Reddit reviews Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos

[Joshua Minsoo Kim] It depends on how we're defining obscure. I'll break it down based on genre/country and time period for what I specifically do for myself. Some of these are more elaborate than others and that's just a result of how much time I'm willing to invest based off my taste/interests.

For contemporary Japanese music I often go on OTOTOY, Mora, RecoChoku, or HMV Japan if I want to just browse for stuff. Otherwise it's mostly through YouTube subscriptions. Patrick St. Michel (former frequent contributor to TSJ) has a great blog that's relatively comprehensive for an English-language blog. I also look to TSJ writer Ryo Miyauchi for idol pop recommendations too. He has written stuff on his Medium page on the topic.

For contemporary Korean music I primarily use Melon (basically Korea's Spotify and Hot 100 all in one) and r/kpop. On Melon they allow you to look at recent singles that were released in a respective genre (updated way more frequently than Spotify) and I devour the rap charts daily just to keep up with that. Otherwise, a bunch of YouTube subscriptions (too many labels to name), Soundcloud subscriptions (mostly rap, r&b, and remixes), Bandcamp pages (dance music, indie), and adding musicians/producers/industry people on Facebook (yes, I know, lol).

For contemporary Southeast Asian pop I visit Music Weekly and look through the charts there every week. That usually then leads to me subscribing to YouTube channels and going off YouTube recommendations there. Some countries have different charts too that are helpful.

For contemporary African music I mostly just use various playlists on Spotify or YouTube and visit OkayAfrica from time to time.

For contemporary dance music (not dance pop) it's really just a matter of keeping up with retailers (e.g. Juno, Bleep, Clone, Deejay) and record labels you're interested in. Obviously mixes on Soundcloud and MixCloud are crucial to the scene and there are way too many to name. Resident Advisor is always handy too, of course. I think it's sometimes helpful to see who's DJing at various clubs, be it big name ones like Berghain or local ones near you, and help that guide your discovery.

For contemporary rap music it's a mix of the bigger name sites (Complex, HNHH, Fader) and the lesser-known ones (Passion of the Weiss, Warm & Easy for UK stuff) but honestly, Pitchfork's The Ones has proven to have such a larger scope than I ever expected (mainly because it's by Alphonse Pierre, one of the very best rap writers right now) that it's surely one of the best resources right now. Otherwise, YouTube and Twitter (much to my chagrin).

For any contemporary indie, experimental, non-pop stuff the easiest way is to just subscribe to record label and artist newsletters and Facebook pages. And obviously there's Pitchfork and Quietus and Tiny Mix Tapes and The Wire etc to help you navigate that more easily.

For any old music that isn't canonical, it's tough. Every canon list that's out on the internet right now by a major publication is filled with obvious (and Western) music. The easiest way to find stuff is to look through RYM (sort by year/decade and genre), discogs (see what releases that producers/engineers/artists have worked on besides stuff you know, sort by country or genre, etc), and download blogs that feature stuff you're interested in. Books on various topics are sometimes astronomically insightful and seem underutilized as a tool for music discovery by younger music fans (currently going through Rumba on the River right now and the amount of information it has that I wouldn't be able to readily find on the internet is large). I also think it's good to look at various record stores around the world given that have their stuff is online. Otherwise, I sometimes browse Mercado Livre for Brazilian music and Yahoo Auctions for Japanese music. Before private music torrent tracker what.cd was shut down, it had so much music to look through that proved irrefutably useful. Easily the best resource along with Soulseek (though since what shut down, I've noticed more users "locking" their files). The sites that have replaced what are in no way comparable in terms of having a comprehensive database (granted, they're still relatively new but it's still a huge bummer).

That covers most of it. Though I should mention that I also use TSJ a lot to keep up with pop music. I had followed the site for years before joining and it is definitely covering music that most sites aren't.

If anything was unclear or you want specific examples of certain things I mention, feel free to ask questions.