earwander

for Lu, with love

earwander is a map of 6,291 genres of music, set as a manuscript: one word for each genre, placed by how it sounds, every word audible on touch. Each genre has a page of its own, with its artists on the same axes.

Down is more organic, up more mechanical and electric; left denser and more atmospheric, right spikier and bouncier. The sheet is set in one ink, and the ink does what colour would: heavier words are more electric, words that lean are bouncier, fainter words are more atmospheric, larger words are more listened to.

Every word can be heard. Drag the sheet; pinch or ctrl-scroll to zoom; touch a word to hear it, and the arrow in the margin to enter it. Scan lets the map walk; the line is where you have been. The thirty-second previews come from Deezer, and from Spotify where Deezer has none. Nothing you hear or choose is recorded anywhere but in this tab. There is no analytics; the only requests that leave this page go to Google Fonts, to Deezer, and to the two preview servers.