[eropple]

I think this is best explained through example: let's take Bad Religion vs. Pennywise. A large part of Bad Religion's appeal to me is that Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz are fantastic writers. Their lyrics are interesting (on an intellectual as well as a musical level), well done, and (time to touch the third rail!) often have a political point that I generally agree with and appreciate.

Pennywise (during their "sounds like Bad Religion" phase) does indeed sound like Bad Religion, but their lyrical work is crap. I actively dislike listening to them because they sound like Bad Religion but aren't good at what they do. They sound similar but go in the "pop shit" bucket while Bad Religion goes in the "good punk rock" bucket.

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Pandora can't quantify that sort of thing. They sound very similar but one of them is uninteresting-to-repellent. If I could find a music recommendation system that could, I'd pay it approximately all the money. As it is, Pandora is pretty crap; I can burn through my allotted skips in five minutes of listening because every station.

Hat-tip to a friend of mine who pointed this one out: Pandora also converges on the pop flavor of whatever genre you want to listen to. Industrial? I hope you like Nine Inch Nails. Synth/futurepop? New Order and Depeche Mode.

[vectorpush]

"Reminds me of what happens when I visit that restaurant. Instead of serving a bunch of food I like, that restaurant gives me a bunch of food that tastes like food that I like."

[eropple]

I mean no disrespect when I say this: if you are unable to perceive the subleties of which I'm writing, I feel pretty sorry for you. There are differences within genres of music that Pandora can't quantify (yes, Bad Religion and Pennywise are different) and Pandora very obviously attempts to quantize listening preferences toward the most popular examples of a given genre.

(Your analogy is pretty weak, too, because those subleties exist within food as well; a Pandora-for-food would give you wet Memphis barbecue because you liked dry, and would steadfastly refuse to stop serving you wet barbecue no matter how many times you clicked the down-fork.)