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Our AI overlords
Aug. 18th, 2023 04:16 pmI was playing around on the internet this morning and came across a Tumblr post listing all the things that were still free on the internet. Skimmed past most of them, but noticed one under "Music" that claimed it could help me find new bands to listen to, based on what I like now.
So, I've got fairly obscure tastes, musically speaking. I listen to a lot of independently released folk/singer-songwriter music, and in fact played it on the radio for 25 years. I figured this site would lean heavily toward pop, rock, hip-hop, and thought I'd have a little fun. (Translation: thought I'd be a little shit and give it some suggestions way off of its dataset, watch it struggle.)
So I went to Gnoosic, where it asked for my three favorite bands. I gave it:
1. Stan Rogers. The late, great, booming baritone Canadian singer-songwriter. Died in an airplane fire flying home from a folk festival 40 years ago.
2. Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. Oregon's own favorite duo from the 90s and early 2000s. Multiple-time visitors to my show, the Saturday Cafe, before Dave died unexpectedly in 2002. Tracy is still performing solo, and in fact will be in Eugene this fall. Brilliant songwriters, lovely harmonies.
3. Christine Kane. Didn't want this to turn into a sausage-fest, so threw in one of my favorite female singer-songwriters. Her second album, A Thousand Girls, is one of my all-time favorites, a really perfect album. After seven albums, she's left music to form a marketing/business coaching business.
So, right away, I realize it's not gonna be so easy to flummox the program. Every one of my choices comes up on auto-complete as I fill them in. Press the button.
The first suggestion, Count This Penny, is not at all familiar. The provided link just goes to an Amazon Prime Music ad, so I open another tab and search them on YouTube. They're a singer-songwriter duo with Appalachian roots and gorgeous harmonies. Totally within my wheelhouse, and if I were still on radio, I'd be contacting them for airplay CDs. Three buttons on the page, "I like it," "I don't like it" and "I don't know." Press the first one, and move on.
The second selection is Over the Rhine, a band I used to play on radio. Number three is Joe Crookston, also in KLCC's library, and my playlists. Then things get creepy.
Number four is Richard Shindell, one of my favorite contemporary songwriters, followed by Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, Carrie Newcomer. All people I love, whose albums I own, whose concerts I've attended.
Next up is Susan Werner. Another huge favorite, and much less well known than the previous four. She's originally from Iowa, and songs like "Barbed Wire Boys" hit straight to my Midwestern heart. I was also fortunate enough to have her live on my show. And then my jaw really dropped.
Ellis Paul.
Oh my god, guys. I'm the biggest fan, have all his albums, know him on a first-name basis, got him on the radio multiple times over the years. He writes perfect little short stories in song, and I've even been inspired to create sculptures by a couple of them.
After that, things tail off a little. I do have a bunch of Dougie Maclean in my collection, and though I know Lori McKenna, it's mostly from another KLCC folk show of my era, the Mist-Covered Mountain. And there the list ended.
How did it do this? Did it get into my head? The website say it's "a self-adapting system that learns about the outer world by asking its visitors what they like and what they don't like," and apparently enough people with my tastes have shared them with the system that it knows what to suggest.
Technically, it was a failure. It only offered one group that was new to me. But on the other hand, it modeled my musical tastes so accurately that I can't fault it.
Wow. Just wow.
So, I've got fairly obscure tastes, musically speaking. I listen to a lot of independently released folk/singer-songwriter music, and in fact played it on the radio for 25 years. I figured this site would lean heavily toward pop, rock, hip-hop, and thought I'd have a little fun. (Translation: thought I'd be a little shit and give it some suggestions way off of its dataset, watch it struggle.)
So I went to Gnoosic, where it asked for my three favorite bands. I gave it:
1. Stan Rogers. The late, great, booming baritone Canadian singer-songwriter. Died in an airplane fire flying home from a folk festival 40 years ago.
2. Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. Oregon's own favorite duo from the 90s and early 2000s. Multiple-time visitors to my show, the Saturday Cafe, before Dave died unexpectedly in 2002. Tracy is still performing solo, and in fact will be in Eugene this fall. Brilliant songwriters, lovely harmonies.
3. Christine Kane. Didn't want this to turn into a sausage-fest, so threw in one of my favorite female singer-songwriters. Her second album, A Thousand Girls, is one of my all-time favorites, a really perfect album. After seven albums, she's left music to form a marketing/business coaching business.
So, right away, I realize it's not gonna be so easy to flummox the program. Every one of my choices comes up on auto-complete as I fill them in. Press the button.
The first suggestion, Count This Penny, is not at all familiar. The provided link just goes to an Amazon Prime Music ad, so I open another tab and search them on YouTube. They're a singer-songwriter duo with Appalachian roots and gorgeous harmonies. Totally within my wheelhouse, and if I were still on radio, I'd be contacting them for airplay CDs. Three buttons on the page, "I like it," "I don't like it" and "I don't know." Press the first one, and move on.
The second selection is Over the Rhine, a band I used to play on radio. Number three is Joe Crookston, also in KLCC's library, and my playlists. Then things get creepy.
Number four is Richard Shindell, one of my favorite contemporary songwriters, followed by Lucy Kaplansky, John Gorka, Carrie Newcomer. All people I love, whose albums I own, whose concerts I've attended.
Next up is Susan Werner. Another huge favorite, and much less well known than the previous four. She's originally from Iowa, and songs like "Barbed Wire Boys" hit straight to my Midwestern heart. I was also fortunate enough to have her live on my show. And then my jaw really dropped.
Ellis Paul.
Oh my god, guys. I'm the biggest fan, have all his albums, know him on a first-name basis, got him on the radio multiple times over the years. He writes perfect little short stories in song, and I've even been inspired to create sculptures by a couple of them.
After that, things tail off a little. I do have a bunch of Dougie Maclean in my collection, and though I know Lori McKenna, it's mostly from another KLCC folk show of my era, the Mist-Covered Mountain. And there the list ended.
How did it do this? Did it get into my head? The website say it's "a self-adapting system that learns about the outer world by asking its visitors what they like and what they don't like," and apparently enough people with my tastes have shared them with the system that it knows what to suggest.
Technically, it was a failure. It only offered one group that was new to me. But on the other hand, it modeled my musical tastes so accurately that I can't fault it.
Wow. Just wow.