Do you recall how much your high school mixtape meant to you? I’m certain you remember that party anthem that blasted through the dorms at frosh week. What about that song you played 40 times on the summer road trip up to Montreal. 
Those songs became the soundtrack of some of the most formative years of your life. They had a bigger impact than what you might think.
“Researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we’ll hear as adults — a connection that doesn’t weaken as we age,” Via Mark Joseph Stern
In certain parts of our lives, most people go through an addiction to new music phase. Sometimes its that friend that goes to every major music festival, and gives you the rundown on whats hot or not. Occasionally it was a new band that slipped into an online playlist that caught your ear. What about that opening band that you thought played even better than the headliner?
Most people have a good sized library of their favourite musicians. Have you ever put much thought into where that all comes from? Lets take a look at how we find new music, and how thats been changing!
Perhaps, but we’re drowning in choices. Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music (which launched last month) each teem with tens of millions of songs. Music festivals, such as The Denver Post’s Underground Music Showcase, July 23-26 on South Broadway, offer more live music than most of us could absorb over the course of a year (in this case, more than 400 acts at nearly 20 venues).
While music discovery used to be about digging through crates at a record store or watching MTV, now it feels like a process of elimination. We worship the filters, whether they’re trusted voices, smart software or festival curators. Via – HeyReverb
As much as it would be easy to jump on the band wagon of blaming these big corporate music companies for pushing their choice of new music down our throats… is it really that terrible?
We could talk about the illusion of free choice, and handing over our music preferences to an elaborate corporate agenda, but I don’t think this is the case.
Has there ever been a time in music where we have had so much exposure to new music? This is a good thing! Streaming a new playlist from one of these big companies is going to show you new music!
You can have a plethora of new afro cuban music delivered to you on a silver platter from songza. Say one these band peaks your interested, so you find their latest live show on youtube. You see some related bands in the sidebar, and suddenly you have 4 new bands that you love that all started with a playlist on Songza.
Defining “genuine” music discovery is hard. Does it mean hearing something we haven’t heard before? If that’s the case, most of us discover new music every day, from piped-in tunes in retail settings to ads on TV shows. Does it mean emotionally connecting with something? Or does it mean challenging ourselves with new genres, voices and points of view?
Ideally, all of these things. Certainly, there’s nothing fun about forcing ourselves to listen to songs we don’t like. It’s easy to feel like we’re betraying our tastes or compromising. But there’s also nothing inherently scary about realizing we like something we’ve never heard before. Via – HeyReverb
Take the plunge. Show up early enough to the next concert to actually hear the opening band… You might like them! Take a dive into the depths of Apple Music’s many playlists, and see what you like. Find out what the biggest musical influences of your favourite bands are and give them a listen! Check out what the top played Songs are on Pandora and see if they tickle your fancy!
Finding new music has never been easier. Once you find something new and exciting, share it with your friends. It is easy to be the Indiana Jones of the modern music age, and everyone will want your own personal playlist to play at their next summer party. The more music you listen to, the more your taste evolves and matures.
Often our drive for new music diminishes as we get older, but it doesn’t have to be the case. Never stop learning, never stop exploring. New music will educate you and refresh your mind.
As your story changes, so should its soundtrack. Via – HeyReverb
Listening to Wrath of Khan soundtrack on Pandora. Man oh man I love Star Trek more than anything in pop culture.
— Satu Runa (@SatuRuna) August 10, 2015
Top 10 Free Ways To Discover New Music Online
Bored with your music and want to discover some new bands or singers? There are two main ways you can do that online. You can use services which create music maps, allowing you to explore artists similar in genre to the artists you already listen to. Via makeuseof.com
The Best Places to Discover New Music
Style of Sound’s Top 100 Influential Music Blogs caused quite a stir recently. Their murky attempt to quantify the influence of individual sites was marred by a questionable definition of ‘blog’, wrought with curious omissions, and lambasted for hiding opinion behind Klout-based pseudoscience. Now, people love to criticise lists and argue over meaningless number assignments, it’s nothing new. Via thefourohfive.com
