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What Does Ben Folds Have on Steve Jobs?

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Written by April Yorke   
Monday, 28 September 2009 00:00

Jakob DylanA few weeks ago, I decided to turn on iTunes Genius. Sure, it sends information back to Apple and its sole purpose is to sell me more music, but, hey, I like playlists. I like it when someone else curates them for me while I write or clean or throw a one-woman dance party. My first mix was based on The Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud to Beg." While it was only 13 songs, it was pretty good mix. I doubt I would have thought to throw Flo Rida in with the Marvelettes.

At first it seemed like the only drawback was Genius' refusal to base mixes on certain songs. Cat Power's "Half of You" could appear in a mix, but it doesn't contain enough information to be the starting point. When this happens, I get a little pop up asking me to update Genius. Apparently someday these updates will magically produce a mix based on one of the rejected songs, but I'm not holding my breath. 

This weekend, however, I came to realize the real problem with Genius. Every single mix I have created contains at least one Ben Folds song. At first I assumed that this meant that I have a disproportionate number of Ben Folds songs available. Turns out I have only four Ben Folds songs. 4. Yet one, if not all four, song appears in each mix. They are completely middle of the road in terms of ratings and play count, so I am left to wonder what Folds has done to deserve such Genius prominence. Does he have compromising pictures of Steve Jobs with a giraffe and a jar of pickles?

This morning something magical happened. I based a Genius mix on Jakob Dylan's "On Up the Mountain." After carefully going over the list three times, I discovered that it contains not a single Ben Folds track. So now the question is, "What does Jakob Dylan have on Ben Folds and Steve Jobs?"

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April Yorke is a (Cult)ure Magazine contributor since Wednesday, 07 January 2009.

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