Music TikTok's Guide To Expanding Your Music Taste

As someone who takes immense pride in my status as a music geek, I don’t know a lot about music. Or, at least, I didn’t until fairly recently. 

Growing up, I spent a great deal of time in music lessons, bands, choirs, musical theatre troupes, and all other sorts of musical groups as a performer. I was participating in and experiencing music every day but only on the surface level — I never explored music beyond what was put in front of me by my teachers and directors. 

It wasn’t until December of 2020 that I learned to look beyond what was right in front of me to discover that there was more to music than what was in the top 40. This is because, on December 21st, 2020, I joined Music Tok. 

Music Tok is a small but mighty community of TikTok creators dedicated to the art of music. This handful of creators don’t necessarily make music themselves but instead talk about the music they’ve been listening to, give tons of suggestions, and educate TikTok users on the musical, lyrical, and societal components of music. Through my involvement with this passionate group of creators, I have opened myself to a whole new world of music extending across multiple genres, eras, and cultures. 

Yet each of these creators was once like me — they only knew the music that was put in front of them. Each has their own unique musical journey and strategy for music discovery. Each has a story that I think will help you to expand your music taste just as they helped me expand mine. 

I recently reached out to five of the leading creators on Music Tok - Annabelle (@annabelleklienee), Pablo (@pablothedon), Slater (@jaydotbell), Will (@willtalksmusic), and Xavier (@xavier_still_undefeated) and asked about their musical development and how they continuously expand their music taste. Here’s what they each had to say.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What was your relationship to music growing up? And what was the first album, song, or artist that you fell in love with? 

[ANNABELLE (@annabelleklienee):] I’ve been collecting records since I was like fifteen and I have gone to so many concerts I can't even count. My favorite thing in the world is going to see live music. I’ve known everything about every artist I’ve ever loved and I’m sure that started with Justin Bieber and One Direction. Getting obsessed, learning all the facts, like knowing their family members’ names. And then I just carried that through to every artist I loved and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. 

I grew up listening to a lot of hip-hop and RnB in general. Like, my mom raised me listening to 50-Cent and Kanye. But I think in terms of really starting to focus on hip-hop-centric artists, that really started for me with Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, and Frank Ocean. 

[PABLO (@pablothedon):] This is gonna sound really weird, but the first artist might have been the Cheetah Girls. I just really loved that first movie and I got the album for a birthday or something random and I was just obsessed with it. That was the first one that made me realize “oh, okay I really like this!”

But I’ve always been around music. My mom was big into music. When we would clean on Sundays, she was always playing gospel music and she introduced me to Lauryn Hill when I was really young — so it was always around. But I think the Cheetah Girls was the first time it was my own discovery. 

[Slater (@jaydotbell):] I used to always hear music whenever I was riding in the back of my parent’s car. And I heard “All Of The Lights” on the radio and it’s just like a very loud instrumental-heavy song. The drums are very loud, the horns are really loud and I was just like “this is insane!” Like this is not the pop songs that I’m used to hearing. So it made me go on iTunes later that day and I listened to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I’m sure my parents didn’t want me listening to explicit music back then but it was okay. So I listened to that whole album, fell in love with Kanye West and that was when I really started to enjoy listening to albums in their entirety because back in the day I used to only listen to whatever popular singles that were out. 

[WILL (@willtalksmusic):] It’s an album called Hurry Up We’re Dreaming by M83. You know, I obviously loved a bunch of albums before that, but that is the album that I think turned the tides of me being just somebody who was just into music and somebody who kind of wants to dedicate my life to music. And I think it made music way more important to me than other albums cuz you know I grew up on The Strokes and My Chemical Romance and like a bunch of rock bands but Hurry Up We’re Dreaming made me realize what music is capable of doing. I was like “oh there’s shit beyond like guitars and like screaming vocals” and stuff like that — which was the stuff that I’m super into was like the energy. 

But, yeah, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming by M83 for sure. It was just, I don’t know, it kind of blew my mind a little bit which made me like music even more and opened up my mind to listening to more stuff than just straight-forward rock music. I think it came out in 2010. And I think I probably listened to it in 2012 and I just literally heard about it on a Reddit thread where somebody was talking about underrated albums of the 2010s and just the description that somebody wrote about that album was so beautifully written and I was like “Oh, this person really cares about this album. I should listen to it!” And then I did and I was just like “Oh my god”

[XAVIER (@xavier_still_undefeated):] I feel like my parents — my dad especially — was super into music. As a kid, I remember I watched School of Rock when I was eight or something and I just loved that they were playing music. I wanted to do that. I want to play guitar and stuff. And my dad who is like a super big rock-head said he was going to give me the entire history of rock and all these artists.

