6 Degrees of Black Sabbath

If you’re even the slightest bit of a music obsessive, than stay far, far away from 6 Degrees of Black Sabbath. Which, as the name implies, allows you to find how musical artists are connected with each other. Some of the steps between artists can be tenuous at best, but even so, the results are still pretty cool, humorous, and eye-opening.

You could wax philosophical about how musical genres are mere illusions, that music is music, and so on. As for me, I just like to plug in “Contemporary Christian Music” (CCM) artists and see how far removed they really are from secular artists. For example, you can get from Carman to The Roots in only 4 steps. And Steve Green is only 20 steps removed from N.W.A.

Also fun is trying to make the longest string of connections. So far, the longest I’ve made is Steve Green to Guitar Wolf (29 steps).

If you’re in a geeky mood, developer Paul Lamere has written a blog entry explaining the website and the process behind its connections.