Tuesday, March 07, 2006


Music Calms The Savage Beast...


It seems as though we can all use some calming down (more on this in a post a bit later), and I found just the site to engage and addict you, otherwise distracting you from the wrongs of the world around us.

You have to visit Pandora, created by the Music Genome Project. First, a brief explanation of the Music Genome Project, according to their own website:
On January 6, 2000 a group of musicians and music-loving technologists came together with the idea of creating the most comprehensive analysis of music ever.

Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song - everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like.

Over the past 5 years, we've carefully listened to the songs of over 10,000 different artists - ranging from popular to obscure - and analyzed the musical qualities of each song one attribute at a time. This work continues each and every day as we endeavor to include all the great new stuff coming out of studios, clubs and garages around the world.

So, what does this mean to you? Essentially, through Pandora, you can create your own personalized streaming radio station. Type in an artist or a song, and it will analyze other music according to influences, use of vocals, instrumentation, tonality, and a host of other elements. At any point, it will let you buy the song from iTunes, or purchase the album from Amazon, of course, but at its most elemental level, it's an AMAZING way to tailor your listening habits and find some new music - something we can all use. I've challenged it with some artists that I would label as fairly obscure, and Pandora has them, so check it out, and create your own!

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Posted by FleshPresser at 2:37 PM /

2 Comments

  • Blogger FleshPresser posted at 12:03 PM  
    Seth - it is EXCELLENT to see you visiting my humble corner of the blogosphere!

    Lizbeth - Of course you already know about this - you're too cool and hip for words... the rest of us will simply try to catch up!

    Karen - Welcome!!! I'm with you in terms of craving diversity, which is why I've already got nine different stations up and running.... I can switch from one to the other in the click of a mouse - but I'd love to hear your mix!

  • Blogger FleshPresser posted at 4:27 PM  
    I get what you're saying, thinking even in more simplistic terms - the difference between a ballad and something more uptempo, for example.

    I don't know that I consider it a flaw, though... after all, if one were to type in The Beatles as the group of choice, what would one "expect" to hear? Early Beatles? Later, more heavily orchestrated sounds?

    Which is better? Fat Elvis or Thin Elvis? :)

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