Talk to strangers about music

Your friends already know your taste and probably shaped it. A stranger comes with a completely different set of references — different scene, different country, different decade — which is the only reliable way to find music an algorithm was never going to serve you.

• What is on repeat for you right now
• The concert or gig you still think about
• Guilty pleasures you would not admit to friends
• Artists who fell off, and the ones who got better
• Genres you wrote off and later came around to

• “Last song you had on repeat?”Use this
• “A concert you will never forget?”Use this
• “Guilty-pleasure artist — go.”Use this
• “An album you can play front to back?”Use this
• “Song that instantly takes you somewhere?”Use this
• “What are you listening to right now, honestly?”Use this

• Ask for a song, not a genre. “What’s one song you’d play me right now?” gets something specific to react to, while “what genre do you like?” usually gets “a bit of everything”.
• Ask where the song takes them. Music is tied to places and years, and “what does that song remind you of?” gets you a story instead of just a title.
• Take their recommendation seriously. Say you will listen to it, and if you already know it, say what you think. Being specific shows you are actually paying attention.

Mocking someone’s taste is the fastest way to shut them down; a guilty pleasure shared with a stranger is a small act of trust. Long lists of obscure artists to prove your credibility rarely land. And if they ask for your playlist link or streaming username, remember that swapping accounts takes the chat off an anonymous platform.