I just got into Bandcamp recently and I really want to expand my knowledge base on music. Most of what I listened to was either popular 80’s rock or several subgenres of EDM, but I’m slowly (re)introducing some genres like: Jazz, Country, Folk, and maybe Hip Hop.
Toss me a suggestion if you got one.
Rock - I’ve got a pretty wide range in guitar tastes, Slash has a solo album which is just so good and has you respecting artists you’d never imagine. Alice in Chains of course, but even after the death of Layne Staley they reunited and had some pretty fun albums, Black Fades to Blue and The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here (my fav post album). The Dire Straits and The Doors are classics of course, I find a lot of inspiration from them in Jane’s Addiction and Soundgarden. They’re so very different of course but they’ve got some roots.
But man I mean 311, Rise Against, Three Days Grace, Pantera, Velvet Revolver, Operation Ivy, Pennywise, Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphy’s, Incubus, Iron Maiden. Some of them had issues but they made some rocking music.
I am also a big fan of Authority Zero.
Oh and a kickass soundtrack by Tsueno Imahori for Trigun Badlands Rumble.
Electronic - I’m a big fan of the vaporwave and future funk scene. Vaperror’s manapool (all of them though really!), bl00dwave, St. Pepsi, and Blank Banshee are all classics. I would just start with their first albums :) For the more darkwave/synthwave I always want to give a shout to Xetrovoid, who has done some game music composition and he just has such awesome atmospheric music. It’s heavy metal electronica, basically. Magic Sword is also a lot of fun!
Jazz - Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew was released on March 30th 1969, just a few months ago was it’s anniversary :) I gave it a listen on the day and it was very enjoyable.
Hip Hop - I struggled as a teen with hip hop due to where I grew up and it encouraged me to delve deep into what really made me interested in lyrical composition. Check out Deltron 3030 - a concept album done by Oakland CA’s Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. It’s a masterpiece.
In addition to him, I cannot recommend the Flobots enough. You may remember their hit “Handlebars”, but they are so much more than just that single. And in the context of the rest of the album, that song is much more powerful. Johnny 5 also has an EP called Onomatopoeia which is stellar, but very heavy. It also has some of the same struggles with the hip hop scene that I felt growing up, which felt vindicating. I’d just say listen to their discography, a few times over. They are… Very informative.
Not quite hip hop but nerdcore: Schaffer the Darklord. He has 3 albums comprised of very well written and rapped songs that cover stories about battling fonts, the tin man, clone fucking, cats, zombie Jesus, and going on insatiable drug benders. And after two of those albums, he’s got a lovely apology tour style album that goes into his struggles with addiction and the lifestyle. All genuinely good music jokes aside, it’s just fun and funny and sometimes touching.