The best song ever, in your mind, is a combination of a unique set of qualities that come together to make your favorite song. While we don’t tend to think about it very often, that music that we’ll enthusiastically tell people is the best song ever likely shares a lot of concepts with the bulk of the music we like. A dedicated metal rock fan, for instance, is unlikely to find a favorite song in the country genre. Everything from tones (major or minor) to rhythm (fast or slow) comes together as components of a song, and a new project is isolating them to help us find new favorites easily. The music genome project is going where no music research project has ever gone before, and truly enhancing our understanding of why our favorite music appeals to us so much.
Tied into the project is a user-powered set of “radio stations” that utilize common elements of chosen songs to find other songs like it. A station of Norah Jones, for instance, will play slow, mellow music with female vocals. A station with Frank Sinatra will play rat pack-era songs and modern covers of those songs as well. By finding and mimicking individual pieces – vocal harmonies, ambient sounds, unusual percussion – of the songs we like, the music genome project is delivering us a new idea of the best song ever. Through this project, listeners can find new favorites and rediscover former personal titleholders of the “best song ever” as they play in a user’s station, which can even be combined with other stations for a truly personalized music experience.
If you’re looking for more music similar to the best song ever to play in your collection, take a look at the music genome project. It is a fresh and innovative approach to the way we listen to our favorite artists, and is helping new musicians get unprecedented exposure to a new fan base.