Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad Stengel
How does one seek out music 'for themselves' without reading music publications? When you're like me, and had no friends who listened to indie until a year ago, you rely on stuff like allmusic and pitchfork, because they're the only other ones out there that share musical taste.
After I got bored of the radio, I searched around allmusic taking reccomendations from music I liked, and it was reading reviews about bands like My Bloody Valentine and Neutral Milk Hotel that led me into 90% of what I listen to now. The only way I hear about music from places that aren't music websites is from labels that already have bands I like on them. To your 11th grade Brad Stengel, who's only non-radio albums were 'Meat Puppets II' and 'Smile', my musical curiosity could only be quenched by reccomendations for those who liked similar bands; i.e. music journalists.
And honestly, people bitch constantly about supposed 'pitchfork worshippers' who write off anything they hate. Id say the ratio of people who try to write off stuff pitchfork likes to people who write off stuff they hate is about 5:1. Why be an elitist and worship Pitchfork when you can be an uber-elitist and call it trash, while never heralding any other source to find music? At least give us another good resource to discover new music (besides this website of course, where I've also found a shitton of good bands).
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You've pretty much answered your own question without me having to do a thing. AllMusic Guide is a fine place to start looking around; they aren't perfect, but at-least they don't piss on music from certain eras while glorifying everything that happens to exist in a certain niche. And no, it doesn't kill someone to look through Pitchfork as long as you don't let their reviews go to your head.
In my case, my dad handed me some Pink Floyd a few years back and I just started YouTube-ing around after liking what I heard, along with spending hours just buzzing about on ITunes for obscure groups and artists which wouldn't be caught dead on radio. During those times, I forced myself to listen to stuff that didn't automatically please me in order to understand what drew others to a particular kind of music, and I found that there was actually quite a lot to like indeed.
It also helps that my uncle Dan used to do a lot of touring with various bands back in the 60's through the 80's. He's a killer pianist and keyboardist, so I learned to appreciate musicianship just from listening to him whenever I went to visit. Hell, he even met with Frank Zappa once, which is pretty sweet.
And yes, this forum is a great place to broaden one's musical tastes. Last.fm doesn't hurt either.
PS: I never asked to be a herald of anything, and I dislike elitism as much as anyone else. I just don't understand people's constant unwillingness to never try anything outside their worthless comfort zones and rely on the tastes of people around them to compensate for their lack of trying. I can't control what others listen to, but there's nothing wrong with showing them a door of possibilities at the very least.
It's like you are walking back to your car from grocery shopping while multiple people drive by you with their windows wide open, each and every one blaring the same ****ty gangsta-rap as the guy behind them. Ever wonder what would happen if one of them switched to classical instead?