Hopefully you have all explored the magic that is Pandora – the discovery of new music, how music can hold common threads while still being unique, and the art of building your own Pandora station. I know that I use Pandora on an almost daily basis.
Before I nerd out on my Pandora station, let’s learn a little more about this internet radio from the source itself. If you don’t know the art and science behind Pandora, it’s called The Music Genome Project:
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.
Since we started back in 2000, we’ve carefully listened to the songs of tens of thousands of 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.
It has been quite an adventure, you could say a little crazy – but now that we’ve created this extraordinary collection of music analysis, we think we can help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.
We hope you enjoy the journey.
And picking up on that last line that founder Tim Westergren states on the Pandora site, this is a journey – not just for Pandora in discovering all of these music “genes” but for the listener as well. This is no regular radio station as the listener takes a very active role in what they would like to hear.
As I type this post, I’m listening to my most prized Pandora station. I would say that I’m proud of this station which seems like a strange thing to say but that’s the way I feel about it. I’ve carefully cultivated this station over time, making sure to selectively “like” certain songs, thumbs down others (though I appreciate Pandora for challenging me), and adding variety over a long period of time. What I’ve gained is a station that rarely if ever plays a song I don’t like, almost never plays I song I dislike (when I thumbs down a song, I usually just want to keep the station moving in a certain direction; it’s not that I don’t like the song), and consistently delivers me fresh new songs/bands/albums that I would (and have!) probably go out and buy in the real, physical world. (Yes, I still buy CDs.)
I’ve named this station that I’ve cultivated over about 1 1/2 years: “Upbeat Indie Rock.” It started with seeding (the input you add by typing in a song or band) Vampire Weekend, and a few months later seeding in Phoenix. But from there, it has all been about selectively liking songs and bands to produce a station that plays: Vampire Weekend, Phoenix, Radiohead, The Strokes, Bloc Party, Little People, Mike Snow, Frou Frou, Sia, Suf’jan Stevens, Daft Punk, Florence & The Machines, The Rapture, Spoon, MGMT, Bright Eyes, Arctic Monkeys, RJD2, Violent Femmes, Aqueduct, Death Cab for Cutie, Passion Pit, Ratatat, Cake, The Kooks, Band of Horses, Rock Kills Kid, Ok Go, Guster, The Ting Tings, Two Door Cinema Club, The Raconteurs, The Temper Trap, Cut Chemist, Grizzly Bear, The White Stripes, Pixies, Muse and so many more.
Now I don’t really care if the name I’ve given the station really applies to all of these bands and songs, but what I’m looking for in this station is fairly upbeat/uptempo/energizing songs (though sometimes it’s a slow song that is powerful and I still feel the energy from it) from artists that don’t always fall into the most widely distributed pop genre you hear on your car’s stereo. And for myself, I’ve more than succeeded.
I’d love to share my station with you here but it looks like I’m only able to send it to you via email. If you’d like to take a listen, hit me up in the comments section and I’ll send it your way. The beauty of that is that you can listen to my station but then start adding or subtracting your own songs to make it a completely different station customized by you!
And really, this has brought me to my last point about my Pandora station. I feel the desire to share this thing, with the world!! I have already shared it with other friends, as well as asked them for their stations. But I feel like this is a creative product and I want to tell people about it. Again, because I’m proud of it. To be so engaged by something, to be able to make it my own, and then to want to share it with anyone who might be interested is a very powerful thing.
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