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saavedra77

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to getting on Pandora.

jmargethe introduced me to the site, ages ago, but because I didn't have high-speed access at the time it wasn't really an option. Then I kind of forgot about it for awhile. I ran across the site again the other day, though, and this Music Genome Project thing is really, really working for me. It seems like I've discovered more new music over the past week than during the preceding year.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Location: Home
Current Music: "Heat's Big Blue Car" - Rev. Horton Heat

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

delerium69.livejournal.com

I think I just found a new way to spend my musical life.

Is this good or evil?

From:

saavedra77.livejournal.com

If loving Pandora is wrong, do you really need to be right ...?

From:

delerium69.livejournal.com

*grins* I've already created a bunch of stations. It's not perfect, but still a fun site.

From:

saavedra77.livejournal.com

There are definitely pluses and minuses.

I've created 11 stations, so far, trying for a very distinct sound in each case, and with some mixed results:

Setting up a Flamenco-oriented station turned out to be pretty straightforward, as it's a highly distinct musical style, and providing "seeds" like Ojos de Brujo and Carmen Linares achieved the desired result very rapidly.

My Ska station certainly works like a charm, but that may be a function of the sheer number of seeds I included: the Specials, the English Beat, Bim Skala Bim, many others. Of course, some of what turns up is just plain reggae, or ska-punk, but that's OK with me. That's about the degree of variability I was looking for.

Designing an old-time, Cuban station (seeds: Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Omara Portuando, etc) also worked OK. It drew in some non-Cuban stuff (Latin Jazz & salsa), some Cuban country, but it's all ... sonically congruent, so far.

Setting up a station oriented around Los Lobos proved much more complicated, as their music covers styles ranging from Mexican folk ("La Pistola y El Corazón") to lots of roots rock ("A Matter of Time") to just a smattering of alternative ("Kitate", "Buddy Ebsen Loves the Night"). I ultimately settled on a kind of "Roots Rock" theme that captures the bulk of their work and a lot of Anglo bands with similar styles.

I created a decent D.I.Y. punk station (seeds: the Clash, the Jam, the Mekons, Iggy Pop, the Gang of Four, the Damned) although some of the stuff that's turned up is just bizarre: Indigo Girls? They Might Be Giants? Not here, thanks!

Similarly, a station structured around the Pogues mostly works, turning up Shane McGowan (solo), the Clumsy Lovers, the Tossers, Oysterband, the Levellers, & Flogging Molly. But the Beatles? The Smiths? The Hooters ...?!

Finding a folk mix that I can live with has proven the hardest, perhaps because my tastes are very subjective and don't necessarily map onto the criteria Pandora is using in the MGP. Basically, I like literate, sharp folk acts like Martin Carthy & Eliza Carthy, but can't abide the cloying, sentimental stuff satirized in "A Mighty Wind." Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson, Cordelia's Dad, and Brass Monkeys work. But Peter, Paul, & Mary is really, really not what I'm looking for. Neither are Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Bok, or Peter Seegar, to be honest.

But I guess it's fix-able (by adding more seeds, more thumbs-ups & thumbs-downs), and worthwhile for the new discoveries that you make.

From:

delerium69.livejournal.com

Hm, your ska station seems very similar to mine. ;-)

I'm enjoying my blues station and jazz station. At the moment I still fiddling with the others (well the industrial, electronica and trip-hop stations seem to be at the right place). Everything else seems to be in flux, but I may borrow some of your ideas, if you don't mind. Folk for me is a bit different, as I tend to look at more as "roots" music, and I did, in fact, start out with Pete Seeger. But I may shave off some musicians and just create a blue-grass station to make it more manageable. (Cordelia's Dad! I almost forgot about them, and they're from my home state!) I definitely need a punk station.

I found for celtic-rock, it worked better when I started out with Flogging Molly. I'm thinking that sometimes the system selects artists based on aspects of songs and may insert musicians who don't belong. They know that happens, which is why they have the thumbs down/up features, as well as the ability to add more musicians (which I missed at first).

This is my profile, btw: http://www.pandora.com/people/bludelerium

Thanks again for introducing this site to me!