Addictive, but Not Potent Enough

Duke Ellington was right after all: It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that mild rhythmic syncopation.

Nearly every song the addictive Pandora.com website recommended to me during a couple of extended sessions, whether rock, pop, country, rap or jazz, included “mild rhythmic syncopation” among its reasons for thinking I’d like it.

In reality, it ain’t necessarily so, but Pandora.com is a blast, once you disable anti-virus protections that may block it from working on your computer.

It is a very impressive tool, but one still in its infancy -- the musical equivalent of computer checkers when what you really want is a good chess match. Don’t lose the phone number of that aficionado friend who opens new musical vistas to you.

I started by giving Pandora the name of Crowded House, a New Zealand pop-rock band. The playlist quickly worked its way to a Matchbox Twenty song suggested for its “vocal harmony, mild rhythmic syncopation, meandering melodic phrasing, mixed acoustic and electric instrumentation and acoustic rhythm guitars.”

My feedback? Thumbs down. Pandora incorporates users’ responses into evolving playlists, but it still came back with a lot of music that didn’t light my fire.

On my next stab, an alt-rock station I created from the reference point of Nebraska band Bright Eyes batted about .500 with me, not bad at all.

Pandora was less successful on a list I started with an Emmylou Harris recording. Pandora played me some humdrum country ballads with “country roots, folk influences, mixed acoustic and electric guitars.” And, yes, “mild rhythmic syncopation.”

Only about one in three of Pandora’s suggestions grabbed me on a rap station built on Eminem’s witty “Without Me.”

Results were best with instrumental jazz on a station launched with the name of bandleader Louie Bellson. Pandora brought back a solid string of swinging big-band numbers by Count Basie, Ellington, Victor Feldman and the Mingus Big Band, the last two new to me.

Ultimately, Pandora reinforces the notion that a good song is more than the sum of its parts. It’s as if people touched by Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” would like any painting with yellow stars, a midnight blue sky and swirling brushstrokes.

Pandora’s very young, doesn’t much focus on lyrics and, in my book, is way too eager to please. No passionate music fans I’ve ever known would give up on a beloved song they wanted you to hear as easily or as apologetically as Pandora does after a thumbs-down. (“Sorry about that,” Pandora says. “We’ll never again play that song on this station.”)

I’d like it a lot more with the addition of a “Surprise Me!” button. My most prized musical discoveries were those that came out of left field, utterly unexpected.

Pandora, for now at least, isn’t geared to lead the next musical revolution, functioning more as a high-tech echo than a cultural beacon.

But for its stated goal of linking users with music that they probably wouldn’t otherwise find and that there’s a strong chance they’d warm to, this Pandora’s box is worth opening.