Music is best when recommended and shared by humans, not iTunes bots, which is what I don't enjoy about iTunes Genius, this list of keywords and algorithms than can pin-point interests... well, it just makes one feel predictable, and even though most of us are predictable to a certain extent, nobody likes to feel that way.
So here is Genius-I-Guess Recommendations #2 (hopefully I'll sporadically explore this as I notice it from time to time)
1. Lover, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley - I already own and adore this, iTunes... and now I don't whether you knew I would or whether this is just an error. Sadface.
2. On The Radio - Regina Spektor - I already own this album, haven't yet placed it on my macs - she's just one artist you can't really predict, you think she's going for a simple pop angle and then bwarkbopbloopmork she's back to being the oddball we love.
3. Lisa Says - Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground - I must investigate! How freaking awesome.
4. Golden Age - TV On the Radio - didn't spark any interest for me.
5. She's Expensive - The Virgins - you know, I don't think I like his voice... I'm not really feeling them right now. Is this a mistake? Aren't they quite popular? Maybe its just this track? But it feels very 90s-and-I-can't-really-sing-because-I-was-too-busy-buying-Doc Martens-to-go-to-my-lessons. Insult?
6. WHOA! The Beginning is the End is the Beginning - The Smashing Pumpkins - OKAY, I'm confused. Are there TWO songs by the smashing pumpkins called, The End is the Beginning is the End and The Beginning is the End is the Beginning or is a number of sites just getting really bloody confused? Firstly, I'm fairly certain that wasn't in the list when I started my previous blog, I think it may have turned up after I went to Amazon Music to look at the Batman Forever soundtrack, but HOW DOES IT KNOW? If it did happen to be up there before I started this vlog, then that's a crazy coincidence and I need to give iTunes Genius a little more credit. There. Did it.
7. Starts With One - Shiny Toy Guns - I'm just not in the mood for a belting lad with a little smattering of auto-tuning in there... usually I'd be more susceptible to it (my love for Panic at the Disco, anyone?) but not right now.
8. Ooh La La - Goldfrapp - just not in the mood for dance tracks either.
9. Last Christmas - Jimmy Eat World - any true fan of The O.C. Seasons One and Two (the rest don't exist, nuh-uh) owns the Christmas soundtrack the fabulous Josh Schwartz and Alexandra Patsavas which includes this song... or any true fan of Jimmy Eat World, of course!
10. Volcano - Damien Rice - now he was here before I started my list, and I still like his "ache".
They are also recommending that I listen to The All-American Rejects, Wilco, Andy Park, the 007: Quantum of Solace soundtrack, the P.S. I Love You soundtrack, Interpol, Kings of Leon (I just can't indulge them right now), Allie Moss, Karen O's Hello Tomorrow (adidas version), Vanessa Carlton (ugh, you like one Christian Rock artist and they throw them all at you), the Xanadu soundtrack (WTF?), the Braveheart soundtrack, Tyga (who?), Interpol (again!), Fleet Foxes and Allie Moss (way to pressure me, iTunes).
Highlights from the Movie Recommendations:
Sydney White - Oh, Amanda Bynes, I will try (very, very hard) to not let my love for you die!
Zombie Strippers - what have I watched that made this recommendation, okay? Alright, fine, I would probably watch it.
Beverly Hill's Chihuahua - Are you fucking kidding me?
Thoughts on the Television Recommendations:
90210 - after seeing the cover of Nylon emblazoned with the shows stars, I thought about maybe trying to get into the series return, but it never happened. Problem?
Greek - if Jessica Rose had an even regular spot on this show, I would probably watch it even more, there's nothing more fun than watching people emerging from the swamps of the Internet.
America's Next Top Model - SHUTUP!HOWDAREYOU!I'MSPEAKINGTOYOULIKETHISCUZILOVEYOU!RAWRSMIZESMIZE! I love this show. It's so much fun. I mainly like the creative photo shoots, but I always forget to watch it. I can't believe its up to Cycle 13 - so many Tyra moments missed!
The Best Years - I've never heard of this show and my internet is too slow to play a preview - thoughts?
The Universe - " " " "
Sonny With a Chance - I want to love this show because I adore Demi Lovato and I see it much more than usual due to hanging out with some youngin's these days, but it's just not as enjoyable as iCarly or Wizards of Waverly Place (oh my, what is wrong with me?), which is not the actors faults, because they are all actually super talented and Demi is adorable... okay, I need to hang out with adults.
