When you’re really passionate about modern music, you will eventually get the stage where you want to learn more about the history of the art form that you love so much. There is so much out there to discover, but how do you go about grappling with all that? It can be pretty overwhelming when you’re just starting out and you’re not sure where to start. We’re going to help you with that and point you in the right direction so that you learn without feeling out of your depth.
Embrace New Genres and Dive in Deep
8 Websites to Help You Discover New Music Genres
Most people get into the habit of only following one genre and listening to music confined to that genre. The first thing to do if you want to start learning about the history of music and how it developed is leave your comfort zone and explore more things. Dive deep into new genres that you don’t know much about and then explore their history from there.
Start Your Vinyl Record Collection
Vinyl records were, for a very long time, the main way of listening to music, and that means there is tonnes of vinyl out there. Encased in those grooves is pretty much the entire history of recorded music. You can find a turntable and information on vinyl here on Vinyl Vintage, so start learning right away. Once you’ve done that, you can start your vinyl record collection and explore history first-hand.
Read About the Influences of Your Favourite Artists
This is a great way to discover how the lineage of musical genres work. So if there is a specific musician that you like right now, find out which other artists influence them and inspired them so start making their own music. That way, you will be able to track music influences and links throughout history going back potentially hundreds of years. It can get really interesting if you keep discovering.
Watch a Few Documentaries
40 Greatest Rock Documentaries
There are so many documentaries online and on DVD that you can watch if you want to learn about musical history. Of course, there are concert films that display live performances of some of the world’s greatest musicians. And there are also historical documentaries, such as the impressive A Hard Day’s Night, which is a seminal documentary about The Beatles.
Pick Up a Book
100 Greatest Music Books of All Time
Sometimes, there’s no substitute for a good book. There are so many biographies, autobiographies and oral histories out there. Most bookshops will have a section dedicated to music, so this is where you should head if you want to learn more about a specific type of musical history. There’s nothing better than sitting down and becoming enthralled by what you’re reading.
The music of history is vast and varied. The best thing about it is that no matter how long you spend exploring it and learning about it, you’ll never know it all. There are so many different strands and genres of music, and the history is so deep that you’ll never run out of history to find out about.