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.

FeelThePower ,
@FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Honestly, just follow some Instagram meme pages or browse SoundCloud's rap playlists. As a young person™️, this is how I've always found stuff, including xxxtentacion and lil peep when I was younger and they were both still around. If you're worried about "invading" our spaces like the other comment says, I think that sentiment is changing. I've befriended some older peeps online just for having anime pfps and stuff lmao.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Thanks dude for the soundcloud req.

Also, for making me feel a bit better about invading spaces, as i honestly only want to learn more about current trends and close the divide between generations.

I went down a Xxxtentacion and Juice WRLD rabbit hole when I found them and man I’m so sad they not here as those were some interesting people with unique perspectives.

WamGams ,

KGRG is world famous among radio fans. Those kids have the pulse.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Thanks. Going to hit this up tonight.

BakerBagel ,

I like to listen to a new album every Friday. You're streaming platform will recommend "New Albums for you" and just listen to one. Sometimes it's great,sometimes it isn't, but it is new and fun to explore.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Very good point. I’ve often ignored the recommendations from Apple Music as it was heavily skewed to classical but I’m not really down for finding new classical, but I’ll see if I can coerce it to offer more hip-hop or even conscientious hip-hop which I didn’t know was a think until this thread but it seems to be the stuff I gravitate to more. Kendrick and Akala seem to fit that bill.

rudyharrelson ,
@rudyharrelson@kbin.social avatar

I enjoy listening to college radio stations. They're usually varied in music genres and tend to reflect what college students want to put on the airwaves.

I'm a fan of 88.3FM Central Carolina Community College Radio.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Underrated suggestion.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

TIL CCCC has a radio station.

dependencyinjection OP ,

I’d never have thought of that. I’ll find an app with radio stations and give these a go too. Thanks.

Sabata11792 ,

You got to ride the youtube algo musical rabbit hole down to the bottom, otherwise it just feeds you the same 10 playlist. Find a song/band outside your norm that is tolerable, then you can choose a direction based off recommended. You can upvote what you like/the right direction to tune the algo. You should get mostly top songs from that artist or similar bubbles, although if your adventurous check smaller artist and explore. There's hidden diamonds.

Eventually you find some random anon artist with a weird cult following and what seems to be a sub-sub-sub-sub genera with artist with the same vibe. There will be bubbles of artist remixing each-other, working together, starting fights and drama, and making good shit. Follow what catches your attention and youtube will eventually lead you to the good shit of a niche. I assume most services would do the same.

dependencyinjection OP ,

That’s a good point as I usually just search for things rather than follow the next set of videos recommended.

Thanks.

Sabata11792 ,

No problem. It's hard to find new stuff when you don't know what new stuff your looking for and the algorithm keeps you stagnant unless you push it.

dependencyinjection OP ,

It’s like Dunning-Kruger you don’t know what you don’t know so it’s hard to even begin.

Man this post blew up and it was a lot of work to reply to all the posts, I feel I missed a few still.

Onii-Chan ,
@Onii-Chan@kbin.social avatar

Early 30's here. I was at a small gathering my best mate put together about a year ago, and his 19 year old nephew was there. He expressed his interest in anime and we got chatting. While showing me some newer anime-related TikTok stuff (I have no social media myself and haven't really kept up with modern anime), I heard some fucking awesome 'aggressive trap' stuff and asked him who the artist was. It was Lil' Darkie and I was immediately hooked. I went down a rabbit hole searching his best stuff as well as other similar artists, and now have a huge playlist of great music I'd have never discovered on my own.

imo music discovery is a pretty organic process for most people. It's cultural and spreads via word of mouth. Chatting with younger people may be the best way to go, but understand that the youth rightfully don't want us in their spaces lmao

whoreticulture ,

Honestly just keeping up with whatever social media is popular with young people is the best way to stay in touch with new music and pop culture.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Which I think is TikTok and I really don’t need that temptation of getting sucked into more short form videos. I lack the self control.

