My optimistic outlook is that most of the musical spaces I reside in will likely shun or be immune to whatever norms develop regarding AI. I personally care deeply about the fact that the music I listen to is made deliberately and thoughtfully by a human being, and I like to think there are many others who feel the same way.

More cynically though, I’m worried about AI taking market share away from music “made by humans”. If this becomes the norm, maybe there just won’t be money in doing things the old fashioned way. Maybe the type of musicians I want to listen to would be discouraged from making music in this new climate.

I sympathize with this experience, but I’m not quite sure why you “need” to quit your streaming services in order to achieve the desired effect. I almost exclusively use Spotify, but I use it to listen to new releases from artists I like, listen to way more albums then I could afford to buy physically, and check out music my friends recommend to me. You don’t have to use streaming services as a playlist aggregator, there’s nothing stopping you from actively enjoying music on there.

Why bother making something new when perfection already exists?

(kidding)

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This band was recommended to me because I like stoner rock and doom metal. I made the mistake of listening first to their album Butterfly 3000, which absolutely isn’t either of those things and it completely turned me off of them.

Then their most recent album came out and I realized that they’re just a really weird eclectic group. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’ve been meaning to check out some of their earlier music since then.

I hope some of that helps. Oh and also you can’t go wrong with Ed Sheeran. I still think his first album (+) is his best work.

I’m not quite sure what aspect of her music you’re trying to find more of, and it sounds like it might be multiple things.

If you’re looking for, specifically, modern popular country music sung by a woman about romance/womens issues, I’d recommend the album Plastic Hearts by Miley Cyrus, or Rainbow by Kesha (which sounds weird if you haven’t listened to her since Tik Tok, but her sound has really changed).

As far as artists endorsed by her, it looks like you’re already listening to Olivia Rodrigo, but definitely check out Sour if you haven’t heard it yet. I’d also recommend Lana Del Rey and Phoebe Bridgers, who have both been featured on Taylor Swift songs, and are both great story tellers (although they’re typically more somber than Taylor Swift, more like Folklore).

As for some more personal picks from me that are maybe a bit more out of the box: I really like Car Seat Headrest. They’re an indie band that has a bit more of a DIY sound, but their music is incredibly emotional and the storytelling is compelling. This song is my favorite from them, but most of their stuff is more about romance than this. I also really like the bands Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms. Both are a bit more emo but they capture a lot of the heartbreak and teen angst that was present on early Taylor Swift stuff.

Hey cool my home town is being talked about on the Internet :D

Oh…

Perfect, she’s just in time to see streaming services fully adopt cable tv business practices

This is more of a meta thing, but relevant to a lot of comments I’m seeing here. Having an opinion about pineapple on pizza is the most uninteresting cultural phenomenon. I’ve spent the last 4 years on dating apps, and at least 1 in 3 people write in their bio about this “issue”. It’s not something that people truly have strong feelings about, it’s like straight men saying Ryan Reynolds is attractive, or people arguing over the definition of a sandwich. It’s an opinion that people hold as a proxy for being somebody with strong opinions.

I’m basic and most of my favorite metal is pretty accessible. That being said, there’s a couple I don’t usually play for my friends:

Yodh - Mizmor

Converge, in general

Meshuggah, in general