[microtherion]

You might be going about this in the wrong order. Instead of trying to become an expert in an art form that does not currently appeal to me, wouldn't it make more sense to first find instances of this art form that DO appeal to you, and then branch out from that?

So the order I would suggest is:

1. Find music you like particularly

2. Seek out music related to #1

3. Start thinking about why you like what you like

So, start by establishing a visceral connection to the art before delving into the analytic side.

[bredren]

This is the correct answer.

Being a music buff among music buffs is as much about having a well-developed taste in music as it is a knowledge of music that influences others.

So start by developing your taste in music. Here’s how:

Using a site like albumoftheyear.org, listen to the first one to three tracks on the top rated albums from every genre.

Do this every week on Monday. New albums come out later in the week and it helps to see the how reviews change after more critics and fans listen repeatedly.

Your goal should be to find albums that you want to listen all the way through.

Sometimes, You’ll listen to the whole album and want to start it over as soon as you’re done. Other times you’ll find the album doesn’t live up to its first few tracks.

Albums you consider great you’ll be lucky to come across once out of a dozen times, so you have to be patient with the process.

You’ll know you found something you like when It feels exciting to know about a piece of music like you’re in on a secret. And it makes you want to tell other people about it.

Share the album with someone and tell them what you like about it.

Going through this process won’t only be a great experience—-you’ll learn your own taste.

And you’ll have convinced yourself that you in fact do enjoy discovering and listening to music as much or more than the other art forms you mentioned.

You’ll find you naturally learn about historically important pieces of music from reading reviews and from talking about music with other people who are impassioned by it.

The key is to then follow up like you would when you hear a word you don’t know the definition of, or library that solves something you were considering coding by hand.

Make a note, listen to the album and think about the context it was mentioned in.

If it appeals to you go back and listen to the greatest hits if that appeals to you go through their entire catalog.

[ojosilva]

Finding the music you like (#1) is the OP's challenge. In fact, it's every other music listeners challenge. The "particularly" you mention is also not as obvious: could be the rhythm, the lyrics, the melody, the voice or a mix of all different factors, most of which are subjective. Songs you may like could be spread out in a myriad of styles, origin or periods too. A lot of it is not discoverable right away using streaming services AI, a manual procedure or plain intuition.

But I agree it has more of "viceral" to it than anything else.

My advice to OP: find the radio stations, podcasts or playlists that tickle your fancy and just keep track of what you like as you listen.

OTOH, if you want a more historical approach, read about the music (or watch documentaries/tv shows) before you seek it out. That works for me when reaching out to music that are not on my radar. For instance, during the Xmas holidays I tend to read many Best Albums of YYYY lists, such as the Rolling Stone magazine one. That's how I found Amy Winehouse, Radiohead's In Rainbows among others that would have gone inadvertently for more time. I enjoy reading the "why I should listen to" part.

[jmfldn]

This is exactly right. You can't become a music buff by following a predefined map, or at least that wouldn't be a very satisfying journey.

Speaking as a music fan, former producer and DJ I say that the secret is to follow your instincts. Find some things you do like, can be anything even if you currently only like a few things. Explore from here. Explore the artist's catalogue, find similar artists, look at related genres or the genre's roots / DNA. Spotify and YouTube algorithms are great at finding related content so just fall down a recommendation hole and see here it takes you. You can quickly make some interesting transitions into other genres even like this. Don't overthink it but see which things make you hungry to explore further.

Don't seek to be a buff. Seek to explore your taste, follow your gut, follow your feelings and see where it takes you. You'll naturally end up knowing a lot but it's not about knowing, it's about the joy and fulfilment of music and nothing more.

[omosubi]

Just to add to this - once you find music you do enjoy listening to, use discogs.com to find the producer of it and see what else they have produced, find what instrumentalists were on it that you really like and find what else they were on. Discogs is extremely valuable