by Jacqueline Dodd

Created on: September 07, 2008

I started getting heavily into music when I was about ten or eleven. I'd watch MuchMusic for hours each day waiting for videos by bands I was already a fan of to be played and watching out for offerings from good bands I had yet to discover. I was an avid listener of the radio as well and there were two or three stations I preferred that I could always count on to play new, interesting songs for me to fall in love with. These days - although both remain viable methods of discovering new music - I don't think either option is the best way to go about finding new artists. I can't remember the last time I watched a music video on MuchMusic - or sister station MuchMoreMusic, for that matter - but I can certainly tell you all about their roster of washed up celebrity centered reality programs. As for the radio, it seems to me that station programmers are too busy making sure they've got all the top 40 hits on heavy rotation to bother offering listeners something new and different. That said, there are certain stations that offer specialty programs such as Toronto's 102.1 The Edge, which presents such shows as the Indie Hour and Punkorama - two great sources of new, interesting music - but the example is also the exception in this case.

Aside from television and radio, when I received my first portable CD player and started requesting albums for birthdays and Christmas, I'd search the acknowledgements or thank you sections of the liner notes and make myself lists of the names of bands that my favourite artists listened to and admired. Any band name that sounded interesting or promising in any way went onto this list and it was how I discovered a lot of the groups I adored as a child. Listening to and watching interviews with my favourite bands was another easy, fruitful method of finding out who and what they were into. Chances are that if you like a certain musician, you're going to enjoy the artist who influences his or her sound as well. Word of mouth always worked for me as well and I'd often ask friends and acquaintances with similar taste who they were listening to, then check them out for myself. It was always hit or miss of course, but was well worth it as I discovered bands whose music I've had a ten year long love affair with this way.

I can also remember reading an interview once upon a time with John Frusciante, guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in which he was asked about the different ways that he himself finds new music to listen to. I recall

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