Music of XX century is rather a broad subject, but I assume - from your question - you are looking for popular music genres like pop, rock, hiphop, etc.
In fact, most of this music has been as much a cultural phenomenon and and a statement of a generation, as it was... music. Not being rude to individual artists, who were at times very talented, a lot of this music is musically rather simplistic and doesn't require any preparation, but a cultural context. Granted your film-literature preferences, a good territory to start explorations from would be watch a few music movies, like the history of the Doors etc. that could give you the context needed and you are all set for many months of listening. But is all largely about youthful energy, about love, a man vs society, about dance and drugs. So - if you are not too young anymore - it can be a bit boring ;)
One exception would be jazz, that is a bit more complex to grasp, but again - you have a good series from Ken Burns to start with. That being said, to enjoy jazz truly in it's more complex genres, I would argue at least certain musical background is beneficial, maybe some youtube talks etc.
Classical music... well this is a true ocean. Just Beethoven piano sonatas could be a passion for a year or two. You're talking about XX century, and there's been great classical music published in that period! But probably - if you go that route - you really want to start with renaissance and baroque. Here a lot of great introductory courses are available. If you don't have musical background, Robert Greenberg series on Great Courses is really an entertaining and valuable intro.
And then there is world music, ranging from African roots bands playing drums to Indian classical music.
Now - having all that said - my personal perspective is that to enjoy music, you want to enjoy music. What I mean by that, is that you might want to dance, sing, play! Even a simple baroque dance, played by your self, could be way more gratifying that latest dull pop hit. If you really want to enjoy music and not just be a pop music encyclopedia who knows names of The Beatles - you should do one of these!
In combinatorial optimization, the basic principle is is always: every primal, has a dual. That is, minimazing some expressions, means maximizing the other. Primal-dual would also - I feel - fit better to the principle, as described in this article.
In fact, most of this music has been as much a cultural phenomenon and and a statement of a generation, as it was... music. Not being rude to individual artists, who were at times very talented, a lot of this music is musically rather simplistic and doesn't require any preparation, but a cultural context. Granted your film-literature preferences, a good territory to start explorations from would be watch a few music movies, like the history of the Doors etc. that could give you the context needed and you are all set for many months of listening. But is all largely about youthful energy, about love, a man vs society, about dance and drugs. So - if you are not too young anymore - it can be a bit boring ;)
One exception would be jazz, that is a bit more complex to grasp, but again - you have a good series from Ken Burns to start with. That being said, to enjoy jazz truly in it's more complex genres, I would argue at least certain musical background is beneficial, maybe some youtube talks etc.
Classical music... well this is a true ocean. Just Beethoven piano sonatas could be a passion for a year or two. You're talking about XX century, and there's been great classical music published in that period! But probably - if you go that route - you really want to start with renaissance and baroque. Here a lot of great introductory courses are available. If you don't have musical background, Robert Greenberg series on Great Courses is really an entertaining and valuable intro.
And then there is world music, ranging from African roots bands playing drums to Indian classical music.
Now - having all that said - my personal perspective is that to enjoy music, you want to enjoy music. What I mean by that, is that you might want to dance, sing, play! Even a simple baroque dance, played by your self, could be way more gratifying that latest dull pop hit. If you really want to enjoy music and not just be a pop music encyclopedia who knows names of The Beatles - you should do one of these!