5
votes
General music recomendations thread.
I've never really listened to very much music beyond video game soundtracks, but i'm interested in getting more into it and finding what I like. Do you have any general recommendations or "genre starter" music?
If we pretend for a moment that you're a completely blank slate with no opinions going in, you might as well start with critically acclaimed and canonized music.
I'll personally suggest you check out the RateYourMusic top charts. It just represents the taste of one site, but you'll see the rock and jazz canon as well as standout records in other genres. Of course, a list of the most widely liked things is naturally limited in scope and skewed in a bunch of ways, but that doesn't really matter right now. Just try listening to some stuff and once you have that, you'll know directions to look in and avoid. Or at least, you'll have something that you tell people who do know so they can help you.
I'll also self-plug here and suggest participating in the listening club I'm running in this group. Every week we alternate between listening to the canonized works that you should be trying and less well-known records that users suggest.
Since @Bauke already mentioned two of the bands I was going to suggest (The Dear Hunter & Thank You Scientist), I'll add Coheed & Cambria to the mix. Most of their music is based on the comic book series written by the band's frontman & his wife. Might be up your alley if you like video game soundtracks. They are, overall, a progressive rock band - but there's so much variety in their music that there really is something for everyone.
Yeah I've been listening to them for (probably) more than a decade now and I honestly can't think of a single song I don't like. They're really a trip - especially if you get into the comics as well. My favorite track, currently.
Oh man! I didn't know their songs are based of a comic book series. I was attracted to Coheed & Cambria because of their lyrics, I will definitely have to check out the comics.
If youre into game soundtracks than EDM may be a good place for you to start. I would recommend Deadmau5 (specifically Seeya or Moar Ghosts N Stuff) or maybe a metal act like Avenged Sevenfold. I know a lot of people who listen to these who also listen to video game soundtracks.
You never know what kind of music you're going to like until you taste all of them.
You could take a cartwheel through the old listentothis bestof archives... there's several hundred artists in all sorts of playlists across a dozen genres. None of this is 'popular' music, it's more a collection of what floated through listentothis on reddit, which is a pretty diverse set of music but intentionally curated to avoid containing artists most people would be familiar with. All I can say for its quality is that it impressed our listening teams. I doubt you'll find a more diverse collection anywhere else. :)
Honestly, this is going to be your best resource. If you want to get into shoegaze, there's a chart for that; 90's alt-punk, there's one for that; post-9/11 and war-on-terror-core, there's a chart for that. Find a genre you're interested in, search for the chart, and listen to one or two albums on there, you'll get a good foothold in it.
I'll second that. The /mu essentials are one of the best things to come out of that place.
It's very difficult to recommend much with no guidance at all. Are there any video game soundtracks that you particularly enjoy, or any sort of styles of music that you're interested in?