How to music ? Serious question.
 

Hello,

I come to you with a weird question. Despite being 34 years old, I own not a single casette, CD, or (music) MP3. I know no band names, nor song names, other than what I hear on the news for some reason. Everyone in my family is the same, pretty much.

Now, I don't hate music. I just never really got into it. In our home, we didn't listen to music, nor talk about it, and as weird as it sounds, I just have no sense for music. Often, friends have put on their CDs for me and made me listen to this or that song, but it's all just noise to me. It doesn't touch me in any way. We are also all incredibly music-retarded: we can't even tap in synch with a song on the radio.

Time to end that. I'd like to, uh, 'get into' music, and I'm looking for advice. I've been listening to the radio for the past year or so, ("the best from the 80s, 90s and today!"), and I guess that's alright. What would you recommend ?

I'm not so much looking for band or song advice, but for listening advice, I guess. Do you sit down and do nothing while listening to a new album for the first time ? Do you just queue it up and listen to it in the background ? How do you find music you like ?

I was also hoping to get into music while running/jogging, but I suppose you'd look for songs with the same BPM for something like that. How on Earth would one go about finding that ?

As you can see, I'm quite lost, and looking for some guidance that goes beyond "Listen to this band, dude, it's the best!"

That's sad! My whole family is interested in music, to varying degrees.
You should find out what you like first, and look for music in that particular style. Go through various genres, and see which one you like best. Music discovery will be easier if you download Spotify.
Good luck, and welcome to the forums! :)

I rarely sit and do nothing while listening to music. It's something I listen to while doing other things in order to help me focus or to inspire me or to entertain me if I'm doing something dull. I listen while I'm driving, while I'm working, while I'm exercising, while I'm walking, while I'm doing chores, while I'm writing, etc.

You're overthinking this. Just put on music that you enjoy, that pumps you up or that you can get lost in. It's not science, there's no need to match the BPM to the activity. When I used to run I'd listen to pretty mellow music actually because it helped me drift outside of the physical sensations.

I was sort of the same until I discovered the wealth of music out there. So many different genres that I sometimes despair over the fact that I probably wouldn't have heard a quarter of the music I might enjoy by the time I die.

But yeah, I used to just listen to one dumb indie band that sucks and never listened to anything else, and then I discovered Industrial music, and was shocked at how different music could be than the Top 40. I'll usually be on the computer while listening to music, but it's nice to have on while cleaning around the house and doing coursework.

I'd like to recommend to you our members' journals section. Here you'll find a varied mix of individuals all writing about what they like and more importantly why they like it. There are samples usually too, though that's not as important as perhaps tapping into a small idea of how people get into music, what it does for them and why, in many cases (including mine) they could not live without it.

I'd recommend Unknown Soldier's "Pounding Decibels" for getting a sense of hard rock and heavy metal, Anteater's for progressive rock, AOR (Album/Adult-Oriented Rock) and smooth jazz, Janszoon's award-winning "25 albums you must hear" for, well, just really out-there stuff and, well, you'll see when you get there. But it will give you an idea both of why music is so important to most people here, and also what they like and why they like it.

Music is different to everyone. Everyone has different taste in music. Even when it seems like you have met someone who has the same interest as you do, theres something they like that you dont.

I dont know how to direct you into a right category, i have never met someone who hasnt had music in their life at some point. Personally i would suggest that you should just look around this forum, listen to a little bit of everything that you come across and eventually you will find something that gets your heart going.

Everyone here seems really nice, im new too just signed up a couple days ago, and im having a blast here. Every one seems to be very knowledgeable and dont mind answering any questions that you might have.

So just look around!

Well then the world is your oyster. You can listen to anything you want: Jazz Art music, Folk, Rock n Roll etc. There is so much out there it is impossible to listen to it all, comprehend it all, but at the same time it is impossible not to find something you'll like.

"What to Listen For in Music" by Aaron Copland is a good read. It outlines basically a common sense approach to listening to music. Nothing in it is too difficult to understand.

That's great to hear, welcome to the forum! We are generally an approachable community here. If you like Electronica then check out my dubstep thread for some decent recommendations, as well as the recommendation threads on all the genres you're interested in! :)

Thank you, i kinda dig Dub step, i havent listened to a wide verity of it, i'll look into your thread Vanilla!

Understand what the artist is trying to say with the song, if there is a meaning. If not, I don't know what to say.