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ITunes Genius - Are they 'aving a laugh?

Martin Simmonds's picture

On the train this morning, I snuggled up with the IPOD and scrolled through the artists list. I stopped at David Bowie, who I rarely listen to and so I decided to give it a go. The track "Changes" was first on the list. Half way through I pressed the genius button to see what would happen.

The next track took me to Nick Cave which seemed a good fit.
Soon to follow was Elton John (same era).
So how did it then get to Hannah Montana?

What are the most surprising leaps you've found on your "Genius Lists"?

(I was interested enough to do a little research on the potential link. I suspect Changes has been labelled as a movie soundtrack due to its appearance in Shrek 2. This opened it up to all sorts of other songs from films.)

If you see me at the awards event tonight, please go easy on me when you ask how Hannah Montana ended up on my IPOD in the first place!

0

iTunes bloatware

only marginally better than Ping, IMO.

2
Fraser M | 26 November 2010 - 10:57am

As a wise man (sort of) said...

I don't believe in Ping
I don't believe in Genius
I don't believe in subscribing to TV series
I don't believe in Home Sharing
I don't believe in streaming movies
I don't believe in iPhone updating
I just believe in an iTunes that manages music

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stimpy | 26 November 2010 - 12:20pm

Absolutely

'I just believe in an iTunes that manages music'

but if they dated albums properly it would hell. As it is it's just a random guess from when they were slipped out on CD or remastered. iTunes isn't exactly a record shop staffed by knowledgable enthusiasts. And in terms of same staff offering advice, Genius is pants so I switched it off.

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Paul Bernays | 26 November 2010 - 7:48pm

I dunno is Genius that bad, is it?

I understood it to make 'choices' based on what other people listened to, rather like Last.fm or something. As I've said before, if you're going to spend the afternoon engaging in manual labour, such as creosoting a fence or something, you simply can't go wrong with a Genius playlist based on Superstition by Stevie Wonder!

0
ivan | 26 November 2010 - 9:55pm

This will take some beating...

...Starting with Harry Nilsson's Without You Genius selected (from 15,951 tunes) 24 from the following 5 artists Public Enemy, De La Soul, Grandmaster Flash, Funky Four Plus One and House Of Pain.

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Seamus | 26 November 2010 - 12:26pm

HAHAHAHAHA

Snap. And only last night it happened...except my starting point was Hate it or Love it by The Game. I'd had a bit of Kanye, bit of Mary J Blige and then Harry cocking Nilsson pops up! I went to itunes to check if the genre was set to Soul or something, but no...

somebody's having a laugh!

0
ivan | 26 November 2010 - 5:11pm

Hang on a few minutes and I'll report back

on what I find on mine. Only question remains, what's Hannah Montana doing there in the first place?

1
happy harry | 26 November 2010 - 12:55pm

I'll be asking my daughter that very question later!

As an experiment, if you have the time (and the available track) what happens if you set up a list beginingg with Bowies Changes?

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Martin Simmonds | 26 November 2010 - 1:53pm

I just gave that a go...

and by track 6, I'd had God is a DJ by Pink, and S Club 7's Reach.

:-|

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theblindstagger | 26 November 2010 - 11:39pm

Just made two playlists using Genius

Random selections starting with Felice Brothers - 'Cooperstown' - got a good list of tracks including Duke & The King, The Low Anthem, AA Bondy etc. An interesting playlist so I've saved that one. I then used Bruce's 'Mary Queen Of Arkansas'. Gaslight Anthem, Southside Johnny, The Band and....... Dire Straits??!

0
happy harry | 26 November 2010 - 1:02pm

Amazon

Having spotted my interest in "Selling England by the Pound" by Genesys, Amazon suggested that I might be interested in the new Take That album.

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Twangothan | 26 November 2010 - 5:23pm
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