The Music Genome Project
Thanks to Kelley for mentioning Pandora, a nifty site that broadens the musical horizons. A group of musicians and technologists analyzed over 10,000 different artists, coming up with what they call the “genes” of music — melody, harmony, and rhythm come readily to mind — as well as other terms (meandering melodic phrasing, orchestral arranging, and wet/dry recording sound, to name a few).
Here’s how it works: you enter a name of a song or artist, and Pandora generates a playlist (”station”) of similar music. As you rate their choices (thumbs up or down), Pandora’s selections change accordingly. If you’re curious why Pandora chose a particular tune, you can see its “genetic” breakdown.
I entered the band Intuition first, which Pandora didn’t know, and then tried Neuroactive, which yielded better results. Since I was just trying things out, Pandora created a small Neuroactive station consisting of about eight different songs, and I liked about half of their choices. It was an easy, interesting way to break out of listening to the usual favorites again. I’ll be spending more time noodling around their site to see what their stations can put together.
