Fun with iTunes Genius
Recently this gentleman made me aware of how much fun the iTunes Genius feature can be. It's a little bit like Pandora using your own library. Very good when you're in a specific mood--you only need to pick one song that fits the mood, then hopefully Genius takes over. It has some weird gaps (like, it doesn't recognize King Crimson? WTF!?), but it's pretty impressive nonetheless.
I thought up a little game to play with the Genius: pick two artists, as far removed from one another as you can imagine. Start with a Genius playlist based on a song from the first, and then pick another playlist based on one song in the first playlist. Rinse and repeat. See how many steps it takes to get from one to the other.
I got from the Sex Pistols to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer in 4 hops. Same era, but diametrically opposed with regard to musical ethos. Woot!
OTOH, I had to give up on my attempt to hop from Miles Davis to Nine Inch Nails. FAIL!
One tip I've come up with already: David Bowie appears to be the iTunes Genius version of Kevin Bacon; all roads seem to lead through Bowie.
I thought up a little game to play with the Genius: pick two artists, as far removed from one another as you can imagine. Start with a Genius playlist based on a song from the first, and then pick another playlist based on one song in the first playlist. Rinse and repeat. See how many steps it takes to get from one to the other.
I got from the Sex Pistols to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer in 4 hops. Same era, but diametrically opposed with regard to musical ethos. Woot!
OTOH, I had to give up on my attempt to hop from Miles Davis to Nine Inch Nails. FAIL!
One tip I've come up with already: David Bowie appears to be the iTunes Genius version of Kevin Bacon; all roads seem to lead through Bowie.
3 Comments:
Hooray, I'm a gentleman!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE iTunes Genius, although it was mortified when my iPod kept pulled up Nirvana's "Rape Me" at Casa T over Thanksgiving. I like the song, but it's not really family dinner music. I'm also not sure why Genius thought it was similar to the TMBG song I used as a seed.
By the way, what were the four hops from Sex Pistols to ELP?
My favorite application of Genius is letting it help me listen to neglected music. When I build a Genius playlist from a song, I sort the songs by number of playcounts, that way the songs I have listened to the least float to the top of the list.
Wait... iTunes Genius wasn't mortified; I was mortified.
Er, crud...let's see if I can repeat it...
Sex Pistols, "God Save the Queen"--> David Bowie, "Sound & Vision"-->Pink Floyd, "Fearless"-->Supertramp, "Bloody Well Right"-->ELP, "Lucky Man"
Yeah, I find my iPod is never mortified by ANYTHING, no matter how embarrassing, in a playlist. I've had to dive for the fast-forward button on more than one occasion.
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