Answering More Big Ones

All right, we're going to take another crack at laying some of these common arguments to bed. After considering all of the data, I think I'm ready to declare which of these following things is best. For those of you who are confused by what you're seeing below, check out part 1 for some perspective.


Pepsi vs Coke

DJ Pepsi is an uninspired R&B DJ who has one album that sounds like it was created in GarageBand. Every track features basically identical house beats, though there are a few African inspired tunes that are slightly more interesting. Overall, I wouldn't voluntarily seek out his music.

Coke (Co-ke?) just goes to show how messed up the iTunes library can get. It's either a pretty rad mariachi/classic funk artist/band, or a needlessly vulgar and uninspired rapper. They got mixed together even though they're clearly not related. I'm going with the artist that seems to be closest to the intended spelling (how do you pronounce this with a hyphen in the middle?), and say that sure, mariachi funk is better than amatur-hour R&B.

So Coke wins. But honestly you could probably pass on both and be happier as a result.

Star Wars vs Star Trek

This is going to make some people mad, but as per the rules here, I will not be using music from either Star Wars or Star Trek. Albums from both franchises were the first results in my searches. But they were NOT the first artists in the search.

You might be surprised to find that there is an artist named Star Wars on iTunes. They produced a single song for the album Trance Mix Vol. 8 called Xerox & Freeman. As far as trance music goes, it's uh... not the worst.

The artist that showed up for Star Trek also seems to be a case of iTunes procedurally combining stuff that isn't related. It's either a duo called "m-flo loves Star Trek" with a single dance track called Love Long and Prosper, or a best of album that covers the first 30 years of Star Trek music. I'm throwing out the 30-year compilation, because I happen to know the actual artists responsible for those songs, so we'll be comparing Love Long and Prosper to Xerox & Freeman.

Love Long and Prosper is the clear winner. Not only is it a decent dance track, it's actually kinda hilarious if you have any clue what Star Trek is. Star Trek wins.

DC vs Marvel

Again going with the first artist to show up in the search and not the artist actually named DC (who is a pretty generic rapper, go figure), we'll be using AC/DC in this comparison. AC/DC is... well, they don't really need an introduction. You've seen Iron Man? You know who AC/DC is.

The band named Marvel is, surprisingly, a sort of classic rock revival band. They write and perform their own original tunes, but they seem to be shooting for a sound and style similar to something like Guns & Roses.

I was actually really surprised this was as close as it was, because Marvel is actually pretty good. But in the end, decades of wild success doesn't lie. DC wins.

Nature vs Nurture

Nature is one of the "old guard" rappers from the late 90's. He worked with some of the big names from that time, and was featured on dozens of albums outside of the ones he released himself. His stuff is actually pretty good, he's got a formidable and surprisingly lyrical style of rap.

On the polar opposite side of music, Nurture Cards is an album of Australian meditation/sleep music in which a woman with a very soothing voice tells you nice things while you listen to some atmospheric synthesizers. It's basically self-affirmation rap. They have one album called Positive Sleep, Positive Mind.

I'm not a huge fan of rap, but this is pretty obvious. Nature wins.

Tesla vs Edison

This wound up being a much closer contest than I was expecting. Tesla was an 80's rock band, similar to most other 80's rock bands, which isn't a bad thing. If you liked Journey, Boston, or Styx, you'd probably like Tesla. I really like their guitar stylings, in particular.

Edison is an alternative group, you could probably call them alt folk and feel pretty confident in your classification. They released their first album last year, and it's pretty good. Very homey sort of sound, very accoustic, if you like groups like Nickel Creek you should check them out.

Both of these bands were new to me, and I actually like them both. And while I'll be keeping my eye on Edison as they hopefully get a chance to grow and improve, I think that based on catalogue alone this is clear. Tesla wins.

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