So this week I went on an iTunes binge. I bought about 20 songs over the last few days, and in the past month or so, about 10 others and a movie. I never do this so I feel shame.
I usually buy 8-12 songs a year, not 20 in a week.
But I recently bought a HD to back up all my CD music that I want to keep from years gone by (donating all but a handful of the CDs so going fully digital pretty much); the process has got me thinking about music again and scanning around the iTunes store for new stuff. Which is harder than it ought to be IMO. Some questions for you music gurus:
1) Is there a way to make the Genius thing look at a small selection of songs and go "Oh yah, if you like that, check this artist out"? All I can get it to do is make play lists from my own music.
2) Can anyone recommend a good artist(s) that combines elements of orchestral music with electronic (non-dance non-trance), like you might find in a good movie soundtrack? Something like what you might get from Hans Zimmer, only a little more varied in terms of not using so many kettle drums, "running violins" (i.e. things you hear in all dramatic movies but don't really notice too much). Not to say I don't like Zimmer, the style is right I'm just talking about less formulaic than most soundtracks.
I actually downloaded a couple tracks from Daft Punk's Tron Legacy soundtrack and they're pretty good because unlike everything else Daft Punk does, there are real instruments mixed in with subtle highs and lows / speed ups and slow downs. Way more variation than their usual stuff, which I have no interest in.
3) Have you listened to Lindsey Stirling yet? It's like a cross between synth music and classical violin... some of it is way too dance / techno sounding so I bought like 4 tracks from her album and skipped the rest, but she's pretty impressive. I guess she did the soundtrack for Skyrim and a couple other things too (or tracks from same). Don't know much about her but it seemed like something brand new / not cut from the same cloth all the other synth stuff is. Plus I'm getting old so you know... orchestral and violin type stuff now taking over my brain. One day I might actually listen to "real music" from real orchestras.
