The other 10% of the time I will listen to new things I've squirreled away in my personal listening queue, because the art was interesting, I've heard good things, or I randomly heard a song I like. Sometimes recommendations from friends will make it into that queue.
Random mixes, not usually. I'm far too picky. But there are niche subgenre mixes that can be good.
I did not grow up with those magnets, but some pictures associated with each letter of the alphabet in preschool, and I think it had a similar effect. Red Apple for A, means A is red now and forever.
"We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky"
From the song Stories of the Street by Leonard Cohen. That first album is poetry put to music.