I created a fun little program that will go and find the musical influences of any artist. It uses the Spotify APIs and a bit of logic.
The logic works like this:
- Find the artist on Spotify
- Go and find the earliest album that artist made.
- Get the related artists and their first album date
- Pick the related artist that has the closest album to 2 years before the original artist
- Start back up with #3
- Repeat until there are no artists left. Or until the program goes way off the rails.
Note: If there are no related artists with albums older than the oldest it will go back up the chain and try and find another route.
Source Code is on Github here.
Example #1 – Pearl Jam
This has some pretty great results. Starting with Pearl Jam’s first album Ten (1991), It goes all the way back to 1953 with decent results like Wire – Pink Flag, The Yardbirds – London 1963.
You will notice that it skips over bands like Nirvana because Nevermind was released in 1991 and that was the earliest album Spotify had. But, you get Soundgarden and Jane’s Addiction instead, which when you listen to the albums they are great precursors.
Special Finds: 1977 Wire – Pink Flag
1991-01-01 – Pearl Jam – Ten Redux
1989-01-01 – Soundgarden – Louder Than Love
1987-01-01 – Jane’s Addiction – Jane’s Addiction (Live)
1985-01-01 – Faith No More – We Care a Lot (Deluxe Band Edition) [Remastered]
1982-01-01 – Meat Puppets – Meat Puppets
1980-01-01 – Minutemen – Paranoid Time
1977-01-01 – Wire – Pink Flag
1973-01-01 – The Modern Lovers – Live at the longbranch and more
1971-01-01 – Flamin’ Groovies – Live In San Francisco 1971
1969-01-01 – MC5 – Kick Out The Jams (Live)
1966-01-01 – The Monks – Black Monk Time
1965-01-01 – The Sonics – Here Are the Sonics
1965-01-01 – The Pretty Things – The Pretty Things
1965-01-01 – Them – The “Angry” Young Them!
1963-01-01 – The Yardbirds – London 1963 – The First Recordings
1962-01-01 – Helen Shapiro – Tops With Me
1960-01-01 – Adam Faith – Adam
1960-01-01 – Cliff Richard & The Shadows – Me And My Shadows/Listen To Cliff
1959-01-01 – Cliff Richard – Cliff/Cliff Sings
1956-01-01 – Pat Boone – Howdy!
1952-01-01 – Eddie Fisher – Christmas with Eddie Fisher
1951-01-01 – Frankie Laine – One For My Baby
#2 – #2 Dr. Dre
Dr Dre had great results. Even though it started with 2001 instead of earlier stuff, it quickly jumped back to Warren G and then all the way back to Kurtis Blow.
After that, we hit on some awesome disco stuff like Inner Life – I’m Caught Up and and then to some baby making music Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and Jerry Butler. Love this one!
Finally finishes up with some Sam Cooke and everyone knows that Dr Dre was influenced by Pat Boone!
Special Find: Electro and a bit of spoken word: Warp 9 – It’s a Beat Wave
1999 Dr Dre – 2001
1998 – Nate Dogg – G Funk Classics, Vols. 1 & 2
1996 – Xzibit – At The Speed Of Life
1994 – Warren G – Regulate…G Funk Era (20th Anniversary)
1991 – DJ Quik – Quik Is The Name
1989 – The D.O.C. – No One Can Do It Better
1987 – Ice-T – Rhyme Pays (Explicit Version)
1984 – Run–D.M.C. – Discover Beyond
1982 – Whodini – Funky Beat: The Best Of Whodini
1980 – Kurtis Blow – Kurtis Blow
1980 – The Sugarhill Gang – The Sugarhill Gang
1984 – Fat Boys – Fat Boys
1984 – Newcleus – Jam On Revenge
1982 – Man Parrish – Hip Hop Bee Bop
1982 – Warp 9 – It’s a Beat Wave
1981 – Sharon Redd – Sharon Redd
1979 – Inner Life – I’m Caught Up (In a One Night Love Affair)
1977 – First Choice – Delusions (Bonus Version)
1975 – The Salsoul Orchestra – Anthology Vol. 1
1973 – MFSB – Deep Grooves
1972 – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes – Blue Notes And Ballads
1970 – The Main Ingredient – L.T.D.
1968 – The Intruders – Cowboys to Girls
1965 – Barbara Mason – Yes I’m Ready
1961 – Jerry Butler – Aware Of Love
1962 – Gene Chandler – The Duke Of Earl
1961 – Mary Wells – Bye Bye Baby
1958 – Jackie Wilson – He’s So Fine
1957 – Solomon Burke – The Apollo Masters
1959 – Sam Cooke – Tribute To The Lady
1958 – The Drifters – Rockin’ and Driftin’
1956 – The Platters – The Platters
1956 – Pat Boone – Howdy!
1952 – Eddie Fisher – Christmas with Eddie Fisher
1951 – Frankie Laine – One For My Baby
