Music exploration guide

So, you've decided to take the plunge into exploring music. First of all, thank you for using Freezenet to give this whole experience a try. I wanted to put together an explanation guide together because, even though it sounds insulting to the users intelligence at first blush to tell you how to explore music, it can be downright frustrating and overwhelming if you just dive in straight away without any prior knowledge.

Music Exploration in the Past

How people generally got music in the past (and even to this day) is often through traditional AM/FM radio. You basically listen to the radio passively and pick and choose which songs grabbed your interest. Other times, you happen to like a particular artist and you explore their music further by buying the album to get more exposure to a particular artist. Some get their recommendations from top 10 lists which does often happen with pop music.

The thing with those forms of music exploration is that, for the most part, the research work is done for you. The radio DJ (not so much now, but in the past) acted as a filter to try and drill down what music the audience within the range of that signal would probably enjoy. In other cases, the record label selected the music that would succeed and what would not even be worth their time and investment. Music filters get erected all around you, so by the time you get to hear that music, those songs passed through numerous filters and you get the final product.

While that largely worked in the pre-Internet era, that doesn't work that well anymore. Some artists that would otherwise get completely filtered out find their audiences online. They are able to get that much needed exposure to get their career off the ground without having to rely on a major record label. In many ways, this is good because if the music filters fail, the Internet is there to work around it.

What's more is that tastes can diverge and be more closely associated to what you happen to like. So, instead of the filters being controlled by major corporate interest, record labels, or even an "advisor" for traditional radio, you, as the user, get to control those filters and you get to decide what you happen to like and what you want to throw away. How you can find and control this, well, that does require some work on your part. With everyone being so busy these days, who has the time for that, right?

You Won't Like the "Best" Music

Probably the easiest filter to use is Google. So, a natural inclination is to simply Google the best music in a specific genre. This is exceedingly hit and miss at best. For instance, if I search for the "best trance music", I might get a limited number of results. Sometimes, I might like the music in question while other times, I think it's pretty "meh".

A second easy to use filter is to simply rely on, say, a YouTube search. That can also be very hit and miss - with an emphasis on "miss". You might be able to find something you like, but other times, the music you might end up with can be pretty bland.

The question is, why doesn't this work? The simple fact is that such filters filter out far too much. You might get a few hits, but you get maybe a few morsels of music when there is an entire musical ecosystem bubbling beneath the surface. What's more is that the average person might look at the very small selection of music and ask, "Is this really all there is to this genre?" and eventually move on thinking that this is just a tiny niche thing.

The reality is, a lot of genre's like trance and house music actually has a massive spectrum of different kinds of styles and overall sound. This actually makes it very easy to cater to your specific taste in music that you might not otherwise knew you had. What's more is that there are several life times worth of good music out there that you can very easily groove to.

Making Better Use of Music Filtering

What the music portions of this Wiki sets out to do is to actually break down the kinds of music out there that exists now and offer ideas on where you can start. It basically transforms what took me years to figure out and turn it into mere hours or minutes of a relative ease - at least that's the goal. A major problem I found is that it's actually surprisingly difficult to search out these things even when you have an idea of what you are doing. So, let's break this down further.

Research

You can't filter something down if you don't have any material to work with, right? While some might look at the term "research" and groan, it is necessary. It sounds like homework or it sounds like something you don't have time for. So, the job of that Wiki is to simply reduce down the amount of time it would otherwise take to find some of these resources to something that is far more manageable.

One major kind of section you'll find in this Wiki are podcasts. The reason why podcasts are such a huge thing on this Wiki is because that is how a lot of hardcore fans of different genre's find out about music should word of mouth not be an option. The DJ in question filters out a metric tonne of music and selects what he happens to think is really good music for his listeners - basically like how traditional radio ran years and years ago.

Of course, different DJs happen to gravitate to different kinds of music. As a result, you can actually pick and choose which podcast you happen to like the music in the most and keep exploring from there. Generally, you can listen passively and let the suggestions keep rolling over you and you get to pick and choose from there what you happen to like. This style of research has proven to be highly effective for me and I wanted to share these tools with you.

