I sometimes use Wikipedia to fill in gaps in my historical understanding of genres or the interrelationships between bands/producers/studios/genres/etc. Because so much of the value of Wikipedia is in the links and lists of links (almost moreso than the actual content in the page), I find my exploration is less predetermined by simple popularity/centrality of a particular page or cluster of pages. And yet... you're still stuck in someone else's garden, and you won't find many local/rare materials. For the rarer stuff, I have used similar methods on discogs.
I really do love it. As a kid, they used to warn against the danger of Wikipedia. "False information," "Can't use it as a source," "untrustworthy." a load of baloney. I like to live on the edge. If it's bad then why does it feel so good, am I right?
My favorite albums are "Release Radar" and "Discover Weekly". The greatest minds of our generation and a shit ton of computing power going to figure out what I might like? Sure, I'll listen.
