Today I found a really cool book about music family trees. It's always amazing to learn how groups formed, membership changes, keys songs and writers/producers.
I used to spend hours on all music guide's website learning all the influences of artists I like and their followers.
I think every musician should study as much as possible and learn about the history of music. It not only provides a knowledge base to learn from but to borrow from as we see with modern day sampling. Alessia cara "here" wouldn't be here without Isaac Hayes. We wouldn't have fallen in love with Alicia keys "fallin'" without her james brown sample.
I know for some you had no idea these were samples. Even more important for you to start studying. Start with this book and allmusic.com today!