Happy Friday. Knowing the difference between meter and rhythm is important in hearing music more deeply. Basically, the meter is the graph paper and the rhythm is the graph. In most popular music, the drums keep the meter and everything else lays rhythm over it. It's very easy to hear in reggae music. By the way, Jonny Greenwood Is the Controller is a wonderful reggae compilation, and the first track, Linval Thompson's "Dread Are the Controller" is great for an example of what we're discussing. The rhythms in reggae bass are at the center of what makes the music exciting. The drums and especially the guitar are used more on the meter side of things.
In jazz, the roles are kind of reversed. There, the bass has the primary metrical responsibility and the drummer is very free to play all types of very sophisticated rhythms.
Some thoughts on jazz listening: 1. Listen to a track several times. There is a tendency to listen to many tracks once each when listening to music. This is not a good approach, particularly for jazz, where the listener must become very familiar with the main melody and its structure to hear what the musicians are playing on it. 2. Concentrate on the performance of one instrument. Listen to it in relation to the melody (or "head", in Musician), and then to one or more of the other instruments. 3. Listen to the way jazz musicians can generate tremendous excitement and power even while playing at very low volumes. Suggested listening: Everybody Digs Bill Evans (featuring Philly Joe Jones on drums and Sam Jones on bass).