Friday, June 17, 2016

The iPod Algorithm

THC enjoys listening to the music he's selected to put on his iPod.  Apple "assists" your listening pleasure when you place the music on shuffle by employing an algorithm to select songs that have some relationship between them, combining for the listener a degree of uncertainty along with some continuity, sometimes in surprising ways.

Today, THC wondered what the algorithm was possibly thinking as he encountered the oddest combination of two songs, placed one after the other.  He's tried to figure out the connection but has got nothing.  Please help!

The first is the main theme from Field of Dreams, the 1989 film about baseball and family, starring Kevin Costner.  The score was written by James Horner who passed away last year.  Horner wrote over 100 movie scores, including those for Titanic, Braveheart, Aliens, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind.  You can hear his last score this summer when the remake of The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, is released.  The version THC listened to was by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra which he could not find on YouTube, so he's embedded the entire soundtrack below.  The portion on his iPod can be found from 42:03 to 45:56.

The song that followed it was Keep Your Hands To Yourself by the Georgia Satellites.  THC can't think of a bigger contrast.

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