I played around with Pandora years ago, but I couldn’t create a channel that didn’t lose my interest within a few hours. Terrific resource for someone, someone not me.
Toying with the Pandora app on my Comcast DVR last weekend, I was about to listen to the Arcade Fire channel I’d created last year, when I stopped short. I had a thought to create a new channel based on a group whose music and vocals I’ve loved for a quarter-century. (I’m 50, I get to reference time spans in centuries. Perks of the game.)
Enter the Cocteau Twins channel. And a door opened to the music of my younger self:
New Order
Roxy Music
Tears For Fears
Mazzy Star
The Cure
Cocteau Twins (duh)
A Flock of Seagulls
OMD
Simple Minds
Psych Furs
Eurythmics (Annie Lennox is among the top three female vocalists of the late 20th)
Siouxsie and The Banshees (yeah, wow)
The Smiths
Cindy Lauper
Naked Eyes
This is the first time I’ve built a channel that’s consistently entertaining. Pandora is worth something to me now.
If you’ve not yet found a use for Pandora, try creating a channel based on some obscure musician or group whom you never told anyone about. You’ll know it when you’ve found it.
A Random Stroll 