Perhaps I’ll take a look at kick as I’ve seen some other current trends getting traction on kick. Not necessarily legal but people doing shit like Squeeze Benz, swimming through traffic like a maniac.

whoreticulture ,

An alternative would be pop culture recaps on YouTube lol, I've done that during busy months sometimes. I've never heard of kick so maybe I'm not as caught up as I thought

dependencyinjection OP ,

Hey, now I’m the teacher haha.

SnotFlickerman ,
@SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

TikTok has already succumbed to the Olds invading.

That's why I thought it was hilarious that the US government wants to "ban" TikTok after it's on the decline with the youth. TikTok at this point is mainly millennials hanging out, trying to find what cool stuff the youth are into.

Wherever the cool kids are hanging out, by the time we find out about it, they're mostly going to have moved on to something else.

IronKrill ,

Kick the streaming platform? All I know about Kick is the gambling, banned Twitch streamers, and the pseudo-Tate whackos like Adin Ross that seem to be supported by the platform. I am steering clear until they fix their reputation. If they fix it.

rufus ,

I feel you. I think I'm experiencing the same.

I'd say it's almost summer now, go out and visit some music festivals. That's a place where I found some inspiration and new (to me) artists.

Also having friends with a similar taste in music helps.

I have a Spotify subscription and that helps me listen to a broad range of music on a whim. But I think the Spotify algorithm isn't helping me in discovering new artists. I rarely find anything interesting and new that way.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Seems Spotify is getting so many mentions and many people preferring it to Apple Music for finding new music.

Festivals are an idea too so thanks.

Blackout ,
@Blackout@kbin.run avatar

https://everynoise.com/engenremap.html

I'm in my mid-40s and I love searching for new (and old) music. It makes me happy. Maybe I start with an artists I like and just go thru the rest of the label. You just have to break the habit of listening to the same thing and challenge yourself.

dependencyinjection OP ,

This site is amazing. Like I didn’t even think conscientious hip-hop was a think but when I typed Kendrick I also saw Akala linked closely and he is a conscientious rapper so this looks like a good resource for me.

southsamurai ,
@southsamurai@sh.itjust.works avatar

Dude. Dude. You're still a kid ;)

Age jokes from an old fart aside, it's about your willingness to go looking.

It does mean you'll end up using some otherwise shitty services unless you are active in a local music related scene (like clubbing). But YouTube, Pandora, spotify, and most of the other music streaming services have some degree of recommendations. They aren't all that great usually, but in the absence of being immersed with real life music explorers, it's the best option.

You can check out the Billboard top 200 and go the route of hoping your preferred music genres chart in the first place, but also being fairly reliable that other fans have vetted tracks for it to get there.

And radio still exists. You can pick a station that's genre specific or a top 40 station and find stuff that's already a little popular that way. It isn't as reliable as it used to be, but you can find newer raising acts that way.

There's forums. I haunt the typical lemmy based music C/s, plus the ones for my favorite genres, which keeps me fairly up to date on new releases as well as some new acts.

And, always participate in your local scene when possible. It's harder with hip-hop since finding local acts outside of cities is damn near impossible, but if you're into other stuff too, it can be a great way to catch acts before they get going, if your local scene is active enough. I'm fairly lucky in that bluegrass is one of the genres I'm into, and I'm not too far away from one of the better known cities for country and bluegrass music. So it's easy to find new bands and solo acts performing at a bar or local festival that end up getting popular eventually. That's an example of what i mean, making use of what's already there locally.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Thanks you’ve provided many avenues I can go down here and it seems inescapable that it takes work and effort to keep ahead of these things.

I do live in a city but sadly it’s Manchester in the UK, so hip-hop is lacking. I do like UK Drill too but those kids are just a bit too wild for me to go seeking those, I’m not keen on getting stabbed up haha.

walter_wiggles ,

I think the difference is that as a kid music is forced on you from all kinds of sources: parents, friends, radio, etc. So you don't realize how much time you actually spent just listening to new music.

As an Old, you probably don't have nearly as much random exposure, i.e. you control when you listen to music now. Which means the answer to your question is that you have to consciously set aside time simply to listen to music. It may feel like a "waste of time" for each track you think is shit, but that's just part of the process.

