Erin recently introduced me to a web site that plays your choice of music 24 hours a day. So far, I have chosen stations playing Ramsey Lewis, Gregorian chants, Rammstein, Techno, Kenny G, Hillsong, soft piano, bluegrass, and Flatt and Scruggs. I'm still adding stations. There is a random play option. I like that, because I get tired of just one genre. It's quite an experience to go from Gregorian chants right into Rammstein. Try it here and give me some feedback.
10 comments:
I've been a Pandora fan for about 1 year. I even purchased wireless outdoor speakers and placed them on the 4 corners of our house to listen to good tunes while I'm out gardening. I used to use my i-pod, but my tunes were limited on long days...
One thing to remember, however, is that you must touch your mouse once in awhile in order to keep Pandora running...otherwise your music will sometimes end, with a message that says something like, "Seems as though you're away from your computer..."
Thanks for the tip. I notice on your blog you like to garden, as does Lin. I like your plant pictures. Lin is at thatswhatadultsdo.blogspot.com.
"It's quite an experience to go from Gregorian chants right into Rammstein."
Or listening to a Gregorian chant of a Metallica song.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H7csvgL-G3E
Pandora got me into a lot of new songs, and that's important because I stopped liking most commercial radio music since the start of the 2000s.
I've had a mild suspicion that Pandora is really an attempt to plug indie groups. If so, it's effective. I also use it to listen to old-fashioned stuff: blues, jazz, and the like, that's hard to get on traditional radio.
I got a sense of my weirdly eclectic tastes years ago when I started creating mix tapes. Actually, I've discovered quite a lot of people whose taste is far broader than commercial radio stations would have us believe is possible.
Kylopod, thanks for the link. I've decided my various tastes in music are a result of an exposure to many different styles at an early age. I'll bet you had the same broad exposure. I had classical piano; trumpet in school; then stage band in college combined with a music degree. The only time I really cringe if it is out of tune, or has no tune.
Ha ha. Rammstein! Nothing beats angry German music.
I'm not sure my exposure was as broad as yours. I did play piano from a young age. But to this day I feel most comfortable hearing rock music, and I have a primal reaction to almost any song that uses a blues progression.
Of course, I also heard Jewish music, much of it rooted in European folk music (though some modern groups have appropriated rock, rap, and the like). While I never became a huge fan of the style, it did influence me.
I've long been fascinated by the interplay of genres. All the major forms of American music--country, blues, Gospel, R&B, jazz, rock--are closely related, rooted in the same traditions, each genre influencing the others, and the distance between one genre and the next becoming blurry at the margins.
I'm currently reading a book (Kevin Phinney's Souled American) about the influence of black music on American culture. You can interpret the history of U.S. music as a social history of African Americans and their emancipation.
Hi J.R.
Yes, but it's a good angry. I just have to wait until Lin is out of the house before I turn it up.
Kylopod-
Sounds like a good book. You mentioned Jewish music, I forgot to mention the impact on my life of classical hymns and Southern Gospel. Popular music at times also seems to be a prophecy of where our culture is going, and at times a reflection of where we have been.
When you grow up with religious music and it's all around you, you end up taking it for granted. A couple of years ago, I was assigned to post on a college message board about how music has influenced my identity. I talked at length about rock and didn't say one word about Jewish music, not because I was shy about discussing my religion in a public setting, but because I simply forgot.
I know this comment is months after the fact. But I just found your site after your comment a week ago on my blog.
I just discovered Pandora due to this post. It is amazing. Thanks!
Hi Micah
Glad you like it. I'm still adding stations even now. Regarding the post being old, that is ok. It is actually better if you go back to the beginning and work your way forward from Feb 2007.
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