The Colbert Report - oh, how I wish I could be one of those people that could easily make late-night TV and talk shows a part of her schedule, but I always forget!
Dollhouse - I think I'm waiting for it to be inevitably cancelled, and then I'll cry and say, I can't believe they cancelled it and I missed the hype around the show, and then I'll buy all the episodes and join the bandwagon when the movie is made... yes? (I'm terrible, I need to love up those folks more often)
Battlestar Galactica - Luke was really into this series, and I'd watch snippets with him from time to time, I like a lot of the actors in it, so I definitely want to get into this series one day, even though it's over : (
FlashForward - I had to investigate this show for a proposal I was writing last year, and ended up being really excited about it and wanted to get into it. I liked the pilot and the tie ins with the LOST universe (Oceanic Airlines advertisement in the background, anyone?) but I never watched it. I'm just not a TV person.
Leverage - I've never heard of this show and my internet is too slow to play a preview - thoughts?
LOST - I cannot watch it until its over and now that I keep hearing the hype around the latest season, I want it to be over so badly. My Mum and I use to watch the show every Thursday evening after I got home from Theatre Class and we loved it. When Season Two started, rehearsals for our play started to go late and I missed an episode and then another one, and this was before you could catch up online, so it started to become impossible to enjoy (some people can do it, I can't) without the previous episodes information, so I haven't watched it since. I want the box sets, I want a long, long weekend, and I want it really soon. Hurry up, LOST folks!
The Secret Life of the American Teenager - I kind of want to make this a guilty pleasure, like what One Tree Hill must be to a lot of people, but it hasn't happened.
Speaking of... One Tree Hill - NOPE! I can't do it! I'm sorry! I just... no. I know! But, yeah. No.
Lincoln Heights - See 'Secret Life of American Teenager' notes, but with less interest since I don't know anything about it.
The Soup - the guy that's now in Community. Right? That's pretty cool that he was able to go from Host to Actor, that doesn't happen that often and usually without as much acclaim that Community has had.
Bones - I use to adore David Boreanaz and so I'd probably like this show, but again, my lack of skill for being a TV watcher, the lack of complete access to shows online and lack of money to waste on things I probably don't really need to see keep me from watching it.
The Sarah Silverman Show - I want to watch this, I saw a few episodes in 2007 and thought it was hilarious.
That's So Raven - even when I had cable, I just wasn't interested in the show.
Hannah Montana - I watch this more than I would like, that's really all that I have to say.
All those recommendations and all I want to do is listen to Vampire Weekend, my valentines gift: the Youth In Revolt soundtrack and watch The Hurt Locker and Mad Men. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. WHOOOAAAAAASKABANG!
Not really.
I'd would actually really like to see any links in my comments to blog posts discussing your own Genius suggestions, I might like what they suggest more than you do : )
11 comments:
I mostly get "Genius could not find results for song ..." due to the high proportion of anime and movie soundtracks in my library. If you want some useful recommendations have you tried Blip.FM (web-based service, find and follow "DJs" who have at some point overlapped your musical taste) or one of the plug-ins for something like Songbird.
Google "Hollywood, Mon Amour" for something to listen to in the meantime.
Quick question: Have you seen "The Boat That Rocked"? I think the U.S. title may have been changed to "Pirate Radio". If you have, did you think it was awesome or awful? If you haven't, you should rent it and tweet your opinion, or something. (:
It's just that I liked it so much when I saw it last weekend ...
LOST and Battlestar Galactica are awesome!
if you don't like our genius lists i'll send you your own personalized lists based on what you like. find me on twitter (iTunesCanada or ldunlop) and i'll put together something.
and no, i don't do this for everyone. just seemingly cool aussies in nyc.
