List Day: My Pandora Stations

My standard operation procedure for Pandora is to start with a single artist and tailor it with ratings until the algorithm goes awry and I'm forced to delete the station. I once had a Henry Mancini station which had a pleasant mix of dinner music like Pink Martini before the Pandora robot short circuited and played nothing but the dystopian accordion tangos of The Gotan Project.

• Scissor Sisters: Flamboyantly upbeat music with strong dance beats, like Mika, Paloma Faith, or La Roux.


• Gangstagrass: A mix of twangy bluegrass and hip hop, including groups like Nappy Roots and Rehab.


• Mark Ronson: An eclectic mix of hip hop, electronica, funk, and disco mixed into contemporary songs, including groups like The Roots and Plan B.


• Funk Jazz: My only genre-based station, this has a great mix of late 70s funk. For a while, it was overpopulated by Earth, Wind, and Fire, but it looks like they haven't paid their Pandora dues in a while.


• Sammy Nestico: Pure orchestrated big-ensemble jazz, like the various US service bands, Gordon Goodwin, and some Stan Kenton.


• The Bird and the Bee: My "chicks who sing" station that focuses more on a fine balance between voice and accompaniment, usually with an electronica basis, like Lily Allen, Bitter:Sweet, and Metric.


• Lenka: My "chicks who sing" station which focuses on the best voices, like A Fine Frenzy, Wallis Bird, and Regina Spektor. Too much sweetness and light for most listeners, and sometimes Jack Johnson attempts to invade.


• Sergey Prokofiev: An orchestral station, with shades of Gershwin, Shostakovich, and Sibelius.

Rebecca also sometimes does workouts to a Shuffle mix of the first four stations.