Bride of Grandson of 6 Degrees of Napster

Okay, same rules as before, but this time we'll start with the innocuous and harmless, The Wiggles and see if we can get to hard core rap. Tipper Gore and the like may want to get their branding irons out...


We'll start with a children's music group that have their own show on the Disney channel- The Wiggles. My kids watched the show with glee as they sang their popular songs such as Hot Potato, Big Red Car and Fruit Salad. It's as tame as you can get.

1) People who enjoy The Wiggles also enjoy The Archies.

Move over Gorillaz, wikipedia claims that The Archies and Alvin and the Chipmunks were the original virtual bands. The Archies are still rather tame. They may appeal to people to over 5 years old but their only hit, Sugar, Sugar, was bubble gum pop and as innocent as Sally Field's Gidget.

2) People who enjoy The Archies also enjoy Fats Domino.

Ahh yes, I can see a little controversy is making its way to our list. Back in his day, Fats would play the devil's music. Certainly tame by today's standards, Blueberry Hill, is about teens schnogging and sucking face in their cars. Make no mistake, Richie Cunningham was a horny guy on Happy Days. The Fonz may have gotten all the action in Milwaukee but Richie used this song to try and get some.

3) People who enjoy Fats Domino also enjoy Smokey Robinson.

The Tracks of my Tears is a great song and Smokey is certainly not tame. But it's not exactly hard core stuff yet, we're halfway there and I wonder of we'll get there...

4) People who enjoy Smokey Robinson also enjoy Stevie Wonder.

Stevie Wonder is a fantastic song writer and performer. He's about as good as they come. He may be adult oriented in his themes but You Are the Sunshine of my Life isn't exactly hard core. This is my best bet for a good link, however, as many rappers have sampled Stevie thru the years.

5) People who enjoy Stevie Wonder also enjoy Busta Rhymes.

Finally a parental advisory label! Busta Rhymes is not full on hard core yet, but we cerainly have some explicit lyrics. Gimme Some More!!

6) People who enjoy Busta Rhymes also enjoy 2Pac.

Success!! We are so hard core that we have ourselves some actual real life gang violence associated with our artist, 2Pac. We made it from Wags the Dog to 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted. Tipper and crew never would have guessed that those Australians for kiddies were so related to hard core.

Grandson of 6 degrees of Napster

Okay, same rules as before, but this time we'll start with a group I don't care for all that much and see if we can make our way towards a cool band or singer.



We'll start with a 80's hair band that my wife loved as a girl- Poison. Besides watching Bret Michaels being pathetic on VH1's Rock of Love, their music was filled with overall crappiness and banality. So let's see if Every Rose has it's Thorn, shall we?


1) People who enjoy Poison also enjoy Twister Sister.

I admit that I liked We're Not Gonna Take It, but that's probably because of the video... At least Dee Snyder is kinda cool and isn't pretentious at all. An improvement but we have a long ways to go still.

2) People who enjoy Twisted Sister also enjoy Alice Cooper.

How ironic, Alice's biggest hit (and most annoying song) is titled Poison. Alice did have some decent tunes in the 70's and apparently is a decent golfer, go figure...

3) People who enjoy Alice Cooper also enjoy Foreigner.

Huh? I guess, I'm used to the 80's Foreigner. Foreigner did have some stuff in the 70's that would be considered more heavy metallish than I Want To Know What Love Is.

4) People who enjoy Foreigner also enjoy Hall and Oates.

Sara Smile is a very cool song and one of these guys is from Philly (the one who looks like Baba Booey?), but I just can't get past Out of Touch to consider this a success yet.

5) People who enjoy Hall and Oates also enjoy The Cars.

Ric Ocasek is one very ugly mother-fucker. But the dude had so many big hits that he scored with Sports Illustrated super swim-wear model, Paulina Porizkova. (Billy Joel also bagged Christie Brinkley around the same time.) Even though the band oozed cool, I was never a huge fan. While I usually won't flip the radio when Drive or Just What I Needed comes on, I don't actively seek their songs out.

6) People who enjoy The Cars also enjoy Talking Heads.

Success!! I love the Talking Heads. And She Was is one of my favorites; Psycho Killer and Once in a Lifetime are great as well. I could listen to entire albums of theirs.


So we made it from mediocrity to something special. Hair to slick new wave. Whodathunk it?

Son of 6 degrees of Napster

Just because I'm bored on a Friday night-

Let's start with an old favorite of mine Cat Stevens (yeah, yeah, he's a terrorist now, blah, blah, go read snopes ya ignorant hick) He created many beautiful songs with a message mainly of comprised of peace and love.


1-apparently people who enjoy Cat Stevens also seem to enjoy Carole King

Well this makes sense- both are considered among the greatest singer/songwriters of the 70's.

2-apparently people who enjoy Carole King also seem to enjoy Elton John

hmmmmm...we've quickly went from meaningful to schmaltzy- Not that it's a bad thing, Elton does schmaltzy very well.

3-apparently people who enjoy Elton John also seem to enjoy Michael Jackson

At first glance this seems to be a weird connection, but remember both artists hit their peak in the 80's. But we seem to be getting further away from the message.

4-apparently people who enjoy Michael Jackson also seem to enjoy Britney Spears

Say what? Although, it's really no surprise- both are huge pop stars from their eras, both are famous for their over the top videos, both are in the tabloids 24/7 and both are whackos. But at least Michael sang of love sometimes, Britney seems to ooze sex and sluttiness.

5-apparently people who enjoy Britney Spears also seem to enjoy Jessica Simpson

Just when you thought you couldn't get any more vapid....

6-apparently people who enjoy Jessica Simpson also seem to enjoy The Spice Girls

There you have it- Cat Stevens is just 6 degrees away from The Spice Girls

Katmandu is 6 degrees away from Wannabe

I wish that Cat's songwriting ability were further away from the manufactured pop of the 90's.

6 degrees of Napster

Napster has a feature that lets you know the 20 most popular artists that are liked by other people who also like the artist that you're currently looking at.

So in the spirit of Kevin Bacon I decided to pick one of my favorite bands and see how far I could go astray by looking at "also enjoyed by people who like..." 6 times.


Let's start with Phish

1-apparently people who enjoy Phish also seem to enjoy Jack Johnson

not exactly my cup of tea but he's not bad and I like Curious George as much as the next guy.

2-apparently people who enjoy Jack Johnson also seem to enjoy The Wallflowers

I like that one hit they had a few summers ago, One Headlight, so far we're not too far off course.

3-apparently people who enjoy The Wallflowers also seem to enjoy R.E.M.

now we're talking- R.E.M. has always been a favorite of mine- can't say that they resemble Phish all that much however...

4-apparently people who enjoy R.E.M. also seem to enjoy Green Day

hmmm...quite punkish

5-apparently people who enjoy Green Day also seem to enjoy The Ramones

I wanna be sedated. I actually saw these guys in concert before half the band kicked the bucket.

6-apparently people who enjoy The Ramones also seem to enjoy The Misfits


There you have it-

Phish is 6 degrees away from The Misfits

Wading in a Velvet Sea is 6 degrees away from Dig Up her Bones

A fun journey with a few good stops on the way.