If music be the food of love Tastebuds.fm is on to a winner - Bands are always splitting up over 'musical differences' but a new music-based dating site hopes to have the opposite effect
Music is littered with bands who've broken up due to "musical differences". But, like the young Hollywood starlet suffering from "exhaustion" (translation: she stopped eating solid food five days ago), those "musical differences" can mean something else entirely. They could cover the drummer refusing to address the singer via his spirit guide; the bassist itching incessantly after secretly boinking the keyboardist's boyfriend; or, our favourite, All Saints' Shaznay refusing to let Natalie Appleton wear the jacket she wanted for a photoshoot.
Opposites Attract, Paula Abdul and MC Scat Kat.
But can musical differences migrate to non-musical relationships, too? Couples don't really fall apart because they don't share the same taste in music, do they? Well, maybe not "because of", but we're sure that it doesn't ingratiate them to each other. After Princess Diana left Charles, did he think: "Well, at least that means I don't have to listen to Rio at full pelt any more"? Probably. Was Madonna pissed off when her Ashtanga yoga session was rudely interrupted by Guy Ritchie blasting out The Best Of The Chieftains from the downstairs room? You bet!
Because, despite what Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat memorably told us in 1990, opposites don't attract. Well, they attract for a bit, until you realise they were lying about loving Wings Of Desire and when you played them Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby they thought it was Dire Straits.
Now coming to test the theory further is Tastebuds.fm, a new dating site that uses music fans' Last.fm profiles to "allow you to find similar single people who share your passion for music"; instead of GSOH it's "must love Nizlopi". However, they've forgotten to add that people who use the site are probably awkward geeks who think that a "good time" involves arguing about the best Black Flag album on a messageboard while watching a YouTube clip of a panda farting.
Nevertheless, we type in a list of our three favourite bands (Vengaboys, Napalm Death and 3OH!3) to search for a match. We get six results: two who look like they've just come from a Twilight convention (the Napalm Death fans, we assume), three who don't have photos, and one who looks vaguely normal. The problem was that no one matched The Guide's bands exactly. So we attempt another, less disparate, collection: Plan B, Olly Murs and Echobelly, perhaps? Again two of the same girls come up. Hmm. Is it serendipity or just an glitch in the cache?
We don't seem to be getting anywhere, so – like Bowie in the 70s – we switch sides. There's a dude whose profile says, "I mainly joined this site to find out what a homosexual MF Doom fan looks like", and he's dressed up like a wizard in one of his photos.
So what have we learned? That true love is unlikely to flourish on Tastebuds.fm and, yes, Napalm Death fans look exactly as you imagine them to. ( guardian.co.ukm )
Music is littered with bands who've broken up due to "musical differences". But, like the young Hollywood starlet suffering from "exhaustion" (translation: she stopped eating solid food five days ago), those "musical differences" can mean something else entirely. They could cover the drummer refusing to address the singer via his spirit guide; the bassist itching incessantly after secretly boinking the keyboardist's boyfriend; or, our favourite, All Saints' Shaznay refusing to let Natalie Appleton wear the jacket she wanted for a photoshoot.
Opposites Attract, Paula Abdul and MC Scat Kat.
But can musical differences migrate to non-musical relationships, too? Couples don't really fall apart because they don't share the same taste in music, do they? Well, maybe not "because of", but we're sure that it doesn't ingratiate them to each other. After Princess Diana left Charles, did he think: "Well, at least that means I don't have to listen to Rio at full pelt any more"? Probably. Was Madonna pissed off when her Ashtanga yoga session was rudely interrupted by Guy Ritchie blasting out The Best Of The Chieftains from the downstairs room? You bet!
Because, despite what Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat memorably told us in 1990, opposites don't attract. Well, they attract for a bit, until you realise they were lying about loving Wings Of Desire and when you played them Lou Reed's Coney Island Baby they thought it was Dire Straits.
Now coming to test the theory further is Tastebuds.fm, a new dating site that uses music fans' Last.fm profiles to "allow you to find similar single people who share your passion for music"; instead of GSOH it's "must love Nizlopi". However, they've forgotten to add that people who use the site are probably awkward geeks who think that a "good time" involves arguing about the best Black Flag album on a messageboard while watching a YouTube clip of a panda farting.
Nevertheless, we type in a list of our three favourite bands (Vengaboys, Napalm Death and 3OH!3) to search for a match. We get six results: two who look like they've just come from a Twilight convention (the Napalm Death fans, we assume), three who don't have photos, and one who looks vaguely normal. The problem was that no one matched The Guide's bands exactly. So we attempt another, less disparate, collection: Plan B, Olly Murs and Echobelly, perhaps? Again two of the same girls come up. Hmm. Is it serendipity or just an glitch in the cache?
We don't seem to be getting anywhere, so – like Bowie in the 70s – we switch sides. There's a dude whose profile says, "I mainly joined this site to find out what a homosexual MF Doom fan looks like", and he's dressed up like a wizard in one of his photos.
So what have we learned? That true love is unlikely to flourish on Tastebuds.fm and, yes, Napalm Death fans look exactly as you imagine them to. ( guardian.co.ukm )
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