I try to always listen to new stuff. 1001albumsgenerator.com is a great project for getting out of your comfort zone and discovering some missed gems. It can be a slog at times though.

I’ve always been the type to look for music. In highschool I was torrenting music constantly, then in the last couple years I subscribed to Spotify. I get so much dopamine from finding new music that I listen to new things probably every week/month. I do still listen to what I listened to 10-20 years ago, it’s just all a mix of my favourites at the time.

Every so often I’ll put on some of the old jams. But man, I’m just not angry enough anymore to listen to the old hardcore punk stuff I used to be into. Every so often I’ll put on a few albums though and think about those old times. Lately though I’ve gone down some crazy rabbit holes from jazz, ambient new age stuff, lots of lo-fi and lo-fi adjacent stuff. I recently discovered Macroblank and Monodrone, those two artists have taken up a lot of my time lately. I went through a pretty heavy vaporwave and futurefunk phase a few years back when I was trying to find more eletronic/funk style music like Breakbot. So all the stuff I listen to now is a far cry from the punk and metal I used to listen to back in the day!

This is actually scientifically proven. https://neurosciencenews.com/music-youth-17765/ You love the music that you “grew up with as you were forming an identity” You can always change but it is more work to create new memories and nostalgia based on different or “new” songs.

I have to admit that I don’t actively seek out new music as such anymore.

But I usually welcome suggestions and follow a few reaction channels on YT. So I feel well-covered for my own need of new stuff.

Just got into ‘Sicksense’ for an example. Pretty neat band so far.

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For me it’s both, and it depends on what I’m doing. I have a lot of tolerance for returning to the bands and songs I love and relistening to the same albums over and over again. I’m the type of person that will listen to a song 10x on repeat if I love it. But in those situations, the music is the primary activity. I might be driving or something but most of my mental processes are focused on the music.

I love discovering new music, though, and I find that it’s better for me to listen to new music while I’m focused on something else, the opposite of my “old” favorites.

It seems counterintuitive, but every night I play video games for a couple of hours before bed and that’s when I put an album I’ve never listened to on. Maybe I’ll hear something that will pull my attention away form the game and I will repeat that song a few times (this happened recently with ‘That’s all for everyone’ from Tusk), or I will be humming it the next day, and that will kind of form the neural pathway in my brain to cause me to seek that album/song out for more active listening.

It’s been a great way for me to discover new (to me) music.

But there is nothing like the comfort of a well-known and well-loved song at the right moment.

Okay, the old saying “horses for courses” comes to mind…

Yes, I actively search out new and wonderful music, and listen to it, and like it. Problem is that a lot of current music just sounds bad, either over- or under-produced, and i’m going deaf.

Last new music I really loved was Christine and the Queens, and that’s almost ten years ago!!!

But, and here’s the rub, when I want to sit here on a lovely summers evening drinking some cider with my spouse, I’ll mostly put on music from 30+ years ago. Frank and Walters, New Order, Biggie, The Cure, MC Solaar…

Mostly? its because I know it, and as sounds become ever more remote to me and my brain, I can rely on my memories to fill in the bits I can’t hear any more.

I also started making an effort to discover new music to me, no necessarily new music, simply because my tastes shifted quite a bit and I realised it by noticing I almost stopped listening to music. I just started following some very nice YouTube music album channels that introduced me to some great music that I’d never learn about otherwise.

Another thing I didn’t realise I was doing was that I wasn’t keeping up with the artists I enjoyed, I kept listening to the old stuff, but I didn’t listen to the new material to see if liked where they were going.

I’m more focused on new releases by bands I’ve listened to for a long time. Mostly rock, folk, and pop from the 80s/90s.

But I also got into EDM a little while ago and added a lot of new and old stuff to my frequent plays.

I don’t want to be the old grumpy guy, but the current pop music is very rarely pleasant for me… Queue the struggle for control when I’m in the car with the kids: We found that Yacht Rock is safe territory for all :p

Not new bands but new to me. I managed to be a mild metalhead my whole life yet never listened to Iron Maiden. I started on their music a few months ago. I can’t believe I waited until I was in my forties to pick them up. Amazing guitar work and great vocals.

I still listen to new music, but most of it is related to stuff I listened to as a kid. I was big into 90’s alt rock, and there’s so much of it that I keep finding stuff I hadn’t listened to from that era. Right now Butthole Surfers have been getting a lot of play; they were always kinda on my radar, but the name really put me off. Can’t believe I missed out for this long.

I’ve always liked folk punk and alternative country, but there wasn’t a ton of it when I was younger. Now there’s so much more so I’ve been discovering lots of new bands. Blackbird Raum is pretty great, and Amigo the Devil might be one of my new favorites.

I am constantly on the lookout for new metal/metalcore/deathcore bands! As I have gotten older, I am enjoying more and more genres of music.

Personally I have found that Pandora’s algorithm for suggesting new music is the best when I am on the hunt.

Youtube has put me onto a lot of Australian stuff lately, such as Smoko (The Chats) and Hertz (Amyl and the Sniffers) as well as some more indie stuff like Wet Leg. I might just be old but these bands are all new to me and I love it.

all the time. I have a problem. I’m always seeking the next mindblowing album experience. gotta go back to the trieds and trues occasionally!