Sure, it's a music recommendation service. You can enter (after a minimal wait) the name of your favorite band or song and it will automatically suggest other similar songs; most of them you probably have never heard. It's not just a musical matchmaker, though.
Similar to (my rudimentary understanding of) gene sequencing, it is named the Music Genome Project, not only can you pinpoint possibly fallacious genes but you can also look back and research who your ancestors were and where you came from. The same goes for the online Pandora. You'll be linked to seemingly random songs plucked from different decades. So at least in the site's formulation of what makes music similar, you'll be able to pinpoint predecessors of your favorite songs as well as possible offspring and relatives.
I entered the names of a few favorite tunes to investigate if there were any intersections with my own playlist. There was. Beyonce's "Crazy in Love" linked me to my other favorite club song: Mariah Carey's "It's Like That." t.a.T.u.'s "All The Things She Said" conjured up the ultimate '80s anthem, Love Spit Love's "How Soon Is Now?" And Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" got me songs that I liked from Evanescence, Maroon 5 and Natalie Imbruglia.
Perhaps most startingly, when I plugged in the name of my all-time favorite singer, Nancy Sinatra, it displayed songs it thought similar from some of my favorite musicians today, including Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, The Cardigans, and admittedly, Ashlee Simpson. Somehow I feel this legitimizes my iTunes "Top 25 Most Played"-rife with wistful female vocals and grrrlrock rhythms. After being continuously criticized because I listened to supposedly "bad" music, I realize now that it isn't my fault that I do. It's Frank's fault for birthing Nancy.
Suddenly, it all makes perfect sense.
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