Educate yourself on the classics. And not just because someBoomer told you to.

There’s nothing worse than hearing some old relative talk about how there’s been no good music since they were a teenager, and that “E^ST is just Alanis Morissette doing Carole King”. It can make you not want to listen to their ancient tunes out of spite, but if you do that, you’re really only hurting yourself. Because there’s a lot of gold buried in the charts of the past, and it’s never been easier to go hunting for it.

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Thanks to Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube – and the many users who put together playlists for us – there are heaps of opportunities to expose yourself to sounds you’ve never heard before. It will take some digging, especially if you’re fussy in your tastes, but sometimes it’s good to put on something random and let it play in the background while you study, draw or practise your karate moves. Whatever you usually do when you’re listening to music.

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But you don’t have to hunt alone. There are plenty of music snobs willing to point you towards stuff they think is great. Pitchfork has a list like this for every decade, sharing their top 100 albums (that one’s for the 1980s). You can look at Triple J’s Hottest 100 for each year, to see what people were into back in the day (that’s 1994). Or you can swallow your pride and dive into your parents’ old vinyl/CD collection. Who knows what you’ll find.

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Summer is the perfect time to do this, because there are alot of long, lazy days where you have the time and brain space to hear some newold stuff. It’s also a time where you make good memories, which means yoursummer soundtrack is waiting to be discovered. Finally, if you’re looking for amix of old and new songs about summer, here’s the perfect playlist.