Polyphonic does a fantastic job doing deep dives from the cultural side of things: https://youtube.com/@polyphonic

12tone is more of a nuts and bolts approach: https://youtube.com/@12tone

Both channels are excellent, and also on Nebula.

https://youtube.com/@adamneely https://youtube.com/@pianoteofficial https://youtube.com/@DavidBennettPiano

Check out https://www.youtube.com/@RickBeato for some background on the music industry and history (including interviews with industry veterans).

Also for rock history specifically (mostly 1970s to 1990s) see https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorofRock He includes a lot of background on why certain songs / albums were made and what motivated & influenced the artists. Clickbait titles though; I don't like that practice...

i quite enjoy Trash Theory, even when it's about an artist i am not super fond of i usually do come away with a new appreciation for them! also often i will find a couple new-to-me artists to listen to as a bonus :)

Stop using spotify/streaming for enjoy music (you can use it for discovering) and download/rip FLACs. Start your album collection by your favorites and find good albums using albumoftheyear.org and asking to audiophiles (like me!) for album suggestion, also Wikipedia.

3 essentials:

• Chuck Berry (1957) After School Sessions (rock & roll)
• Led Zeppelin (1969) Led Zeppelin (hard rock)
• Black Sabbath (1970) Black Sabbath (metal)

Also learning to play an instrument and watching musicians play live can help you.

The podcast Song Exploder might be of interest? They have an artist on to explain every bit of how they made a song. Lyrics, samples, instrument choices, etc. It's really interesting.

I feel besides watching stuff, learning to play practically any instrument or even just software to make music will also give you a lot more insight into music.

I think also good making of docs and recording session stuff will help. Hard part is finding the good ones.

Low End University analyzes songs from the bass players' perspective. I discovered the channel when he reacted to The Decline by NOFX. I knew the song before, but LEU brought so much analysis and a fresh perspective into it, that I appreciate the song even more now.

I don't know if this ~~fort~~ sort of thing will float your boat, https://www.youtube.com/@TheCharismaticVoice, Beth is an Opera singer and she does deep dives on firstly songs then continues to dive deeper into artists/bands

I like this channel https://www.youtube.com/@RadiorockTheOriginal

it often publishes entire albums, often new ones.

Captain Pikant's "Drum Patterns Explained" can be interesting, even as someone not into music theory/not a musician