07 March 2007

Pandora's Box

shards

Music. When I was younger, I never listened to it. Not on the radio, not on a walkman, not anywhere, except in the car, where my older brothers would listen to 80s rock. I used to hate the question, "What kind of music do you like?" because I didn't know what kind of music I liked. I thought other kids would think I wasn't cool, because I wasn't up-to-date on the latest music or artist.

Anyways, those days are mostly over now. I've come to terms with my not musically up-to-dateness, and even the fact that I'm not a music junkie. I do enjoy listening to music though. World Music, Country, Christian, Easy Listening, and more. It has such power over my emotions. Which worries me sometimes. When I listen to music I wonder if my emotions are real, or if they are just being manipulated by Big Music. Then there's music that inspires me to do better, to be better, to enjoy life, and I'm pretty sure that's not a bad thing.

Anyways, just found a cool tool. Pandora Internet Radio, part of the Music Genome Project. It allows you to create customized radio stations. You can enter an artist or a song, or any combination of both, and it will play songs that have similar qualities. Every single track is analyzed by a professional analyst, using over 400 'genes.' Then, as the music is playing, you can give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, and the station will learn what kind of music you want it to play. Way cool. Right now I have a country station, a station playing music similar to the Weepies (and the Weepies), and several others. You should check it out.

2 comments:

matthew said...

i listened to 80s rock b/c it was the 80s. just so you know, i like other stuff too.

Anonymous said...

If someone listened to '80's rock, does that mean that Matthew is old?