Finding Direction In Music Exploration

I have been taking a dive into a previously written off genre of music for me. Historically I had written off Metal Music as nothing more as angry noise. I now know that the genre is host some spectacular talent such as Powerwolf, Sabaton & Stratovarius.

The Problem

I have received some excellent suggestions from friends but I’m looking to strike out on my own and really improve my understanding of genre so that I can create my own opinions and tastes. That being said I am not sure how to go about doing this. My analyst brain reached for the idea of going through a list of sub genres to tick off.

Genres all the way down.

By all that is holy in this world, what a mess! The sheer number of different names of metal, let alone the sub-sub-genres which seem to be combinations of sub-genres is dizzying. I have seen several attempts to visualize it on google images and they look like a pile of spaghetti. I like the idea of using a list of sub-genres to map out a path for me but I need to cut this back to the big names.

Streaming services are also going to be a big help. My thought is to pick a sub genre, find an accomplished artist or have one recommended to me and use the “artist radio” feature to create a playlist I can shuffle through to get a broad taste of the genre. I find it weird that when I started this journey with music it was to connect more with the music I enjoy and use streaming services less due to the commoditization and absent minded listening of generated playlists. But here I am using these tools to my advantage!

The plan

From what I have seen online I think this is my list that I am going to go through;

• Heavy metal
• Thrash Metal
• Black metal
• Glam Metal
• Doom Metal
• Modern Metal
• New Wave of British Heavy Metal
• Post Metal
• Djent
• Nu metal
• Grindcore
• Hardcore
• Post Hardcore

With thanks to The Music Genres List for laying this out in an understandable manner. I haven’t included some of the items on the list as I have already tried and enjoyed them (Power Metal & Symphonic Metal for instance). I may also add to that list as some of the names amuse me (Kawaii Metal just tickles me!).

I do also want to do more reading and learning around the genre generally. If you have any suggestions for books, blogs, documentaries and the like I would love to hear them.

As I go through the list and form my opinions on the various items I will be sure to bring you along.