posted
I have a half formed idea that I'd like to try out.
I'm sure a lot of us are familiar with Pandora, a website that recommends music to you based on your musical preferences. It uses a huge datacrunching database to find new songs that match similar songs you've stated you liked. But it doesn't always do a great job.
I have a bookmark menu filled with links to youtube videos with songs that I like that I should probably actually pay for and are probably illegal to be listening to via youtube but whatever. A while ago, someone in a thread here linked to Cherry Tree. I liked it a lot. I added it to the menu.
By now I've listened to most things in both my iTunes directory and my youtube bookmark menu a lot, and am looking to expand my repetoir of music. I'm curious how well hatrack can help me out. In particular there is a certain "quality" that some music has that I really like. The best name I can come up with for that quality is "Epic Pop Music." I have a hard time getting Pandora to give me songs like it, instead it tends to give me either "non epic pop songs" (which I don't much care for) or "epic songs that are not pop" (which I like just fine, but I'd really like to get access to more songs that really fit the criteria exactly).
I'm gonna start by listing a few songs that I like, and see if anyone has recommendations that reflect the quality(ies) those songs share.
I'm feeling a little egotistical, starting a thread designed solely to give me, personally, more music I like. I'd like to open it up to random sharing, but then I think the purpose will get a little diluted (everyone posting random music they like is going to produce a lot of random music that not everybody is going to like, which'll make it harder for everyone involved to find the gems).
And I'm not sure how to address that. Maybe do a Pandora-like thing where everything you post has to be reflective of an earlier recommendation, but the recommendations can sprawl out over time to cover a wider variety of tastes, and everyone states which link made them think of the song in question that they are posting?
[ July 13, 2010, 03:54 PM: Message edited by: Raymond Arnold ]
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posted
I'm aware of various places on the internet to find new music, but I'm curious what I can find via hatrack in particular. (That said, that is an interesting site and I do thank you for pointing it out to me).
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posted
I've seen and liked the Final Countdown one, although I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the actual music and how much had to do with the guys totally rocking out with their long hair towards the end.
(And yes, I think I'd consider "epic pop." For that matter I also consider the Final Countdown Classic to fall under this category. But one thing I also like a lot is the combination of different styles of music, particularly older and newer things. So yes, the variant with the cellos is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for.)
I'll talk some more about the rest after listening.
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posted
If you don't mind things that are weird, videos that feature- a woman licking a tree covered in mud later covered in tape later dressed as a tree a creepy puppet a guy dancing around in his underwear eyes and bodies distorting really, really long eye lashes a woman that's a salad some strage milky substance
then go to Youtube and look up iamiamiwhoami
If that is not your cup of tea, look up Jonna Lee.
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posted
heh, best "you'll like this if" disclaimer ever. (I wasn't feeling adventurous at the time so I listened to it with a different window in front). It was the sort of song that I would listen to from time to time and enjoy, but not something I would turn on deliberately to get myself pumped. (When I'm choosing to listen to something in particular rather than letting random ambient music happen, I like music that has... dunno, a sense of drive and purpose? I'm not sure that's the best descriptor since I'm sure there are people who consider iamiamiwhoami to have drive, but it felt meandering to me)
I do really like All Along the Watchtower BSG style, but something that's always bugged me is that I can't QUITE get the same feel from the soundtrack version that I get from its use in the actual climax of BSG. I'm not sure if that's something possible to separate from the actual show.
I did like both versions of Man Ought to be Strong, although I think I'd like them more once I had time to get more familiar with them. One of the biggest draws for music I consider "good" is how nostalgic it makes me feel. A song that I don't like at first can become nostalgic enough to start liking it. A song that I don't know, but which is built out of chords and melodies that I am familiar with can come with "built in" nostalgia.
Foreign music often grates against me at first because it's using techniques that I'm less familiar with an in some cases the antithesis of what I'm used to. In particular, the instrumentation employed by Asia and African cultures has largely been absorbed into American music, but the vocal style has not, so it takes a little more for me to get used to it.
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posted
There's more. I suggest sampling all six full tracks. But, the videos might knock your EYES out. I like N best.
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posted
Part of what I'm hoping to get out of this thread is a better understanding of why I like the music I like (and why others like the music they like, and/or dislike the music that I like). As such, I may be pointing out what appear to be extremely nitpicky flaws in the music here. So take any critique I have of music here as something I'm intending to be fun and interesting for its own sake. (Katherina has an interesting post about "verbal jousting" in the Facilitating Communication thread).
Also, seriously people, you can call me Ray. I always feel weird when people feel compelled to spell out my name on the forums I identify myself fully on.
I'm gonna post a few more songs that might broaden the spread of music in the thread (though I'm still interested in any "Epic Pop" people have handy).
Cantaloop. I have no idea if I would like this song if I didn't have heavy nostalgia associated with it. It's the song that they played at the end of Circus Camp, which I used to go to. I don't particularly like jazz. I do like songs that are a bit silly though. (Weird Al is my single favorite artist, in terms of numbers of songs he's done that I like).
posted
Epic Pop + the songs you listed liking makes me wonder if I can think of any music that you might like. I'm sure I could, but I'm equally sure I do not understand your criteria.
