15 of the Best Music Forums on the Web

Music blogging has changed a lot over the years. The lawless world of mp3 sharing and underground communities has been mostly dismantled, and now the hardcore users have to go deeper underground. Enter the forums. They don't appear to be much—the best ones usually look like an email inbox stuffed with a bunch of categories and subject lines and not much else. But poke around for a few hours and you'll see that there are thriving communities of music lovers sharing links, stories, recommendations, advice, and anything else you can imagine. Here are some of the best music forums on the web.

Reddit has become known for spewing up active conversations on almost any and every topic in the past few years. Besides the heavy traffic it attracts from the frequent AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, one of the most popular sections is Hip Hop Heads. This section is a place for fans to discuss current events, debate classic hip-hop, or bring up basically any subject they want. It's an incredibly active and interesting forum which you can easily get lost in for hours.

Plus, the users of Reddit aren’t always just anonymous fans, artists like Chance The Rapper have been known to post things quite frequently.

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Since the beginning, Kanye West has been known for having a lot to say. And his fans are just as intellectual and opinionated. So what better way to express themselves than to have a forum dedicated to all things Kanye as well as whatever else sparks their interest. As expected, the site covers topics that Kanye himself would be intrigued by, such as art, fashion and other artists he likes.

'Ye is probably out there anonymously joining in on some of these heated discussion on his rare down time.

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Vinyl records have obviously been around for a long time, but the obsession has grown with a younger audience in the past few years. Because so many of the young collectors are new to this, there are questions that need to be answered and knowledge to be shared. On the message boards of Vinyl Collective, newbies can learn about proper care, how to tell the quality of a record and so on. And like most music forums, there are also threads for people to share their favorite albums or record store finds of the year.

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Usually when a website looks as distracting as 4chan does, that becomes a major downfall. But the aesthetics don’t seem to be a damaging factor here. Regardless of the format, the traffic remains heavy. Unlike some other message boards that have some pretty vague topics, 4chan threads tend to be really specific. There’s literally a thread for everything. Some threads include: favorite albums you used to hate, best albums to sleep to, rating each album in an artist’s catalog, sex playlist suggestions, and even classical music suggestions.

4chan has it all.

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Okayplayer has always been a place for fans dedicated to soulful music. And the message boards are really no different. Though there are threads on various topics, the most popular ones are always the threads about some of the site’s favorite artists: De La Soul, Wu-Tang, Madlib, etc. Because of their affiliation with Okayplayer, The Roots are always a hot topic.

Other interesting threads are the weekly ones about the walk on songs that The Roots play for the guests on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (previously, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon). Questlove as well as the rest of The Roots crew always put serious thought into the songs they choose for each guest and the threads allow people to discuss which songs were chosen and why.

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The basic premise of Rate Your Music is that anyone can, er, rate the music that they own. There are numerous reviews of albums new and old, many of which are extremely detailed and pretty technical. There are also lots of brilliant lists curated by members—everything from "best albums of the year" to "favorite trap rap songs" to a playlist for "a swanky dinner party."

And if you haven't already spent half your day exploring the above, there are the highly active, engaged threads to dive in to.

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Every once in a while you get tired of the music in your iTunes and you just want something new but don’t know where to look. Well, Drowned In Sound’s message boards are a good start. Most of the top threads are based on music suggestions. Some of the current popular ones include: Late career albums worth a listen, Recommend albums of 2014, Artists who have/haven’t survived the hype, Introduce me to your favorite band, and so on. Between all of these different threads, you’re bound to find something new even on your first visit.

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Don’t be thrown off by the name, Absolute Punk is absolutely not just about punk. However, that is pretty much the heart of the site. The majority of the threads are each dedicated to an individual artist or band. This makes it easier for the fans to get to get together and talk about their favorite acts. Aside from that, one thread with a long ongoing discussion is one titled “I’ve been meaning to check out ____, where do I start?”

We’ve all had this dilemma before, you’ve heard great things about a band but there discography is so long that’s almost intimidating. This thread has been helping people figure out where to begin their listening experience since 2011.

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Although the word “hypebeast” has come to mean someone who follows all of the latest trends, that all started because those kids put so much faith into Hypebeast, the site. It has consistently been a trendsetter and continues to live up to its reputation in the forums. The most popular topics in the music section of the Hypebeast forum are the ones dedicated to beats and aspiring artists. These threads are a great opportunity for new artists to try and get a little more attention because honestly, you never know who may be looking.

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Another forum that is trying to help young artists develop their craft is The Muse’s Muse. On this message board there is a popular thread simply called “Song Feedback.” Rather than discussing the work of already established artists, on here people are able to help artists by providing constructive criticism. Various artists post a link to their song as well as the lyrics and sometimes a technical breakdown of the instrumentation. Beginning a music career is all about trial and error and getting used to both negative and positive feedback from strangers is a good way to build confidence as well as tough skin.

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Everyone wants to be a DJ these days, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to eventually tour the world like Diplo then you’d better make sure you perfect your craft. The forum on DJ Chat may be of some assistance to any aspiring DJs. The threads give advice on all the things a beginner should know: proper equipment to use, how to get the sounds you want, lighting effects, etc. As expected, the sound advice section has the most activity because if you’re a DJ that can’t get the sound right, nothing else really matters.

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Most message boards about music cover genres that are fairly similar, Philaflava is all about variety. The threads under the section named after Rick Rubin range from blues to reggae to metal. The various genres covered on this message board are great for readers with an eclectic taste. While many forums include threads where people post download links to albums, there’s not too many where you can find an entire thread dedicated to reggae. The thread “reggae uploads” has been provided links to hard-to-find reggae albums for the past five years.

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Dubstepforum is your one stop shop for everything dubstep related, as well as now taking in other forms of underground dance music as genres have become harder to classify. The forums were, and still are, an essential part of the scene, especially as it was expanding beyond London, with many of the main producers having accounts and getting involved.

There are sections for mixes, unsigned artists, reviews, production tips, and anything else you can think of. There’s even a thread that tries to help explain what exactly dubstep is to the newcomers. If you want to try and grasp just how obsessive, knowledgeable, and, yes, argumentative, the dubstep community is, check this site out.

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Since there are forums for DJs, producers and music lovers alike, it only makes sense that there would be some for musicians. One in particular is Ultimate Guitar, which provides all the technical advice guitarists could be looking for. The message boards are as much for experts as they are for beginners. The UG community has threads on guitar techniques broken down to different kinds of guitars; acoustic, electric or bass. And for musicians trying to further their career, more helpful threads include “songwriting & lyrics” which allow artists to get feedback on their work and “classifieds” which helps artists network with each other.

It's not all technical and business, either. Two of the most active threads are "Bands & Artists" (for discussing artists and songs you love or hate) and "The Pit," which is open for discussion of anything, and currently has over 13 million posts.

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If you want to talk about, discover, and delve into the world of pop music, the Popjustice forums (and whole website) is a great place to start. The comments are an interesting mix of obsessive fanboyism, rabid excitement, and the type of interesting insight that comes from following the every move of a certain artist. With specific threads for every major artist imaginable, this is a pop fans heaven.

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