music artists. Here a huge chunk of the profits go direct to the artists, so it's got every possible kind of music from nobody you've ever heard of.

They have a weekly radio show called The Bandcamp Weekly. It's super varied but they're friendly and they often do themes each week. Give it a go

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

#9
I suggest searching for documentaries on your favorite genre, whether it be Jazz, Rock, or Hip Hop. Jot down the artists/labels that pique your interest. Research those groups online.

In parallel, learning music is best when you're having fun. You should start with your favorite artists and dive deeper into their discography. Research the label they were on (fruitful if the label is independent). Look into their contemporaries. Who were those artists? Maybe they were associated with a larger movement/scene, and so on.

Finally, listen to more music! Everything (almost) is on Youtube or Spotify. Make it a point to listen to music everyday.

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

#10
What is it that makes it less interesting to you - what about graphical arts, sculpture, architecture?

Given your list I would suppose maybe you like things with a complex narrative, or as is the case for me - music with clever/complex lyrics.

So you could look for music that has a complex narrative, but obviously that helps you find music best suited for you and not helping you build an understanding of what is appealing about music or what makes for 'good' music artistically speaking.

Although maybe you can jump from music appealing to you to a broader feeling for music in general.

Is there some music or musicians you find more appealing than others?

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