When my brain is relaxed and not saturated with what ever it is I have been working on I've found myself on blip fm more often than any other outlet. I've discovered new stuff I'm interested in from following other dj's and hearing what there listening to. I also get turned on to new music from you and my other internet friends by monitoring their fav's ratings etc. As for the itunes thing (genius) I'm not terribly interested in that. A lot of the internet radio sites have been pushing that, sounds like this, is more like that, if you like this you will like that sort of thing. I think that's great for new artists because they can gain exposure. The problem I foresee with that is that for example like on Jango, You can pay 10 dollars to have your music pushed to other listeners 250 clicks. As soon as you start introducing the payolla aspects then inevitably your going to get corporate control over what your getting pushed. I don't doubt that this exists on itunes in what they suggest to you. Call me cynical but I just hate it. Another thing I like to do is go to record stores preferably indie mom and pop type stores and hear what they are playing and hang and talk with people. The coolest thing though which I don't get to do as often as I used to is going to venues and hearing unknown live music. I used to just look in the paper and just go see who ever and whatever depending on my mood. Being in NYC is great for that because you get a lot of future national and world acts as well as local that come threw before there huge and you can see them on an intimate level, get to know them and feel a part of there success and progress when they hit it big. You also get exposed to great music that will never hit it big and thats equally satisfying because the more this happens the less you become enchanted with the bogus money machine that is the music industry. The more this happens the more personal experience you have with your own music the emotions it causes for you as an individual and your needs as oposed to being programmed by a program director that is only interested in 99%of cases, lining his pockets with an artists promotional budget. :)Sorry so long, I could go on though...
zombie strippers!!!!!!!!!
It is two different tracks by the Pumpkins, yes.
I listen to Smashing Pumpkins on occasion and I've HEARD of Jimmy Eat World. The rest don't ring a bell at all. I don't listen to mainstream music really.
My suggestions for music would include bands with cellos that know how to rock out. For example, my absolute favourite: Diablo Swing Orchestra (their myspace is that without spaces, check em out) which has some seriously awesome operatic like vocals combined with a jazzy feel in some of their songs, an ecletic mix of genres that culminate in a powerful and emotive piece of music. Also, Break of Reality (just that with dot com at the end) Judgement Day (myspace) Alamaailman Vasarat (that really is so awesomely unique) then there's the more famous older cello rock bands like Apocalyptica (who hasn't heard of them?) and Rasputina which is quite awesome but very bizarre and not for everyone. Distorted cellos and songs about incredibly obscure historical events like the pop declaring that Capybara (worlds largest rodents) being declared as Fish by the pope in the 16th century while wearing victorian styled clothes... Melora Creager is quite an odd person. Then there's Hevein which takes cello playing to some serious heavyness but I don't suppose you're into thrash metal meets violin and cello?
TV: I've seen a few eps of the original and quite a few of the newer one. Quickly watch the series so you'll have a backdrop for the story of Caprica that starts airing... already. Oh well. Not here in Aus yet though! My parents bought the entire series of Battlestar and are currently watching it all the way through.
I wish they'd get Lost on DVD though. I also missed a few episodes during about season 3 and then it was just... too much... impossible! Nope, not watching you anymore you've confused me more than I ever though a TV show could. Dad still watches it... can't ask him a simple question without him talking for half an hour about random things that somehow led up to there being something in the shadow of the statue or whatever the hell is happening...
Films? Repo! The Genetic Opera! Something very interesting, original and well done for a low budget... which it unfortunately hasn't made back due to lack of marketing. Quickly see it before you're pulled into watching that awful "More fists than brains" movie Repo Men with Jude Law...
I don't have to give you a link to my blog for suggestions I just typed them. I did quite recently actually blog about music tastes (along with other things) in a post called "Obligatory Blog (Pop...)" OK yeah have the link just for convenience.
http://thewindowofbilby.blogspot.com/2010/02/obligatory-blog-pop.html
It's more of a rant against generic pop music and Justin Bieber and tweens... so off topic a bit perhaps? Wait no it does talk about music and films.
Have a nice day :)
LOST is awesome! Last month I rewatched all 5 seasons to get up to speed for the final season. That was fun. Waiting one week for each new episode is not so much fun now... or maybe in a way it is?! I'm not sure, maybe I should take the week off before the final episode airs and watch it all over again.
If you don't plan on watching the final episode on May 23, you should watch out for spoilers!
"I'm not really feeling them right now. Is this a mistake? Aren't they quite popular?"
There's a lot of crap that manages to become popular.
Dollhouse got really good towards the end. The first season suffered from the network getting too involved in the creative process. I think it would have been awesome had Whedon been allowed to run free.
And I'll second the Genius' recommendation of Leverage.
omg, hannah montana?? are you serious? i'm speechless!:)
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