As someone who is aging. Late thirties. How can I keep my finger on the pulse of current trends, particularly in music?
As someone who is aging. Late thirties. How can I keep my finger on the pulse of current trends, particularly in music?
As an example. I grew up in hip-hop but at a certain point I stopped listening to new people and realised recently that I’d slept on some bangers. Like Kendrick particularly, but even people like Juice WRLD and Xxxtentacion.
The same for the Kendrick and Drake (the nonce) beef which has given some rabbit holes to go down.
So I’m wondering what I can do to keep in the loop with my younger brothers and sisters?
Is it something as simple as watching trending videos on YouTube (somtheing I’ve never done) or are there people to follow etc. I don’t like Twitter though so hopefully it’s not that.
Edit: Man I got so many replies. You guys are awesome. I am going to work my way through them all today, but I’m hella tired and off to work so may take a while. I will reply to you all.
Edit part deux: God damn I think I got all the replies.
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Sign up for email lists to smaller venues (<1000 capacity) and check out the bands getting booked. Also, sign up for record label mailings, indie labels tend to have bands with similar vibes. Spotify and algorithm recs are not the way to go
Yes! This is what I was thinking. You'll have a finger on the culture and be more into it than most without having to pay Taylor Swift prices for everything.
If you live in a decent sized city go see the up and coming acts at the bar venues before they hit stadium appeal. The rest will come through the grapevine. Like who gives a shit about what Drake is doing and I say this as someone who knows Toronto inside out.
I live in a major city so I have many choices, but realistically it works for any nearby city with hip smaller bands that you like. Not everything is great but it's pretty easy to dial in your tastes by venue and labels. If you aren't getting enough to check with that, just add another city's venues. See who's playing & check them out on bandcamp/youtube/etc...then go see them live. Lee's Place is dope, I caught several shows there when I contracting, but that was 7-8 years ago
This is a good idea. I’m not sure what the scene is like in Manchester UK for hip-hop but there must be more than when I was a young un.