I've discovered interesting results when I put some genre, instrument, or artist into Youtube, sometimes only picking long videos, and always sorting by views. For example, for the past month or so, whenever I need some background music to cut down on distractions, I've been going through Youtube's most popular chillstep collections starting at the top of
chillstep - YouTube and working my way down. I've previously enjoyed doing the same with 'melodic dubstep' and 'electroswing'... and 'accordion', 'bagpipes', and 'harmonica'.
But for my /favourite/ music... I'd probably have to pick music I'm actually trying to pay attention to instead of keeping in the background. In which case 'They Might Be Giants' tops the list, followed in some order by Jonathan Coulton, Arrogant Worms, Weird Al Yankovic, earlyish Crash Test Dummies, Moxy Frovous, most anything highlit by Dr Demento... Dave Brubeck, Raymond Scott... Jon Anderson, Mike Oldfield... Dinah Washington, Etta James, Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Nina Simone, Nancy Wilson...