A song from a genre you didn’t think you’d like—what changed?

Genres are weird. Wikipedia says this band is "folk rock," "alternative," and "nu-disco." I can't say I'm invested enough to know the meanings. What the hell does "alternative" even mean? I imagine I could look it up and find out it's got some deep and appropriate meaning, but in all my time listening to music I've never been able to figure it out. Music doesn't really fit in to these confined little boxes we call genres.

I think a lot of how I find new music and genres is to just come upon it without trying. I was at some live podcast taping at the Marines Memorial Theater in San Francisco and Thao Nguyen came out and played some songs on an acoustic guitar. She was just so good that the songs stuck with me. So I continued to listen to their music and I think their big new album at the time was A Man Alive and I just kept listening to it over and over again. It's still so beautiful. A few months later Thao was performing at The Filmore in San Francisco and I had to go. Only show I ever saw at The Filmore. Only show I needed to see at The Filmore. From where I was standing in the pit, I could see her warming up before coming on to the stage. The way Thao was dancing to the song that was playing through the venue's speakers before the show started was just so mesmerizing I could never forget it.