# Pandora.com Oddity **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477 "2011-06-22T20:12:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/1 "2011-06-22T20:12:01Z")
Not a pitting, per se, because I actually love Pandora and have discovered quite a few new bands by listening to it at work, but… Why is it when you choose a newer band to build your “station” around, Pandora seems to choose bands that have a similar sound, but when you pick a band from the 70’s or 80’s, Pandora just plays a bunch of stuff from that _decade_ that sounds nothing like the original band?! Anybody else get this on Pandora? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/2 "2011-06-22T20:18:36Z")
Yeah, my Badfinger radio was playing Momma Cass’ Dream a Little Dream, the Raspberrys Go All The Way and some other very light stuff yesterday and I wondered the same thing. If I put Beck radio on though I get tons of stuff I previously was completely unfamiliar with. In fact, it’s a great way to expose yourself to bands you wouldn’t hear on the conventional radio. Not sure why it’s that way but I do see the same thing as you. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/3 "2011-06-22T20:20:36Z")
A lot of people view things like “'80s music” as a genre unto itself. When these people go on Pandora and use The Thompson Twins to create a channel, they’re probably more interested in building an “'80s music channel,” then a “bands who sound like The Thompson Twins” channel. In other words, it probably works that way because that’s how most of the users want it to work. ---
**Author:** ![Beniamino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Beniamino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beniamino)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/4 "2011-06-22T20:44:50Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > Not a pitting, per se, because I actually love Pandora and have discovered quite a few new bands by listening to it at work, but… > > Why is it when you choose a newer band to build your “station” around, Pandora seems to choose bands that have a similar sound, but when you pick a band from the 70’s or 80’s, Pandora just plays a bunch of stuff from that _decade_ that sounds nothing like the original band?! > > Anybody else get this on Pandora? I have experienced this phenomenon. The best way around it, IMHO, is not to “thumbs-down” the ones you don’t want, necessarily, because that tends to result in Pandora-hell, where your station consists of the same 12 songs ad infinitum. Rather, keep “thumbsing-up” the ones you do want, and eventually, it’ll catch on. I was able to “prune” a New Wave / New Romantic station this way. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/5 "2011-06-22T20:56:23Z")
I’ve been a big fan of Pandora for a long time. That said, I’ve recently discovered [grooveshark.com](http://grooveshark.com) and Pandora has lost a bit of it’s luster. IMO, Pandora is still better for discovering new-to-you music, but other than that, GrooveShark has it beat on all counts. It lets you pick any song you want, fast-forward within a song, and skip songs to your heart’s content. It also has a lot of B-sides and such. If you haven’t checked it out, you won’t regret it. ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/6 "2011-06-22T21:42:09Z")
> [@voltaire](#): > > I’ve been a big fan of Pandora for a long time. That said, I’ve recently discovered [grooveshark.com](http://grooveshark.com) and Pandora has lost a bit of it’s luster. IMO, Pandora is still better for discovering new-to-you music, but other than that, GrooveShark has it beat on all counts. It lets you pick any song you want, fast-forward within a song, and skip songs to your heart’s content. It also has a lot of B-sides and such. If you haven’t checked it out, you won’t regret it. Considering that Pandora just gave me: Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and Kansas as the last three songs on my Police mix, I may have to give GrooveShark a try. Kansas! ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/7 "2011-06-22T21:53:07Z")
> [@Orseolo](#): > > I have experienced this phenomenon. The best way around it, IMHO, is not to “thumbs-down” the ones you don’t want, necessarily, because that tends to result in Pandora-hell, where your station consists of the same 12 songs ad infinitum. Rather, keep “thumbsing-up” the ones you do want, and eventually, it’ll catch on. I was able to “prune” a New Wave / New Romantic station this way. I mostly build channels around stuff of that vintage (except for my Beethoven channel) but I can mostly see more or less why they picked the stuff they do. I’ve had success with the thumbs down method also. A problem with too many thumbs up is that these songs repeat probably more than I want them to. BTW, I just started listening again after a long gap, and the number of on-air ads seem to have gone way down. Anyone else notice this? ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pandora-com-oddity/586477/8 "2011-06-22T22:12:30Z")
I haven’t noticed that they are even all that good with the modern stuff. I thumbs upped one Shakira song in English and they decided I must want every Spanish language song ever made. I wanted to get all upbeat songs but somehow they manage to find every slow mopey song by artists whose fast songs I had added and these are artists that predominantly have fast upbeat songs.