rikibeth

Pandora. Streaming radio that you design to your tastes. And they don't sort by genre, so much... it's part of something called the Music Genome Project, so they identify style elements across genres and bring up new stuff based on that.

The first station I made was a punk and pop-punk station with a fair amount of ska, because, well, that's what I've been listening to lately. And it kept coming up with things I'd never heard of before but that Did Not Suck, so I was happy.

I tried making one based on the Kinks, but I may have to edit some of what I told it should be in there... it ended up being a little close to the first one, but minus the ska.

Now I've got a little experiment going -- I am only giving it three artists, and not adding more by name, although I'll do the thumbs-up, thumbs-down ratings if somgs strike me particularly.

The three artists I gave it were the Smiths, the Smithereens, and Suzanne Vega.

It gave me Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC's neo-psychedelia project, you remember it, right?

hey_disco_joe, I know YOU must!), Adam and the Ants, and the Ramones' cover of "Needles and Pins."

Oh, this is a fun toy.

Now I want to give it Richard Thompson, but I want two other artists to put with him who Do Not Match.

Any suggestions?

matociquala, even if you like Paradise Radio better, thank you for pointing this out!