Betting on Last Place

I had Steely Dan's "My Old School" running through my head (for no damn' reason I can name -- not something I've heard recently), and it caused me to wonder if there were some obvious common denominator among the songs I fiercely disliked back in Jr. High or so. So, as an experiment I tried setting up a new Pandora station based on that song, plus "Black Water" by the Doobies, with a bit of Steve Miller Band added as an afterthought, and sure enough, it works. In fact, it's eerie. I've never had a station based on a song or group I liked bingo with such dogged regularity.

So, I still don't know what the common denominator is about the songs I didn't (and mostly still don't) like, but if I want, Pandora will play them for me:

Black Water Radio

"Hold on Loosely" - 38 Special
"Gimme Three Steps" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Fly Like and Eagle" - Steve Miller Band
"Victim of Love" - The Eagles

and come up with songs I didn't even know I disliked:

"Don't Ask Me No Questions" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"Can't You See" - Marshall Tucker Band

Possibly what it gets down to is I don't really like Southern Rock of the '70s, but even that isn't universally true and doesn't account for Steely Dan anyway, but so far it's only taken two thumbs down (for songs I actually like pretty well) for Pandora to home in on the wretched stuff.

If only I could use this power for good.