(from an article in Search Engine Watch )

Want to find music similar to what you already enjoy? musicplasma creates intriguing music maps revealing connections between musicians, styles and musical epochs.[/b]

Musicplasma is similar to the Kartoo meta search engine. Enter the name of a musician, and you'll see a collection of colored balls featuring musician names or bands as search results. The musician you searched on is at the center of the map, and closely related artists are positioned nearby. The size of the circle around a musician's name indicates popularity.

Clusters of musicians or band names indicate related styles, such as jazz, rock, blues and so on. Some clusters show musical epochs, such as the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc.

Some maps, particularly for popular musicians or bands, can be quite extensive, spreading beyond a single screen. Click the center of any sphere to make that musician or group the center of the map. You can also zoom the map in or out by mousing slowly out from the center of a sphere and clicking when you see a "Zoom +" or "Zoom -" message appear.

For many musicians, you'll also get a brief discography with links to Amazon to buy music.

Musicplasma is primarily geared toward contemporary music, though you can get some interesting connections between classical musicians and popular music. Musicplasma says that Neil Young is vastly more popular then Beethoven, and the two are connected by only two degrees of separation, through Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman.

Musicplasma's primary value is as a discovery tool.

Give it a try...[/b]
http://www.musicplasma.com/

Type in the name of a musician or group.

I was very scared to "Barney" and "Children's Songs" in close proximity to "Brahms" (the search term).... Scared and, alas, not surprised.

Ah, but I found Keith Emerson, the Nice, and ELP all in good company:-)