A musical rut, and how to get out of it

Have any of you looked at the music you listen to and thought, "my music tastes have barely changed since high school or maybe college?" A while back I had just this thought. My iPod was full of tracks that I had been rehashing for years. Old songs I loved in the 80's and 90's when I had time to listen to the radio and could afford to waste all my money on CD's. I'd listen to certain songs, get sick of them, then months later reload them again. Sure, here and there a new song would enter the mix, but these were usually songs I'd hear on the radio getting tons of play that I'd be burned out on pretty fast. However, my old standby songs always remained. I was starting to see why classic rock stations exist. We seem to be hardwired to keep listening to music we liked at a certain time in our lives. I know my parents still only listen to stuff they liked in their teens and early twenties.

So, to get out of this rut, I've been trying to listen to music by people I've never heard of. People that the music industry hasn't hand picked, prettied up and over-produced. Here are two good sites and specific songs that I've come across lately to get you out of that rut.

- The Sixty One -

This site is awesome. It is full of songs and bands that are up and coming who are voted on by the listeners by giving them "bumps" which are votes of confidence. I have found tons of good music on here, much of which is freely downloadable, such as these songs --











- Skreemr -

This site isn't necessarily for song discovery, but more of a site to turn to when you hear a song or band and want to get ahold of more of their music. The site is basically a search engine and the result it returns includes a link to download the song directly by right clicking on the title and clicking "save link as". A few examples--

	G. Love - Hot Cookin'
	Found at skreemr.com

	built for the sea - release
	Found at skreemr.com

	Meiko - Piano Song
	Found at skreemr.com

There are heaps of other sites like these, including Last.fm and Pandora for example. If you have found any good new groups or songs, share them in the comments.