Out of curiosity, have you checked out any of my music (either on itunes or youtube)?
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And here's something I thought was cute, a western classical arrangement of that along with Man Ought to Be Strong. That might be a bit easier for the purposes of sharing those two songs here.
quote:Originally posted by El JT de Spang: Epic Pop + the songs you listed liking makes me wonder if I can think of any music that you might like. I'm sure I could, but I'm equally sure I do not understand your criteria.
Out of curiosity, have you checked out any of my music (either on itunes or youtube)?
I'm trying to google your name to find some examples, but I can't tell whether I'm finding the right stuff. Can you provide a link?
Bear in mind that "Epic Pop" is not the ONLY stuff I listen to, but it's the stuff I have the hardest time finding.
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quote:This is firmly going into Asian and not-pop (at least to my ears), but here's something that fits into "nostalgic epic" to me.
There was enough unfamiliar stuff there that it was a little hard for me to get into, but by the end I was definitely noticing the "epic" elements. It was kinda surreal, since this is the most extreme example I've found of those elements present in a piece was was otherwise very different from what I normally listen to. If any music buffs here can give a name to the qualities that "laugh on the blue sea" shares with, say, "Halo," I'd appreciate it, since "Epic Pop" doesn't even really convey it adequately and "Epic" by itself can mean a lot of different things.
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posted
I have a last.fm account that is very similar to Pandora except that it synchronizes with your iTunes music library history to offer more suggestions. Also, it's accessible on the xbox. I mainly listen to a weird combination of alt country/indie rock and jazz though, so I'm not sure what I can suggest in the way of "epic pop".
posted
If you like Cantaloop, you might like to check out Herbie Hancock's Empyrean Isles album, which contains the song "Cantaloupe Island" that was sampled for that track. I know you said you don't like jazz, but you like "epic pop," and that album is epically awesome. And as good as that Freddie Hubbard trumpet lick sounds on the sample, it's nothing like hearing it grow organically over the course of the track.
If you really do hate jazz, feel free to ignore this. But if you have any interest in developing a taste for jazz, which would be well worth your trouble, that's not a bad place to start.
ETA: Also, the entire album that the Shatner "Common People" cover came from is surprisingly amazing. I know I'm kind of a relic, still listening to my music in album form, but it's albums as good as "Has Been" that keep me from switching over to single mode. If you haven't heard the rest of that album, check it out.
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posted
First off, feel free to start riffing off of other people's suggestions with stuff that you like. I feel a little weird being the guy that everyone's presenting music to pass judgment on.
@El JT de Spang: I actually like your music quite a bit. At least what's playing so far. It's not a style that I lump in with my absolute favorites, but it's the kind of music I'd be definitely be happy to hear on the radio.
"Non-epic" popular music that I like essentially consists of stuff from the 70s and 80s (that my Dad played during my young life) and alternative rock from the 90s (which I listened to at school or on the radio during my medium life). Essentially this ties into the nostalgia factor - it's stuff that I listened to a lot during my formative years. Your music is very similar to the 90s stuff that I listen to normally, so it benefits from nostalgic association. (Several segments also do have a bit of the quality that I associate with "epicness," which is not to say they are epic in and of themselves, but they have qualities that epic music I like also has, so it also gets a bit of a nostalgic association with epicness, if that makes sense).
@Baron: I actually have listened to Cantaloupe Island. I don't like it as much as Cantaloop, although I appreciate it to some extent. Jazz falls into a large clump of music that I think is "good," but that I wouldn't turn on when I have other choices. Unless I'm deliberately varying my selection so that when I return to the epic music it feels even more epic.
The times when I have most appreciated Jazz is when I've been at the sort of restaurant that plays Jazz music in the background, or when I'm exploring NYC and stumble upon a concert or someone playing in the street. I enjoy it in a context of discovering it along with other new things (like food or people), rather than something I'll play for comfort while I'm working on the computer.
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posted
@August: I think the "Execution of All Things", and "Nineteen" fall under the category of "epic." The other two were decent songs but not amazing to me.
It may seem weird that I waited to post this, but a) I actually own these songs so I didn't have a handy youtube link and b) I wanted to start by showing a variety of songs I liked instead of presenting my single favorites, but I figure I might as well present the following:
Uninvited. I consider this my single favorite song. Since first discovering it I've found a lot of songs I consider "Equally good" but since I found this one first it still holds the official "favorite" mantle.
O Fortuna, Therion version Oddly enough I DON'T care for the original O Fortuna all that much. I mean, it's good, sure, but most of the song is lacking oomph. This version is also lacking oomph in most of the song, which is why it's not actually my favorite or anywhere close, but the parts that ARE epic are suitably epic that I almost always end my mixes with this track. I recommend turning the volume up. A lot!
Magic Fortuna For completeness sake I figured I'd include the Fortuna version that DO like a lot, almost as much as Uninvited, and which I listen to a lot.
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Part of what I'm hoping to get out of this thread is a better understanding of why I like the music I like (and why others like the music they like, and/or dislike the music that I like).
Then I would suggest reading "This Is Your Brain On Music." Fantastic book that really helps one understand what it is we like and don't like about music.
posted
That's a great book. I've recommended it to a ton of artist friends since reading it a few years back.
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