iTunes Genius: Andrew vs. The Machine
You may not be aware of Apple Computers, or Steve Jobs for that matter. So I’ll drop some knowledge before I drop the science: he’s the tight black-sweater, blue as blue can be jean wearing son of a bitch who runs Apple Computers.
Perhaps you’ve seen one the many Apple product addresses, where in Mr. Jobs will pull a new iPod out of his ever-decreasing-in-size pockets and a thousand people will orgasm in unison.
At the most recent Apple suck-fest, yes, new iPods were unveiled and yes they are sexy as hell and yes I would trade a testicle for one, but something else was introduced of particular interest to me: iTunes Genius.
More or less a playlist generator, Genius scans your library of music and based on dozens of factors (rhythm, beat, length, genre, level of involvement of Rick Rubin) it populates a list of songs “similar” to the one you selected. It’s great for making quick playlists if you’re in the mood for a particular type of music, or looking for new artists (with links to the iTunes store handy).
But enough suckin’ at the proverbial dink. We’ve got bigger problems.
Tags: American Sign Language, apple, Barack Obama, Billy Joel, BMW, Candle in the Wind, deaf people, Death Star, drowning, Elton John, fear, Ghetto, immortal technique, iPod, iTunes Genius, Jeff Buckley, Joe Biden, karoake, machines, Marcy Projects, metal, Mos Def, murder, music, Piano Man, popsicle, rap, Rick Rubin, rock, sack, scooter, star wars, steve jobs, suck-fest, Terminator 2, vaguely gay
Filed under All Blogs, Andrew's Blog | 5 Comments »
Letting Other People’s Art Define You: Hooray!
Sorry Blouin, don’t mean to step on your dick, but I’m slapping a little technology into my blog this week.
Myspace, for those of you too cool for school/who have attention deficit disorder, was the big social-networking site before Facebook shot its beans all over the Internets.
The differences between Myspace and Facebook are glaring, but that’s not that this blog is about. Though I turfed my clusterfuck of a Myspace page about a year ago, I still find myself yearning for some of the site’s more gnarly features: Profile music playlists, over-sized and flashing backgrounds, and the fact that you can be friends with Satan . However I still find Facebook’s clean, unified themes much more appealing.
The big featuring lacking on Facebook are bulletin posts. You may argue that "the wall" and "notes" accomplish relatively the same thing, but you’d be wrong, cocksucker. Bulletins were updated in real time in a box right on your main page. While on Facebook you have to looking for your friends’ list of pasta recipes or drunk-diatribes about ex-lovers, Myspace has its car crashes right there, unable to miss.
I got to thinking about the similarities between the two giant sites, and how they more or less allow young people to define themselves based on books, movies and music other people have created. This dovetails nicely with a popular note that was frequently sent around Myspace: The Life Shuffle.
Tags: More Stuff!, music, myspace, shuffle
Filed under All Blogs, Andrew's Blog | 3 Comments »
Good Music: Let Me Tell You What!
There’s a lot of people listening to a lot of music these days. You’ve got your top 40 airheads, your R&B/rap mofos, your alternative rock peeps, your screamo weirdos and so on. Music, like porn, seems to have mushroomed into a relentless eruption of uncontrollable proportions during the digital age. Anyone can download a couple programs, buy a mic and become a recording artist. These artists make up the ‘independent’ scene of course. Like in film independent recording artists are allowed a much greater leeway with what they produce since there’s no real money being put on the line by anyone but the artist themselves.
Again like film, big record executives now watch the indie scene for bands that are getting some buzz or creating a following. They then poach these artists (sorry, ‘discover’ them) and make millions of dollars off their hard work. Wow, I sound like Steve Blouin. Anyway, this is the basic lay of the land, as they say, in the music industry today. The question I raise is this: With so much stuff out there, how do you know what’s cool? And by extension, how do you know what to listen to in order to make yourself seem cool to others? Read on my friend, the answers lie below.
Tags: bob woolsey, indie band, jimi hendrix, johnny cash, kurt cobain, music
Filed under All Blogs, Bob's Blog | 15 Comments »