Good luck, and thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

dependencyinjection OP ,

That makes sense and I think you’re right about the exposure as you listen to a lot of the current trends when out in bars and clubs and I’m not cut out for the day after those nights anymore.

Toneswirly ,

Never take a break from culture. As soon as you take a year off you will be irrelevant. If that sound exhausting (it is) then congratulations; you have discovered why older people are never on top of pop culture.

protist ,

"You will be irrelevant" to who? People whose identities are so wrapped up in popular culture they can't conceive of someone liking something from 30, 50, 80 years ago? Lmao

whoreticulture ,

Nah, tired advice. I was literally on a remote island for most of a year, and missed out on Harambe and clowns and whatever else happened that year. But if you have a real interest in pop culture you stay in tune. Most older people don't stay on top of it because they don't care to, which is fine it's not for everyone.

dependencyinjection OP ,

Thanks. I’m not sure about being irrelevant but I do see that you have to put effort in to stay on top of the current culture or zeitgeist.

sturlabragason , (edited )

I get all the inside info from my teenage kids 😅

Here’s some in no particular order;

https://open.spotify.com/track/42VsgItocQwOQC3XWZ8JNA?si=HegVMDH4ROCGcS2WX6KEMA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A18NOKLkZETa4sWwLMIm0UZ

https://open.spotify.com/track/7ooMMJ57DvXJ9QrdA2IKzb?si=VFPuFA_hQBqklPztdMXG5Q&context=spotify%3Aplaylist%3A1sQAM3faF7b8Y775Suf8T3

https://open.spotify.com/track/3wGXyJGsCf1myH5MooQIqE?si=muI8FD-DQPKx-Tk8bkUaKQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A1S7KWH0szrqutOvzsqxiBv

https://open.spotify.com/track/48PNPySDWhDzPYKd0VHzRZ?si=TSynKlYARUmzcwHNU5MjnQ&context=spotify%3Asearch%3Awhat%2B

https://open.spotify.com/track/3rKHEHCqPnYOzSMEt5DJKq?si=0WDxPKXCQU-9JJ8Ht1ZODA&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A17ff3780kXxf0aNwyVSn0n

https://open.spotify.com/track/2mdNOsotHkz5POLtu0qCJm?si=EoJKClvYSkyB8Omq1krSVQ&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A4R0KYGz7o9PvWcef6xtl8v

https://open.spotify.com/track/6nWjnyGiPqb5bmkhsyYvLZ?si=lp-B5Ur9TtOEXMIXn5ZLfA

https://open.spotify.com/track/6uU1QhxwtrnOdALd4K1nBs?si=SQiYCxaKRkygirNkBTqq1g

https://open.spotify.com/track/3qX1dqmDdmMvvfMVfsx4Bh?si=nWMONtu_T1Sn_8lHdWKmyw

And a bunch of music from the 00s and 10s which is now old school and cool 😅

dependencyinjection OP ,

Dude you cheated, maybe I shoulda had kids but im too selfish 😂

PrivateNoob ,
@PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz avatar

Not music specific but you could join probably a bigger Discord community around a topic which interests a bunch of young lads. For example, I'm in a VRC community, where I usually chat sometimes (I'm 23, not that old) and DC communities usually offer music channels where you could maybe check what they share.

dependencyinjection OP ,

I’ve tried Discord before but I never knew where to find channels I might like.

I will give it another go as it seems like a good idea. Thanks dude.

PrivateNoob ,
@PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz avatar

You could perhaps check out this: https://disboard.org/

dependencyinjection OP ,

Awesome.

TheReturnOfPEB ,

Switch to Classical music.

dependencyinjection OP ,

I already listen to classical music. Shoutout to the Goats Chopin and Beethoven. I’m a sucker for a minor key. All I hear in my head here is Kendrick saying A-Minorrrrrr.

I’m fortunate to have quite an eclectic taste in music genre wise, as quite frankly music is the best thing on this planet.

Blaze ,
@Blaze@reddthat.com avatar

Small shout out to !askmenover30

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