Sometimes I wonder how much our music tastes in the current day are shaped and influenced by algorithms and mainstream media. It feels like there’s a glass ceiling that keeps us from discovering more, and can feel constricting to know that there’s an endless number of artists but the same major music publications and streaming services are recommending and promoting the same albums and artists. I feel strange knowing music is more accessible now than ever but there’s a perceivable gatekeeping effect on the main platforms that keep my ear from growing! Below I’ve included the different ways I’ve been discovering some of my favorite artists, and I hope what resources I value could be of value to you!

Chris Hughes showed me NTS back in the fall of 2020 down in Dundee Oregon! NTS is a platform that runs two radio stations 24/7, showcasing a variety of DJ’s and artists from around the world. They have an amazing phone app as well as a web player, and have opened me up to music that I would never come in contact with in my day to day life. Something feels special about hearing music from around the world curated by individuals that are only brought together by this radio station. Regardless of what music you like, you’re certain to find something that excites you! Some of my favorite shows are Scary Things, Debonair, The Tim & Barry Show, and Light In The Attic. With that in mind I do find great artists every time I tune into the live stream stations.

Something feels human about print. There’s more of an art to it than other media formats, and just feels nice to disconnect from a screen and go analog! There’s a cathartic property to reading about albums that someone else cares about, and then exploring that work yourself. The romance of going to a bookstore and choosing a magazine or book that looks enticing that can help broaden your horizons while simultaneously providing a greater amount of context for an album or an artist thrills me! While there’s a wide variety of writing about arts and entertainment, I find that I gravitate towards smaller publications as well as publications that may be more mainstream elsewhere. Each year in high school my birthday present was a subscription to Mojo Magazine, a British publication that would include a CD containing songs that had some connection to the showcased artist on the cover. Looking through the new releases in Mojo always presented a nice contrast to the mainstream print in the U.S., which always seems to showcase the same subset of artists! I’m certainly not opposed to large format media publications such as Rolling Stone, NME, and Pitchfork, as they often have their finger on the pulse of up and coming artists and great albums. I do feel however that finding alternative media outlets allows me to cover more ground, finding more artists that I may love. Some publications I have been enjoying lately are MOJO, Creem, Blood Of Gods (a zine focused on metal music and wine), and Stereogum. I have started amassing coffee table books, and always find it fun to choose a random page and read about an album before diving in! Two that I’ve been toting around for some time now include 101 Essential Rock Records by Jeff Gold and Psychedelia by Richard Morton Jack.

Friends: There really is no better way to find new music than to listen to the people around you. I find that some of the albums and songs that have resonated with me the most come from the people I know best: Friends, family, and colleagues. People love to recommend the music and art that has been having an impact on their own life, and will often only share the works of art that they feel certain someone else will like. I know from my own experience that I only recommend albums and songs that I feel certain someone will enjoy. It’s sure easy to shirk off the recommendations that people give us, but by opening those ears to the opinions of others you can learn so much!

Triple J

Vinyl and choosing random albums!