How to go from Raffi to Cannibal Corpse in just two clicks!

GrokMusic is a very cool site for seeing how artists are related to each other. I found out about them today over on the Digital Noise blog. GrokMusic shows a visual map of artists near similar artists. If I type in "The White Stripes", a band that I like, it shows a map with The Strokes and The Pixies who I also like. It also suggested a band called Placebo, who I had never heard before. I listened to a few of their tracks and I liked them. Cool! A way to find new artists I like.

Besides helping you find new music, GrokMusic can also help you try my new favorite hobby: connecting completely different artists to each other a la Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

I decided to see if I could connect artists to death metal band Cannibal Corpse. I don't really like Cannibal Corpse, but my roommate in college loved them and they had a cameo in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. They are also far enough out on the fringe of the music world that it seemed like it would be a challenge to connect them to other artists.

Boy was I wrong!

It turns out children's artist Raffi can be connected to them in two clicks!!! (Raffi -> Napalm Death -> Cannibal Corpse). Why is Napalm Death on the Raffi map? I have no idea. I guess the GrokMusic guys have a pretty good sense of humor.

Celine Dion turned out to only take seven clicks (Celine Dion -> Donna Summer -> Billy Squier -> Motley Crue -> Guns 'n' Roses -> Metallica -> Pantera -> Cannibal Corpse).

Zamfir (pan flute dude who did The Karate Kid and Kill Bill soundtracks) only took four clicks (Zamfir -> AC/DC -> Metallica -> Pantera -> Cannibal Corpse)

As you can probably tell, I found this pretty entertaining. I would love to hear about more ridiculous connections. Give GrokMusic a whirl and then post 'em below in the comments.