Father, Forgive Me...

...for I have sinned.



Lately, I've been using Pandora Radio to try to figure out my vibe and synch my mojo with it.

How Austin Powers, eh?

For those who don't know, Pandora is an internet radio station which is the love child of streaming technology and The Music Genome Project. From the Pandora website:

"...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."

The way Pandora works is that you type in a song or artist you like and the Genome database suggests songs with a matching or complimentary style. You can even vote on whether you like a particular song or not and Pandora will learn and adapt (much like The Borg) to your tastes.

So, I've been listening to a lot of different bands from the late 60's and early 70's. All good stuff. Led Zep, Skynyrd, Neil Young, The Who...

Here's my confession. First subconsciously, then aggressively, I found myself skipping past stuff by The Beatles. Yes, pretty soon my crime against music became apparent. I don't like the Fab Four. Their jingly-jangly, catchy tuney, flower-powered, tailored suit thing just doesn't cut it with me.

[If you ever read this Tabitha, I'm SO sorry. I know you'll think less of me!]

I also don't particularly care for The Doors.

To my surprise I actually found I did like some of George Harrison's solo stuff, along with guys like Tom Petty, who had been flying under my radar for a long time. I remember his video with the Alice In Wonderland theme, but that was about it. Pandora pulled out some smart stuff that I'd never heard before.

So, to the legions of Beatles fans... I apologise. To me it all sounds like McCartney's "Frog Song". Don't get me wrong, on some level I appreciate the classics, both in terms of their impact and the cleverness of the construction, but they're just not songs I want to listen to over and over. I know, I'm a philistine. All I can do is say, "Sorry".

To the rest of you closet haters out there, are there any artists that you're supposed to like but which make you change the channel? Or worse, are there bands you listen to that you know deep down you shouldn't? If it helps loosen your lips I'll admit that I... I... I have a Hanson album. I... I... I'm soooo ashamed.

C'mon, fess up!