Against the Algorithm: Find Music the Messy Way

Most of us still listen to the same music we listened to when we were younger:

Between the ages of 12 and 22, the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the same circuit that processes cocaine and sex, fires at levels in response to sound that it will never reach again for the rest of your life.

A 2025 University of Gothenburg study confirmed it: older listeners collapse into increasingly narrow loops, almost entirely anchored to music from their teens and early twenties.

However, a subset of us weirdos still like to discover new music:

The one variable that predicts whether someone keeps exploring: the personality trait “openness to experience.” Score high, you keep seeking.

I love finding new music. What I don't want is to be fed new music exclusively by an algorithm that prefers cheaply produced in-house songs, or AI-generated filler.

That’s the Spotify model.

So how do we find new stuff we like, in a messy, old-fashioned, mostly analog style?

Here are a few things I do.

SiriusXM

I love this streaming service, and would keep it over any of the absurd number of video streaming services I currently pay for.¹

Two Sirius channels in particular help me find new stuff. One is The Spectrum, Channel 28, which is a mix of new songs and recurrent rock from the last 50 years. It is aimed squarely at Gen X, and excels at uncovering modern artists Xers are likely to enjoy. This is where I first heard Noah Kahan and Goose, which I’ve been listening to quite a bit lately:

The other channel is The Highway, Channel 56. They claim to play “Next generation country music,” and that channel has introduced me to Thomas Rhett and Tyler Braden, among others.

Music Forums

There are old heads with good music taste still posting about it on online forums (look it up, youngsters). In particular, the Best New Albums of 2026 thread from the Steve Hoffman Music Forums unearths bands I would never give a shot otherwise, like Blackwater Holylight:

Apparently this genre is called “shoe gaze,” a genre that rocks, but is maybe just a little too depressed or introspective to rock too hard.

Anyway, I like it. I’d have never found these ladies from Portland without that thread.

Long live internet forums.

Other humans

Back in ye olden days, we used to look at each other’s CD collections and find new music to try. Some people still actually “converse” about music and share recommendations. The top person for me doing this is my daughter.² She’s introduced me to Ty Myers, Conan Grey, and even got me to like The Tortured Poets Department.

The bridge nobody’s building

Nostalgia music accounts on X miss the obvious move. They've already proven they share your taste in classic songs. Why not be the bridge to something new?

But they don’t. I’m sure that’s because they stick to what drives engagement, and that’s posting old songs.

I’m going to keep sharing new stuff I like. Because you might like it, also.

So here’s to finding new music. A messy, unpredictable, process. Make it anything but efficient and algorithmic. Be surprised. That’s part of the adventure the algorithms want to take from you.

Make the music you find yours.

1. The reason I pay for them is the rest of my family, who would hunt me down if I canceled the services.

2. Sadly, less so since she went away to college.