Cool Stuff

Pandora: radio from the Music Genome Project

I read in a magazine about this Internet radio website that uses scientific formulas to guess your musical tastes and suggest music you might like based on those tastes. I tried it by entering various bands I like and seeing the music the suggested. Then I entered various songs I like as well. I think the specific song option works far better than entering a band, since bands evolve and change. It's a pretty neat concept.

One thing I don't like about it, and where I think it fails in it's task, is that lyrics aren't added as a factor. Lyrics are a big point for me, being a writer, so I just can't connect to good music without good lyrics. Like, what is the music saying? I feel like often times lyrics are the heart and soul of a song. You can't always determine the mood of the songs by the key, tempo or any other musical characteristic. Minor does not always equal sad and major does not always equal happy. It's more complicated than that.

So maybe they don't have the scientific technology to detect the lyrical stylings of songs. Imagine that, science not being able to process the complications of soul and emotion . . .


Happy Friday, y'all! :)