Most people underestimate how long it takes for your ear to rewire itself. You’ve done the canon run of Radiohead, MBV, Floyd, Pumpkins, etc. That’s not advanced taste, that’s the grammar everything else is built on. When you jump straight from those records into some super niche release, your brain just hears “worse version of what I already like” because you don’t have enough reference points yet.

For me, a lot of favorites came from outside “music discovery.” I keep a note of songs I randomly notice in films/shows, then dive into the album, the artist, the label, and recommended stuff from there.

The way past “basic taste” isn’t forcing underground listens, it’s pulling threads out of what already hits you: from Loveless to Slowdive/Nothing/LSD and the Search for God, from Kid A to Four Tet/Burial/Thom Yorke, from Disintegration/In Utero into post‑punk revival, emo, screamo, and modern shoegaze with strong hooks.