How to Discover New Music by Genre: A Beginner’s Guide
Looking for new music is hard when the only label you have is a big one like rock or pop. Each of those names covers thousands of artists, and many of them sound nothing alike. Discovery gets much easier when you start broad and then move into the smaller stylistic branches inside a genre, where artists share a more specific sound.
This guide walks through a simple way to do that on Music Soil: begin with a broad genre, narrow it to a subgenre, combine filters, and then use artist pages to find your next lead.
Start With a Broad Genre
Broad genres such as Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Metal and R&B are useful starting points. They tell you roughly what kind of music you are in the mood for, and they are the labels most people already know.
The problem is size. A broad genre groups together artists from different decades, countries and scenes, so a list of rock artists can jump from quiet acoustic songwriters to loud, fast bands. That range is fine for casual browsing, but it is too wide when you want something close to the music you already like.
Use the broad genre to set a direction, then narrow it down.
Explore Subgenres
Subgenres are the smaller branches inside a genre. Each one describes a more specific sound or approach. Rock, for example, branches into styles such as Indie Rock, Punk Rock, Alternative Rock, Shoegaze and Post-Rock.
Each branch has its own character. Punk rock tends to be short, direct and energetic. Shoegaze is usually associated with layered, hazy guitars and soft vocals. Post-rock often uses rock instruments to build long, mostly instrumental pieces. Reading a few artist names in each branch quickly shows you which one is closest to your taste.
If you already know an artist you like, check which subgenres they are listed under. That is often the fastest way to find a branch worth exploring.
Combine Filters
Once you have a subgenre in mind, filters help you narrow the list further. On Discover, you can combine genres and subgenres with other details such as country, active years and artist status, which tells you whether an artist is still active.
Discover also lets you choose how several genres work together. Match All shows only artists listed under every genre you picked, which helps when you want a specific blend, such as artists tagged with both shoegaze and post-rock. Match Any shows artists listed under at least one of them, which is better when you want a wider list to browse.
Make small changes. Add one filter at a time, and if the results get too narrow, remove the last one or switch from Match All to Match Any.
Explore Artist Pages
When an artist catches your attention, open their page. Artist pages bring together the details that help you decide whether to keep listening and where to go next:
- their genres and subgenres, which you can use as new starting points;
- popular songs on YouTube, so you can hear them right away;
- their discography, to see what they have released and when;
- links to the artist’s own website and profiles elsewhere.
If you would rather scan names directly, the Catalog lists every artist on Music Soil alphabetically.
Keep Exploring
Discovery works best as a loop rather than a single search. Start with a genre, narrow it to a subgenre, open an artist who stands out, and then follow one of that artist’s other genres somewhere new.
For example, you might start in rock, move into indie rock, find an artist you like, notice they are also listed under another style, and follow that branch next. Each step gives you a new set of artists connected to something you already enjoy.
If a path stops being interesting, go back one step and try a different branch. There is no wrong order.