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oldangelmidnight wrote:How about classical? How do people get into avant garde weirdo classical stuff?

By listening to it
It's mostly curiosity driven, I listened to some odd sounds I liked, wanted to understand them, listened more, read what I found, then studied it.
You don't have to study it, like school study, of course, the greatest thing about a lot of the avant garde stuff I think you mean is that unlike classical music it works on how your hearing and understanding of sound works on its own rather than within the context of the system it's created within. Like most kinds of music, really. Of course, electroacoustic music is full of traditions started by Stockhausen, Schaeffer, grm, etc., but the system itself was driven by philosophies about understanding sound on its own. The term acousmatic music, for example, from the musique concrete guys, comes from the story of how pythagoras would give talks behind a screen so his pupils would focus on his voice on its own rather than him as a teacher.

In fact, getting into it could allow you to see a lot of the music you've moved away from in a new light, I know it has for me. I recommend a book called "understanding the art of sound organisation" by Leigh Landy. It's not alienating at all, I promise.

So, to get into it.. Don't try to sit down and force yourself to listen to something you don't like, that's never going to end well. But maybe you've watched Watchmen, and enjoyed the Philip Glass song that plays when mr manhattan goes all sad and lame (or maybe you've even watched Koyaanisqatsi). That's pretty easy listening, nothing avant garde or weird. Minimalism is a great route to go, if you can stand it for long enough to get to the interesting parts. If you stay on Einstein on the Beach too long you're going to get tired really quick, and there's only so much Steve Reich phasing marimbas you can take (not to mention the whole using voice cadences as a method of composing in the trains and 9/11 pieces). But La Monte Young was an interesting guy, and maybe after travelling downward from the one song in the movie you're curious enough to sit through some of the long works he does on specific pitches. Spend too much time on the Americans and you tend to get focused on Cage, but still, it's a very interesting route, and easy to get into. And there's nothing wrong with focusing on Cage, you could easily stop there and spend a few years in the Cage.
Or maybe you like Radiohead and you manage to use that famous sample to throw you into the electroacoustic world.

The point is, if that is your process rather than reading me saying "Horatiu Redulescu is gud, u should listen to" on a forum, you're much more likely to get into it.
You should totally listen to Radulescu, though. He composed works for sound objects. That's what he called grand pianos flipped on their sides and played with bows. Not very imaginative name.
Also, Shutter Island has a great soundtrack. It's got Feldman in it <3

tl;dr trying to convince ilf bro to listen to new music while trying desperately to sound excited and not pretentious, ending in the conclusion that he needs to let his own curiosity drive him