When I was like maybe like 6 or something, my mom had one album in her car — or one album that she played around me that she really liked and it was, I forget what it was called, but it was the album with “Riding Dirty” on it. And then – don’t worry —she got in a car crash. She’s fine, but she lost that album. But when I was a kid, I didn’t know what that (“Riding Dirty”) meant so I thought it meant riding in the car without your seatbelt on. But when she got a new car - the first album she got was Kanye’s Graduation and that was like the first album that I really listened to a lot. This album was really ingrained in my memory.

But I really got into it (music) from a regular high school kid’s perspective. I did plays, theatre, and choir and I was decently good at it. I used to sing and play the piano. So I was into music in that way, but I think the first time I considered myself a ‘music person’ was when I — have you ever seen the movie Baby Driver? I thought that movie was the coolest thing. I listened to that soundtrack so much and then I started listening to everything. 

[UNPUBLISHED:] What would you say is the ideal listening space when trying to expose yourself to new music?

[ANNABELLE (@annabellekienee):] I take listening to new albums very seriously, which is why it will usually take me a week or two after it drops to properly listen to it. I like to listen to it all the way through in one go in order as every album should be listened to. I like listening in the car or on long drives or on walks. Or sometimes I’ll just put on my headphones and stare at the ceiling. Kind of whatever the energy of the album is. If it’s more upbeat I have to be upbeat or in my car where I can yell and get the hype with it. But then if it’s a more calm introspective album I like to just lay down in my room or outside on the grass and just listen.

[PABLO (@pablothedon):] On Thursday nights, right before new music drops, I’ll play with my dog a bit, put him to bed, and then I’ll just lay in my bed and connect my to my speakers, and then I’ll go through Genius list to see what’s coming out and then I’ll make a game plan of what I want to listen to fist. I always listen to singles first because they’re the easiest thing to listen to so I can digest them while I’m listening to albums and then I can come back the next morning and go through the singles again while I’m doing my morning routine. I just lay in my bed and I just listen and close my eyes. Sometimes I nod off. Sometimes I’m just, “oh my gosh” awakened by something great or sometimes I immediately like to skip after the first 10 seconds because I can’t handle what’s going on like it’s all just too overwhelming. Just a very relaxed state. 

[SLATER (@jaydotbell):] Ideally, whenever I listen to albums, there always has to be a car listen. Whether it’s hip hop whether it’s RnB whether it’s pop or any of the other genres I love, I have to listen in the car. I can listen on my headphones, I can listen in my bed at night, but eventually, I’m going to have to listen to the album in the car and see how that sounds. Whether the windows are rolled down or whether I’m blasting it with the bass and everything - I feel like that’s a necessity for me. 

[WILL (@willtalkismusic):] It kind of depends on the album. I think in darkness, at nighttime is my favorite time to listen to an album. Especially on vinyl or anything like that. Maybe like one light on, cuz like pitch black that would be weird. But, um, one light on, just like super mellow. If you’re really feeling fancy. Like if I’m really feeling — like if I’m listening to a Mount Eerie album or a Bright Eyes album I’ll throw on a candle. But for the most part, if I’m just listening to an album for the first time. Probably just, I do most of my listening at night. And now, because I have to listen to so much more music. I’ll listen during the day too. But just headphones in kind of low, dim lighting. Just because it makes me focus on the music more. I think I get more distracted during the day when shit’s happening. In that case, I’ll put on noise-canceling headphones. But I usually use audio technica M50Xs and it’s just the best, most accurate listening experience you can have. 

Xavier(@xavier_still_undefeated_): I have like really bad attention with stuff like that - I don’t like being on my phone while listening to an album - that just feels like sacriligous. So I’ll honestely I’ll just like sit down with some videogame that I don’t care about that I can just use muscle memory - something like mario kart or smash bros - any game that I don’t have to think about. Or I’ll just go for a walk or like a drive. A lot of times though I end up in my room just vibing - not even knowing what’s happening on the screen just listening to music.

