netscapades

by brenton crozier
Why do I get the feeling that each passing generation repeats a similar mantra of, “I just can’t find a lot of new music that I like, it’s simply not the same anymore.” Admittedly, nothing will probably set my world ablaze like listening to the Pixies for the first time, or recalibrating my taste after hearing The Joshua Tree, then Nevermind and then OK Computer or even incite my curiosity like hearing the stuttering beats of an Aphex Twin album. In large part, it can’t be recaptured because it’s all about context. It’s like a couple wondering why things don’t feel the same now that they have been married for a year. A heavy-handed parallel? Not when you consider how incredible it was the first time you listened to Pavement’s Crooked Rain or Gish by the Smashing Pumpkins. And you don’t even have to worry about buying the right or wrong gift or have to remember specific dates.
Aside from the transparency of bitter relationships gone by, I’m sure you can relate . . . if you really try. Each generation has that moment and it crosses all genres and cultures. But the question becomes, where do you turn to when trying to unearth new music? A large number of radio stations don’t even play anything made in the last decade. Sure Boston and Journey provide some of the best fodder for crooning and driving, but the radio is certainly not uncharted territory meant for discovery.
Magazines are a fantastic source for providing information on bands and musicians you otherwise wouldn’t have heard of. And although some music magazines even include a CD for you to hear a selection of the profiled bands, they can’t provide that instant gratification achieved online. But sometimes it is hard to find something new on the web if you don’t already know what you’re looking for. Pandora is nice in theory, but seems a tad too rigorous. All Music is like a music encyclopedia but only provides snippets of a song and even those are not always available. So, to help you solve this quandary, I present Grooveshark. I actually stumbled upon this website looking for a place to listen to some free music that wasn’t in 30 second bursts or that asked you to download some type of widget.
listen.grooveshark.com
Every time I get a burning longing to hear a song that I don’t have or don’t want to wade through the scores of covers, bad videos and ridiculous comments of YouTube, it becomes a near impossible task to find a website that delivers. Last FM is extremely limited and isn’t exactly the most user-friendly site, Rhapsody gives you 25 free spins and then you have to show them the money and then all the rest have their own abundance of challenges.
Grooveshark opens up to one very simple search bar. So find something you like and then go from there. There are very few things that I haven’t been able to locate and sometimes it takes a little extra effort like searching for something by song or album title, but try not to build up a sweat or anything. Once you locate your song is when the real magic happens. In addition to getting to listen to an uninterrupted song for free and without signing up for anything (although signing up does have nice benefits like playlists and queues), Grooveshark will give you a list of approximately a dozen similar songs by different artists. For example, I can listen to ‘Your Hand in Mine’ by Explosions in the Sky and go on to discover bands like Mono, Don Caballero and God Is an Astronaut-all from listening to one song that I like. Simple usability, dependable functionality and a no-strings-attached approach make Grooveshark the perfect tool for finding new music.