As an example. I grew up in hip-hop but at a certain point I stopped listening to new people and realised recently that I’d slept on some bangers. Like Kendrick particularly, but even people like Juice WRLD and Xxxtentacion.
The same for the Kendrick and Drake (the nonce) beef which has given some rabbit holes to go down.
So I’m wondering what I can do to keep in the loop with my younger brothers and sisters?
Is it something as simple as watching trending videos on YouTube (somtheing I’ve never done) or are there people to follow etc. I don’t like Twitter though so hopefully it’s not that.
Edit: Man I got so many replies. You guys are awesome. I am going to work my way through them all today, but I’m hella tired and off to work so may take a while. I will reply to you all.
Edit part deux: God damn I think I got all the replies.
I enjoy listening to college radio stations. They’re usually varied in music genres and tend to reflect what college students want to put on the airwaves.
I’m a fan of 88.3FM Central Carolina Community College Radio.
TIL CCCC has a radio station.
I’d never have thought of that. I’ll find an app with radio stations and give these a go too. Thanks.
Aging? At 30? Kid, are you mocking us?
What could be more current than the beatles?
Pink Floyd
Fucking love Pink Floyd, but it don’t hit the same if you ain’t off your face.
There is always more current in ACDC.
JS Bach?
That’s one of the reasons I spend a lot of time in forums like this. To keep up with the latest stuff.
But then the latest stuff started being hella weird and I still couldn’t follow it even knowing the origins and context of popular trends and now I’m grumpy about kids on my lawn. 😬
Yeah some of the latest trends will whoooosh me.
just let the algorithm feed you the cultural gruel
The algos are not all there cracked up to be, they get quite repetitive.
Listen to music.
Interesting, tell me more about this music thing.
Its something you personally enjoy, not something you put an effort to hear of just to please somebody else. Did this help you?
I never mentioned pleasing anybody else. This is all for me my guy.
It’s easy to hear music, not so easy to keep finding music that is new.
Then proceeds to mention this is for my guy.
Have you got brain damage.
My guy is you in the context I used it my guy.
Do you have a damaged self-esteem?
yeah, but what if the music i listen to isn’t ‘with it’? what will the kids thing of me? as an old?
Why would you listen to kids anyway?
Early 30’s here. I was at a small gathering my best mate put together about a year ago, and his 19 year old nephew was there. He expressed his interest in anime and we got chatting. While showing me some newer anime-related TikTok stuff (I have no social media myself and haven’t really kept up with modern anime), I heard some fucking awesome ‘aggressive trap’ stuff and asked him who the artist was. It was Lil’ Darkie and I was immediately hooked. I went down a rabbit hole searching his best stuff as well as other similar artists, and now have a huge playlist of great music I’d have never discovered on my own.
imo music discovery is a pretty organic process for most people. It’s cultural and spreads via word of mouth. Chatting with younger people may be the best way to go, but understand that the youth rightfully don’t want us in their spaces lmao
Honestly just keeping up with whatever social media is popular with young people is the best way to stay in touch with new music and pop culture.
Which I think is TikTok and I really don’t need that temptation of getting sucked into more short form videos. I lack the self control.
Perhaps I’ll take a look at kick as I’ve seen some other current trends getting traction on kick. Not necessarily legal but people doing shit like Squeeze Benz, swimming through traffic like a maniac.
An alternative would be pop culture recaps on YouTube lol, I’ve done that during busy months sometimes. I’ve never heard of kick so maybe I’m not as caught up as I thought
Hey, now I’m the teacher haha.
Kick the streaming platform? All I know about Kick is the gambling, banned Twitch streamers, and the pseudo-Tate whackos like Adin Ross that seem to be supported by the platform. I am steering clear until they fix their reputation. If they fix it.
I just take older bands/artists that I like, and look up “artists similar to…” On Google, and start from there. Easy enough.
music-map.com works great too.
Yes I’ve seen this before but never saved the link. Thank you.
College/independent radio
As someone else said, bandcamp is pretty good. Their articles are, so far as I can tell, written by actual people and thus have more soul to them. I’m sure some asshole is plotting to replace them with LLM, but until then!
Also, go to shows. Go see live music. Usually folks have opening acts. Sometimes you can even make friends.
Thanks for pointing out bandcamp, I’ve not hit the other comment that mentioned it yet.
My dude, I’m the same as you and I just keep radioing shit on Spotify and shazaming shit I hear and doing the same for TV shows and movies and tapping into the Spotify premade playlists from time to time. Works aight enough.
Some good one here. Thanks.
I like to listen to a new album every Friday. You’re streaming platform will recommend “New Albums for you” and just listen to one. Sometimes it’s great,sometimes it isn’t, but it is new and fun to explore.
Very good point. I’ve often ignored the recommendations from Apple Music as it was heavily skewed to classical but I’m not really down for finding new classical, but I’ll see if I can coerce it to offer more hip-hop or even conscientious hip-hop which I didn’t know was a think until this thread but it seems to be the stuff I gravitate to more. Kendrick and Akala seem to fit that bill.
You can’t, it’s over, let go.
Sign up for email lists to smaller venues (<1000 capacity) and check out the bands getting booked. Also, sign up for record label mailings, indie labels tend to have bands with similar vibes. Spotify and algorithm recs are not the way to go
Yes! This is what I was thinking. You’ll have a finger on the culture and be more into it than most without having to pay Taylor Swift prices for everything.
If you live in a decent sized city go see the up and coming acts at the bar venues before they hit stadium appeal. The rest will come through the grapevine. Like who gives a shit about what Drake is doing and I say this as someone who knows Toronto inside out.
I live in a major city so I have many choices, but realistically it works for any nearby city with hip smaller bands that you like. Not everything is great but it’s pretty easy to dial in your tastes by venue and labels. If you aren’t getting enough to check with that, just add another city’s venues. See who’s playing & check them out on bandcamp/youtube/etc…then go see them live. Lee’s Place is dope, I caught several shows there when I contracting, but that was 7-8 years ago
This is a good idea. I’m not sure what the scene is like in Manchester UK for hip-hop but there must be more than when I was a young un.
I don’t know how to help you, but I’ll tell you that I have the opposite perspective. The two artists I’d most like to avoid are the ones you mentioned, so if there was a way I could eliminate suggestions from anyone who was like “fuck yeah Kendrick and Drake” I would absolutely do that.
Taste over time is totally divergent and you’ve probably got your work cut out for you to find your exact niche :).
I can’t help but feel the same as you do. I listen to a lot of political podcasts, and somehow their spat has spilled over into those too goddamnit.
I’m here, trying to listen to a deep analysis of what’s happening with decisions within the State Department wrt stopping weapons shipments to Israel, and some chucklefuck asks Sec. Blinken his take on Kendrick— I’m like, “what the actual fuck?”
Interesting different perspective.
May I ask why you don’t like Kendrick. Is it the style, as he is arguably the Goat of hip-hop and that feels like something not to be missed.
It’s the style, or more specifically what it is turning into. Seems like when I got my first tastes of hip hop in the 90s it was more… musical / music forward? and now it kinda feels like just another rap flavor.
Same with greatest rapper and greatest country singer of all time: I would be inclined to steer clear since it’s just generally not my thing.
That makes sense and perhaps it highlights what I go for most in music, which is the lyrics.
As I can confirm Kendrick was not an easy listen at first as the beats are very different, but lyrically god damn is it worth it to take the time to just keep listening. Dudes on par with Eminem on his word play, and beats him on social commentary.
Thanks.
