pandora
I thought I’d blog about a music feature that is out there on the internet that you may or may have used before. It is pandora.com. I looked it over a long time ago to try to find music that was similar to the Corrs, but I wasn’t really interested in the results. They are a pretty unknown band, which I think makes it not work quite as well.
The idea is that you type in a band that you like, then it creates a “radio” station to play on your computer of music that is similar. Texas Seestor created one for Christmas music and shared it with me. It is like having a mix CD that you don’t have to create! Of course, you can only listen to it on your computer.
But this week, we found it really useful in lab. Labs usually play music during them, but the radio reception is pretty spotty at school – and who wants to listen to commercials anyway? Instead, we typed in bands and created our own Pandora stations. The first one we did was Jack Johnson. That first go around was good. But in a different lab, when we listened to it, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too mellow and depressing. In the 3rd lab for the week, we tried Dave Matthews. But for that, every song was Dave Matthews! I had hoped to hear different artists other than Dave Matthews. After about 4 songs, we brainstormed for a new station. We came up with the Goo Goo Dolls – a pretty current rock group. All of that music was really good! It was rock that wasn’t hard rock, and again, a lot of current music.
I’m sure it would work for classic rock, or 80′s music, or anything else you’d be interested in. But for lab, we need to keep it pretty current.
In other news, I’ve learned all of the names in my 2 lecture sections. Well, there was one girl that I wasn’t sure about, but hopefully now I’ll get her name right. So, that takes care of about 60 of the names I needed to learn. Now, I just have to get those last 10 in lab which is on Monday. I think I’ll get there!
Ern says:
I love Pandora! It does have the drawbacks you mentioned, and actually I tried to create a classic rock station, but any time you put in a classic rock band, it just pulls from mostly current music with a similar sound. So it’s good music, but mostly not classic rock.
Danielle says:
Ah, I see about the classic rock station. That is an unfortunate quirk in the way they have it set up then.
The funny thing is that for Christmas music, they definitely had the oldies on there by Burl Ives and some of the other ‘classics’. That made me think they’d have classic rock too, but I guess not. good thing to know.
Squirl says:
That sounds interesting. I’ll have to try it.
Danielle says:
It is really interesting to try, Squirl. You’ll have to share how it works out for you when you do.
honestyrain says:
i’ve never heard of pandora. it fascinates me that there is SO much internet i still have yet to discover. i’m going to check out pandora now
Jenski says:
I’ve never tried to use Pandora, but it sounds like a great way to find new music to listen to!
I’m impressed you have 60 names down already. I think I have about 7 of the 14 in the lab class I TA. I don’t have to grade anything though.
danielle says:
I finally have all of the names down! I have returned a couple of things now to one of my classes, and the other one, I have both lecture and lab with them – so it was easy to learn their names. The lab ones are the ones I have to review the most, because I usually don’t call them by name, and I don’t return things to them either.