Music Guide
Generally when I’m looking to discover new musical artists, I take the old fashioned approach – I talk to people, I go to gigs and I ask questions. Throw travel in the mix and I’m always discovering great new sounds that haven’t made it across the ocean to anywhere beyond their personal niche.
Of course you always hit your stagnant periods where you’re just dying to try something new and it just seems like everything coming at you is a rubbish remake of someone else’s creative outputs or a processed pop-princess piece of garbage. Neither genre is especially crush-worthy. Not when you’re looking to fall in love with a piece of music that you’ll have a temporary obsession with. Driving everyone around you mad with your constant repetition. Oh, the music-crush, is there anything better.
Well if you’re looking to fall in love again, you could head to an independent record store. Or you could head online. Now, if you’re thinking this is to become a dissertation about the pros of legally buying musical tracks from the likes of iTunes Store or HMV.com, fear not. I will spare you the tired diatribe. For there are much better sources of new music to be found, my friend.
First stop: www.allmusic.com. Here you will find a group of people who spend their entire existence knee deep in music. New artists, old artists, favourite artists and the guilty pleasures – it’s all here. They’ve got some of the most innovative and interesting stories on music available online. You can sample the newest album releases, watch music videos, read reviews, discover new genres and always, always find a new artist that is more than crush-worthy. Oh, what fun.
Next stop on your exploration train will be www.pandora.com. A site tailored to show you exactly what you wanted to find – just you didn’t know it yet. The spirit of the site is simple: You search for an artist you know. You get a brief description of the artist as well as a single selected track that encompasses the general sound of said artist. “Thank you,” you say. Your next option is to skip to a ‘related’ artist. By doing this the site will suggest an artist with a similar style, composition or overall appeal. Again you will get a description and a sample track. Then you rate. “Yes, I liked that very much, it was lovely.” Or, “No, I think this was crap why are you trying to make my ears bleed you wretched site?” Either way, the site will compile your ratings to narrow down to a definitive sound just for you. Therefore Pandora.com is able to suggest new artists to try that you’re almost sure to like. Brilliant.
