Dynamic Range Radio Asks "How Eclectic Are You?"

If you want to find out, Last.FM offers some interesting tools to help you answer that question. This week I'll take a look at one of the most popular tools and find out just how eclectic Dynamic Range Radio is in the process.

The test can be found at anthony.liekens.net, and here's a description of how it all works, along with Dynamic Range Radio's eclectic score.

Take your top 20 artists. For each of these artists, collect the top 5 similar artists. The resulting number of unique artists is your eclectic score. If the score is small (extreme = 5) your musical preferences are very limited, and if it is large (larger than 80, extreme = 100), then you have an eclectic musical preference.

My eclectic score is currently

86/100

The 86 related artists for my profile are 54-40, Alanis Morissette, Annie Lennox, Arctic Monkeys (2), At the Drive-In, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Black Sabbath, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan and The Band, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Broken Social Scene, Bruce Springsteen, Burning Spear, Chris Rea, Coldplay, Deep Purple, Dire Straits, Eagles, Emmylou Harris, Eve 6, Flogging Molly, Franz Ferdinand, Grady, Guns N' Roses, Guy Clark, Headstones, Interpol (3), Jeff Tweedy, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Cliff, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin (2), Lucinda Williams, Matchbox Twenty, Matt Mays & El Torpedo, Matthew Good, Matthew Good Band, Mogwai, Naked Eyes, Neil Young (2), Oasis, Paul McCartney, Peter Tosh, Pink Floyd, Pixies, R.E.M. (2), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sam Roberts, Shane MacGowan, Shane MacGowan and the Popes, Simple Minds, Sloan, Sonic Youth, Spoon, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Sting, Suzanne Vega, The Alarm, The Arcade Fire (2), The Band, The Cranberries, The Doors, The Dubliners, The Fixx, The Flaming Lips, The Killers, The Libertines, The Pogues & The Dubliners, The Police, The Raconteurs, The Raphaels, The Rolling Stones (3), The Skydiggers, The Strokes (3), The Velvet Underground, The Wallflowers, The Who (2), Third Eye Blind, Tori Amos, U2, Uncle Tupelo (2), Van Halen, Van Morrison, Weezer (2), Wide Mouth Mason, Ziggy Marley

It's an interesting little tool, and I think the algorithm is more accurate than the open-minded index calculator, the results of which you can see in the sidebar of my Last.FM profile.

The OMI calculator relies on user-defined tags such as "rock", "indie", "blues", and so on, but basing things on artists instead of tags makes a lot more sense to me. It could be even more accurate if things were based on individual songs or albums since saying all of an artist's songs sound the same is quite a stretch. There are fans of early U2 who despise later U2 and vice-versa, but the artist-based system is still more accurate than lumping every song tagged as "rock" in the same pile.

The open-minded generator may or may not have been shut down, so next week I'll take a look at another interesting time-waster that answers the question "How Long Is Your Tail?"

Dynamic Range Radio
Eclectic Internet Radio