Rap music plays on Tommy James & The Shondells Radio

[Cbarkley]

I have been a longtime Pandora user and have several stations that I created and carefully curated years ago around specific genres. Over the years, I have consistently used thumbs-up for songs that fit each station and thumbs-down for songs I either did not like or that did not belong to that station. Until now, Pandora’s recommendation algorithm has worked very well.

Beginning today, that behavior changed dramatically.

For example, my 1960s Rock station is now repeatedly playing rap, rap-like, and other music that is clearly outside the genre of the station. This is not an occasional recommendation that misses the mark. It is happening approximately every 3–5 songs.

I continue to give these inappropriate selections a thumbs-down, but doing so does not appear to correct the problem. Similar out-of-genre selections continue to appear.

Because this station has years of listening history and thumbs-up/thumbs-down feedback, this appears less like a station that needs additional training and more like a problem with Pandora’s recommendation algorithm or its use of my existing station preferences.

Could you please investigate whether there has been a recent change or issue affecting station personalization or genre boundaries? I would prefer not to delete or rebuild these stations and lose years of accumulated preference data.

I can provide specific examples of the inappropriate artists/tracks and approximate playback times if that would assist with troubleshooting.

[AdamPandora · Accepted solution]

@Cbarkley Sorry for the trouble you are having with Rap music playing on your 1960s Rock station.

I took a look at your account, and I believe you are experiencing this issue on your Tommy James & The Shondells Radio station.

After further review, it appears that LB by Dai Lo was added as variety to your station:

To resolve this, I've gone ahead and removed that track as variety from your station.

I hope this helps!