Lol, idk if I’m gonna sound pedantic but over the years, I’ve really broadened my musical taste. I love discovering really out there stuff, stuff I’ve never listened to before and I can vibe with. Something I can say “yeah, there was real thought put into this”.
And yet everything seems to fit neatly into a genre. I rarely, rarely find something that’s new and fresh. Most stuff you find you can compare it to something else you know already.
I think my biggest discovery in recent time was Polyphia, especially after their New Levels New Devils album (Listen to GOAT here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_gkpYORQLU). I’ve never seen anyone do something like this with a guitar, and to this day I haven’t found anyone that does something similar.
Gasoline (“A journey into abstract hip hop”) was also a good discovery thanks to Youtube (seriously making me consider switching to Youtube music and paying for it lol)
That’s what I’m interested in, yknow. I love all genres of music and sometimes I’ll put on some 2Pac, and other times I’ll listen to Dream Theater. Elton John has some great songs and actually works really well when you have a chill evening with friends (bonus points if you actually have the vinyls to put on).
But after a while I want to discover something new, something that makes me think in music, if that makes sense.
Youtube is actually really good at recommending music, and Spotify not so much. So when I typed “good music” on Spotify to try and find some playlists, the top ones were labelled as “no specific genre” but that’s a lie lol, apparently good music is pop, country and 90s alt rock.
That’s the ultimate genre. To regroup everything that cannot properly be categorized.
Edit: also I’m seriously looking for beautiful traditional African and Arabic music from such artists. Super difficult to find when your web experience is white-centric. Love Lili Twil but it’s not on Spotify.
i’m not a guitarist, but as far as new and interesting things being done on the guitar justin king and generally slap guitar is some pretty sick shit that is totally unlike anything i usually see. here are two of his most well-known songs, the first one is kind of hard not to listen to on repeat. whenever i look at his hands i’m so amazed lol
i can understand wanting to listen to things that are fresh, but what exactly do you mean by “think in music”? interested to investigate further
as far the normativity of music, well, a whole lot can be said about that, probably too much. on the very pedantic side, pentatonic scales, tonal centers and the concept of tonic is something i’m going to go out on a limb and say are present in most musical traditions. on the historical side, i think the advent of capitalism has produced enough surplus that much more musicians can record and produce music, leading to a much less normative musical landscape than 300, 100, or even 50 years ago.
but at the same time, perhaps as musical production further monopolizes it seeks to market harder and harder to already-existing audiences, further entrenching the definition of already-existing genres. this either calcifies the genres, or at least maybe makes them less likely to interact with each other.
tbh i’ve had the exact opposite problem of you it sounds like, where musical availability is so incredibly open and widespread that it becomes overwhelming to even choose what to listen to, and i never quite liked getting recommended works by an algorithm. i also felt like, in the gigantic market, musicians were explicitly trying to do whatever new or interesting thing they could do to get noticed, rather than just focusing on making good music.
the real question is then how to find music without an algorithm, and i think maybe historical study of genre might be interesting for you. nothing serious, can just be wikipedia: maybe by listening through the historical gambit of a favorite genre or even artist of yours, you can see how they developed into what they are, and get introduced to new artists along the way going either backwards or forwards in time. this is something i used to do a lot when i had more time to listen to music freely.
just some thoughts. loved the music you shared btw
edit: here’s a third justin king, man these are pretty cool