Pandora: Youssou N'Dour + Depeche Mode? Really?
So I decided, possibly naively, to search for African music on Pandora. It's a great service with a lot of music, so I thought I'd give it a shot. So the first song plays, Amplified Heart by Caged Baby. It does not sound African in the least, but I like it. It's electronic, but not the intense, clubworthy stuff; it actually makes you stop and listen. It reminds me of a song I really like, Play It For Today by The Legends. So I listen all the way through, and the next song starts up. It sounds like a bad mix of Death Cab and Paul Van Dyk: it's Depeche Mode. I have never listened to this band, even thoug I've heard good things, but this song is just NOT my style at all. So I skip over, and they finally play a Yousoou N'Dour song. I enjoy it, and look forward to another song. I get a poppy dance beat, like Cascada: it's Seal's Loaded, a song that made me wonder if this was the same dude who did Kiss from A Rose. And that's when I start writing this post.
The thing about Pandora is that it's not music-on-demand, it's radio. So you can never guarantee they'll play something you like. But I'm really disappointed at the fact that they have such a limited collection of world music. They don't even have Fela, for God's sake. No Amadou and Miriam, no Tinariwen, even though these bands are somewhat known in the US. I just don't understand how they can play songs side by side that sound NOTHING alike. I checked their analysis of the features of the song, that they assess using the Music Genome Project, and the only thing these songs have in common is "electronica influences". (To their credit, the Depeche Mode song also had "mild rhythmic syncopation" as a common element.) I mean, why not just play me a lot of Youssou N'dour and leave out the rest? Geez.
The next song I get comes from New Order, a post-punk era British rock band (that apparently used to be Joy Division) that incorporate electronic and disco elements into their music. That's when I give up, and thank God (and Steve Jobs, albeit reluctantly) for iTunes, and CDs. Pandora's great, but not perfect, and I'm still waiting to see a music service that gives me the wide range of musical genres that I want, (and have, to some extent) in my library. Hopefully, this will happen soon. In the meantime, I'll be posting some good world music on this blog sooner or later, so look out for it.
