Opening Pandora's Box

I have long spouts of time where I sit at my desk typing up reports on the kids that I have tested. It is painful for me to sit there without any music. Painful. About this time last year someone introduced me to http://www.pandora.com/ I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pandora. It is an online radio station. It is free, all you have to do is have a log-in. For starters you type in any musician or even a specific song that you like. From that song it starts your own radio station and starts to play songs that are similar or that you might like. Each time it plays a song you can "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" the song. It takes your feedback from each song and continues to play songs that you may like. You can create several different "stations" depending on what you are in the mood for. I have a Contemp. Christian, Easy Listening Office, WAKE UP (from when I am trying to stay awake at my desk) and a couple of others.

I have always LOVED music. In fact, when I was little I use to make up my own songs and sing them out loud in the car. My brother would be SO annoyed at me. He would always tell my mom to make me stop!! Although I love music, I have no musical talent or any sense of "pitch" or the right key. I think most people on American Idol sound fantastic -- even in the beginning rounds. Cory has an ear for music so he is always trying to explain it to me. I just don't get it.

Anways, when people ask me what type of music I like I don't really have a good explanation. I love country, praise and worship, rap, rock-n-roll, r&b, blues, gospel, etc. This is where Pandora has been such a great thing. For each song that it plays you can click on the button that says "Why are you playing this song" It will give this VERY detailed description. Example - "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features basic rock song structures, major key tonality, a vocal-central aesthetic, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation, and electric rhythm guitars." How can you argue with that?

I feel like I have opened up my Pandora's box of music. I have found tons of new artists that I love and have found lots of new songs that I like. It hardly ever plays the same song twice and it starts off right where you leave it when you log out.

I highly recommend that you check it out.