3 Ways to Expand Your Music Taste

Do you feel like you’re in a musical rut? Are you constantly listening to the same old songs on repeat? Are you cycling through all of your old playlists and you find yourself skipping more songs than you listen to? Don’t worry there's nothing wrong with your ears. This kind of musical fatigue is just a signal from your brain telling you that it is time to expand your musical horizons! But now we come to a new conundrum. You’ve been out of the loop for so long that when you try to engage with any new artist, you find yourself googling things like “goat meaning” instead of any of his or her actual albums. That’s completely normal. As we age and our responsibilities stack. It’s only natural for us to get a little behind on the latest and greatest that this new generation of artists has to offer. But fear not! Because we’ve created this indelible guide to all the ways you can discover your next favorite band!

1. See it Live

In this new digital age of streaming, the idea of actually going outside and seeing a band you like seems like something you’d only do for an artist you were already a huge fan of. However, that doesn't have to be the case! Going out with a group of friends and seeing an artist perform their work live is one of the best ways to get introduced to a new favorite. What’s so often easy to forget in the age of recorded music is that the recording is only a document of an even more special thing. That special thing is the performance. When an artist is giving a great performance one can feel the air freeze around them as they’re beckoned into the songwriter's world. To be in the presence of art being made in real-time, as you react with the crowd is nothing short of a transcendental experience. Now, of course, not everyone you see live will give you that goosebumps kind of feeling. But the amazing thing about live music is that even if you see one good show for every ten you’ve gone to. That one incredible night justifies all the rest!

2. Switch Your Streaming Service

An often under-reported phenomenon of modern music consumption is the ubiquity (and sometimes unoriginality) of playlists. Most of the playlists featured on a streaming service are made by the same group of people who make decisions for each song by committee. Now that can be a positive because it’s always an advantage to have multiple perspectives on what songs are right for certain playlists. That being said, however, this can also become a negative very quickly. You see, if one group is curating all of a streaming service's playlists then eventually you’re going to start to notice patterns in that group's taste. If you find yourself noticing these patterns in your playlists it might be time to switch over to a new service. The amazing thing about 2023 is that there is no shortage of streaming services to choose from. If you don’t like one service than it is easier than ever to go shopping until you find one that you do like!

3. Put on a Podcast

One of the greatest parts of living in the digital age hands down has to be the fact that we can now archive and enjoy many forms of entertainment that might've been lost to time otherwise. One of the most interesting ways that we archive music is not just through the songs themselves but the artist’s stories as well. That’s what makes things like music podcasts and documentaries so valuable if you’re looking to expand your palette. Have you ever listened to a song, and understood the lyrics but didn’t fully grasp the meaning behind them? Now it’s easier than ever to get the full extent of the artist’s intent through these podcasts and documentaries. The people behind these pieces of media put countless hours into turning the historical contexts of some of the greatest works of our generation into understandable and digestible narratives. These narratives tell us a story that gives full depth to the songs and albums we already love, as well as some we will love in the future!

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a new artist or song to listen to it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. There are thousands of songs that are released every day. So this begs the question, how do we sift through it all? Well, there’s no one answer to this except to keep your eyes and ears open for something new that may pass your way. And if you need a little direction, just take a look at this article and consider something that may just broaden your horizons!