Do you remember the first time you really clicked with music? I remember being on a family vacation at 9 or 10, getting some sort of random Beatles “Hits” cassette tape at whatever gas station, and playing it nonstop in my off-brand Walkman. That was the first time I really felt music in my bones, and to this day few things are as exciting as finding a new song to love.
100%. While I’d been super into music from the time I was 12, my ability to appreciate it both more granularly (noticing more details, like you said) and viscerally (as it helped me become less uptight) increased dramatically when I started smoking bud (right after graduating high school, which I think I’m grateful I held off til then, although I’m now an ent for 25 years as of this month! Totally insane…)