Reclaim your musical taste
Here’s a musical inspiration tool that's a much more interesting way to discover new music than relying on some algorithmic feed to determine your taste for you.
It's called everynoise.com, and it was run by one of the data scientists working at Spotify for many years. I’m including it as part of a new series called Internet 1.0 Resources, where we rewind the tape to rediscover the glory days of the best parts of the old Internet.
How everynoise.com works
All music on the Spotify platform is organized into a giant color-coded cloud of highly specific musical subgenres: “gym hardstyle”, “moldovan electropop”, and “medimeisterschaften”, to name a few:
The musical genre cloud available at everynoise.com
At the top of the cloud you’ll see music that leans more electronic and mechanical sounding. As you move towards the bottom it gets more organic and acoustic, to the left is more atmospheric, to the right is spikier and bouncier.
Click on any genre name to hear an example of what it sounds like. Then, click through to discover new artists associated with that genre.
Click on the "List" menu at the top to be taken to a list of Spotify playlists created for you, sorted by these subgenres. You can add these playlists to your own Spotify account by clicking the "save on Spotify" link:
The list menu view at everynoise.com
Escaping the algorithm, and why it matters
This is a great way to discover new music in a more personal, non-algorithmic way. Because you're doing the digital equivalent of flipping through crates at a record shop, you're now back in control: determining and developing your own unique musical taste for yourself, rather than having your taste determined for you by what a large corporation deems most popular through their algorithmic feed.
This is a slightly less convenient approach than how you'd traditionally use Spotify, but that's actually a good thing when it comes to consuming anything cultural.
When we put just a little more effort into something, we tend to appreciate and value it more. Whenever something is conveniently fed to us, we tend to first commoditize it, and then eventually take it for granted.
Don't take for granted your own taste in music, or the diverse musical culture that we all enjoy everyday. Music is an interactive art form that requires active work to consume, rather than the convenient yet dull approach that an algorithmic feed engenders.
An overly commoditized and vanilla-sounding musical culture isn't good for anyone, unless you want to live in a world where the only music available is elevator music.
If you’re tired of the algorithm, don’t worry: you’ve got the tools to fight back.
Enjoy exploring this resource!