Selecting the Right Podcast

As alluded to, what music you like depends entirely on you. A vast majority of the time, you don't necessarily have to "train" yourself to like a certain kind of music. If it can click with you, that is a win. If you listen to the trance music I happen to like via my reviews and completely disagree, that is perfectly fine. Maybe you are more of a drum and bass type of person or a synth pop listener or maybe something else completely. What's more is that it is more than possible for certain kinds of music to just grow on you over time. That also happens a lot. Other times, your taste in music can change over time which is perfectly normal. The bottom line is, if you like it, you like it. If you don't like it, you don't like it.

So, from a DJ's perspective, they want to capture a nice wide range of tastes. The more listeners they can get, the better. In doing so, they will often play a broad spectrum of tracks throughout their show. This is especially true with shows that happen to be about 2 hours long. This is one thing to keep in mind. If you start listening to a podcast and you happen to not like the first track you hear, that is actually perfectly normal. When I'm researching music, I often get maybe 2 or 3 music ideas out of a whole hour that I might explore further. What's more is that the music I happen to like might not be what even the majority of the listeners happen to like. Again, this is normal.

If you happen to try a particular show and the music isn't clicking for you, it may be that the episode doesn't necessarily connect with you as a listener. What I recommend is listening to at least several tracks throughout the show. Sometimes, the DJ wants to start the show more relaxed and end on a more energetic note. That does happen. If none of it clicks, then maybe try listening to a show that is several episodes down the line - maybe even a year down the road and go from there. Styles do change over time and thanks to archiving efforts, you can fast forward and rewind that time in an instant.

If you happen to have listened to portions of several shows at different time periods, then you can possibly write off that particular DJ and move on to another show. You can probably start judging by the sub-genres we mention in the shows description what you might or might not like after two or three shows. By moving over into different podcasts, you also switch the filtering in question. Maybe that music filter just isn't the right fit for you.

You Might Find More Than One Show You Like

Another thing to is the fact that some DJ's happen to play very similar kinds of music. As a result, you might like the music several shows has to offer. This is, of course, quite understandable. For me, I actually happen to listen to about a half a dozen different shows that clicked for me off and on. Sometimes, one show happened to be a bad episode or happened to have a takeover special with an artist that just does nothing for me.

While takeover shows can offer a look into what other artists are doing, if you are just starting out, I would advise against listening to those particular episodes. If you don't like them music, you might get a wrong impression of what the show has to offer. If you do happen to like that music, those artists might not have their own show which means your selection is very limited at that point.

Where Do I Find The Time?

When you do happen to know what music is out there, this becomes the second biggest problem: time. Time to research and passively listen to that music in the first place to be more precise. The thing is, it is actually more than possible to find time to listen passively. If you are doing something with your hands (like washing dishes, doing laundry, or working on bland computer work), listening to music is more than possible because all you are doing is listening. Just be aware that if it depends on you listening for other things, you might want to either turn down that music or refrain from trying to listen at that point in time. While it is ideal to be sitting in your chair or on a couch just listening to music, not everyone does have that kind of time which is why I recommend maybe finding a point in time where you are doing mundane tasks that doesn't require listening to maybe try passively listening to this stuff at that point in time.

Obviously, this can be very difficult and not everyone has that opportunity, but those are just some ideas.

You're Selection is Very Limited!

I know, this is something we are actively working on. This is a huge task that takes a lot of time because we are documenting music without filters of any kind. Still, we are trying to expand what knowledge this Wiki has to offer to hit on as many possible tastes out there as possible. You can always volunteer to help us out by volunteering to help make this process go by much more quickly. If you don't know where to find music, don't worry, we have a mountain of music we want to add and only limited resources to actually include said content. Alternatively, if you have your own methods of exploring music, that is also cool with us. We'd love to hear different methods and easy ways of exploring such music (legally, of course).

Conclusion

At the very least, we hope this Wiki does make it easier for others out there to discover new kinds of music that they would otherwise not be exposed to. For me, when I designed this site and Wiki, my goal was to be able to tell myself, "Man, my life would've been FAR easier if I had this resource at my fingertips" as I added more content. I hope you find the resources on this Wiki useful too.

A Great Place to Start

If you are looking for a great page on this Wiki to start exploring, I recommend the music genres page. It's basically the root to where our documented music branches off to.