[UNPUBLISHED:] What are some great resources you can recommend to anyone looking to expand both their music taste as well as their music library?

[ANNABELLE (@annabellekienee):] For the artists, I look up to, I watch their interviews, listen to what they have to say and who inspires them, and then I’ll go discover that music.

TikTok just feeds it right to you. I will see a small artist with only a few hundred views and it will be some of the most spectacular music that I’ve ever heard.

Find the one artist or song you know you like, even if it’s something extremely popular on the radio. And like I said: just break it down and find out who produced this, who is featured on some of these artist’s songs and give some of their most popular songs a listen. And then eventually you will run into another artist that you like.

Spotify and Apple Music have also curated different playlists and radios which are always a great idea as well. We love Spotify’s Discover Weekly.

And even now with TikTok creators that are all about music discovery specifically, those are really good outlets for finding new music. Especially when you find a creator that you feel like you vibe with. If you find that person then you can trust their recommendations to help you find new music that way

[PABLO (@pablothedon):] Music is coming from everywhere now. I get music from everywhere. Like Twitter’s a big place for me to get new music. I think everyone discovered someone like Pink Pantheress off of TikTok. I still hang out with musicians and they tell me what they’re listening to. A big thing for me also is looking at the Genius release calendar every week to see what’s coming out whether it’s singles or the album release calendar. My family will tell me stuff, group chats. Music is truly coming from every single side.

With the resources available now, I would say find someone on social media that you resonate with that talks about music and gives recommendations — there’s so many of us in that Music Tok space that are curating different playlists and sounds for people to try. I think going to people who disseminate information well is a good start. But also just like talking to people, whether that be in Internet spaces or just like in your personal life — I make it a routine to ask people what they’re listening to at least once a month if I care about their music opinion. Or if I’m bored I’ll ask on Twitter or Instagram and people will give me loads and loads of suggestions if I just don’t know what to talk about or to listen to. 

Really just using the internet and building upon the relationships you have already will help you find new things. Because truthfully we might be friends and we might listen to different things. When you trust someone you trust their opinion — that’s probably the best way to get your music. With technology too. Spotify has great curated playlists sometimes, Apple’s decent, that app Discz that’s like a Tinder for music that’s a great way to get it. Sometimes I’ll just search ‘good music’ on Google and it’ll give me a list of things that have come out. Everything’s at your fingertips.

[SLATER (@jaydotbell):] It’s always been very hard for me to discover new artists and reach artists who are pretty underground or don’t have a big following yet because I was just never aware of certain plugs or anything like that. So I’ve always tried to keep an open mind and just listen to other people, ask other people what they’re listening to. Back in the day before I had my following, I would ask my friends for advice on what I should be listening to and I would listen to my brother and other people who listen to hip hop music. I don’t know how, but my brother always knew up-and-coming hip hop artists that were releasing songs that weren’t that huge yet. 

[WILL (@willtalkismusic):] I check out “Ones To Watch.” I follow a lot of music writers on Twitter. I think Reddit threads are actually really good because people find some really good underground shit in there. Rate Your Music as much as people make fun of it, you can find some really great stuff on there. I think, in general, get yourself involved in a community of people whether that’s a discord channel or like following people like myself. But, yeah people on TikTok are a great way to find new music. If you can find someone who you can trust, like a great source, but yeah there’s like a limitless amount of strategies. I even go to small local shows sometimes or I used to before Covid. And there are artists that I still like to this day that I listen to at these small shows that I had no idea who was playing. I don’t think that’s the most optimal way to discover new music. 

[XAVIER (@xavier_still_undefeated_):] I follow a lot of Instagram accounts for it. Music reviewers like Anthony Fantano and Sean C. — I'll watch a lot of times like Anthony’s whole track thing where he talks about new artists. And then it’s just keeping up with individual artists that I love on social media. Sometimes artists will talk about releases that they like — artist JPEGMAFIA will shout out an Injury Reserve release and I’ll be like “Oh Shit! I don’t know them. Let me check it out”.

No matter if you’re just a casual listener or a self-proclaimed music geek, there is so much music out in the world that has yet to be explored. Music Tok has helped me as well as countless others venture further into the unknown. Hopefully, each of these creators’ stories (as well as their videos) will help you do the same.