Personally, I think I’m pretty adventurous. I love music and my library has thousands of artists across dozens of genres like classic rock, new wave, Motown, smooth jazz, shoegaze, drum & bass, prog rock, hip hop, and more. Hitting ‘shuffle all’ is a recipe for absolute chaos.
I love finding new artists and connections between them (solo projects, supergroups, samples, etc), and every 5-10 years I discover a whole new genre and enjoy going down the rabbit hole. I have all-time favourites, but listening to the same thing for too long drives me crazy.
By contrast, my wife only ever really listens to 2 or 3 different artists and somehow never gets bored of listening to the same few albums on repeat for literal years.
Where do others fall on that spectrum? Do you feel the need to constantly seek out new music, or are you the kind of person who prefers settling into a groove long-term?
I constantly seek new music. I do try to stick with artists/albums for a few weeks in order to actually build a “relationship”, if you will, in the way physical media used to do it. I don’t quite build the sequential memory anymore, but I’m at least proud I can identify obscure bands in a shuffle.
As for variety, the genres are all over. I gravitate towards metal. Maybe numetal. But, it’s not just the instruments or specific genre, it’s the mood and melody. When I worked to compile my ultimate “radio” playlist, I realized it’s way less diverse than I thought. It’s mostly heavy and sad, even what I call pump up jams. Might not be outright sad, but the melodies are usually downward. At least, that’s how it feels. I also appreciate a good buildup. Not a tease before a drop, but stacking more instrumental layers as it continues. Love Deadmau5 for that.
Some pairs: Rammstein/Sonne vs Deadmau5/Strobe Rob Zombie/Dragula vs Noisecontrollers/Pillars of Creation Avenged Sevenfold/Beast and the Harlot vs Taylor Swift/I See You Now
You’re not going to beleive me, but they rhyme