Which genre should you get lost in next?
Jazz, ambient, bass, or warm acoustic, matched to how you already listen.
Start the quiz →What this quiz explores
Being told to get into jazz is useless, because jazz is nine different things and eight of them won't suit you. This works from how you already listen, whether you want harmony, atmosphere, weight or warmth, and points you at a specific door with three records behind it.
How it works
The quiz has 4 possible results. Each answer option was written to lean toward one of them.
Your result is the one your answers pointed to most often. Skipped questions, and the occasional answer that does not lean toward any result, are not counted.
Alongside the result you see your answer profile: the share of your answers that pointed to each result. Close percentages mean you sit between two results, which is common.
Four entry points
The Jazz Door
You want to hear people interacting in real time, and complexity is the pleasure rather than the barrier.
Harmony is the thing you listen for, rhythm should be elastic, and space in a recording is where the interest lives. You're happy to study, you'd play a friend one track and explain it, and you've bounced off free jazz before, which is a starting-point problem rather than a taste problem. Start with three: Bill Evans's Sunday at the Village Vanguard, for interaction at close quarters. Wayne Shorter's Speak No Evil, for writing and mood. Ahmad Jamal's At the Pershing, for space used better than almost anyone. Then Miles Davis chronologically from Kind of Blue forward, which is the best map of the whole thing. How to go deeper: follow sidemen rather than leaders, since the same twenty people made most of what you'll love, and the credits are the real index. Give a record five listens before judging. And leave the free and spiritual end for a year; it's wonderful and it's where most people quit too early.
The Ambient Door
You want music that changes the temperature of a room without asking anything of you.
Not at all or completely, in terms of attention. Repetition is essential, music without a clear beat is ideal, and what you'd take to a desert island is something that makes any room bearable. You've fallen asleep to something and counted it a success, which is the correct response. Start with three: Brian Eno's Music for Airports, which is where the word comes from. Hiroshi Yoshimura's Green, which is the gentlest possible door. Gas's Pop, if you want something with more weight in it. Then Harold Budd, Grouper, Stars of the Lid, and the whole Japanese environmental music tradition that's been reissued over the last decade. How to go deeper: this genre rewards long listening in real conditions rather than study, so use it for what it's for. Follow labels rather than artists, since ambient is curated more than most music. And try the drone and modern classical edges, which is where it stops being background and starts being overwhelming.
The Bass Door
You want weight and space, and the pleasure is physical before it's anything else.
Music should move a room, loud with weight underneath, rhythm at the centre, and improvisation happening in the mixing desk rather than on a horn. Repetition is the whole architecture. You tried this at a club and nothing stuck outside the venue, which is the classic failure and easily fixed. Start with three: King Tubby's dub work, particularly the Aggrovators sessions, which is where the whole lineage begins. Augustus Pablo's King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown. Then Basic Channel or Rhythm & Sound for the German descendants, and Burial for the British ones. Lee Perry's Black Ark productions when you want something stranger. How to go deeper: this music is a production tradition rather than a genre, so follow engineers and studios. Play it on something that can reproduce low end, since half of it is inaudible otherwise. And follow the line forward through jungle, dubstep, and contemporary bass music, which is one continuous argument about the same idea.
Warm Acoustic Door
You want a voice, wood, and air, and you'd rather be moved directly than impressed.
Central vocals even in a language you don't speak, gentle rhythm slightly behind the beat, warm harmony, and Sunday mornings as your listening time. You want music that feels like company. What's put you off before is anything that felt like homework. Two traditions suit you, and the brief pairs them for good reason. For Brazilian music: Joao Gilberto's Chega de Saudade, Caetano Veloso's self-titled 1971 record, and Milton Nascimento's Clube da Esquina, which is one of the great albums in any language. For chamber music: Schubert's late string quintet, Faure's piano quartets, and the Brahms clarinet quintet, all of which are conversational rather than grand. How to go deeper: both traditions reward small ensembles over large ones, so avoid the symphonic end of classical and the orchestrated end of Brazilian music while you're starting. Read nothing. Play one record until you love it, then follow whoever else is on it.
What this quiz can’t tell you
- It matches you on the preferences you report, so the result is only as good as the options offered. Your real favourite may not be among them.
- Taste shifts with mood and season. Treat the result as a suggestion to try, not a verdict.
Read more about how our quizzes are created, including how scoring works and what we do and do not claim.