Buy Or Don’t Buy

 Once a week or so, I’ll be doin’ what I do on my computer (ie reading Miley Cyrus/Britney Spears/Jennifer Aniston gossip, the female equivalent of internet porn), and a software update will pop up.  90% of the time I click “Later,” until several weeks later I get so sick of seeing the damn things that I finally sigh and click “Update” and impatiently wait for my computer to restart itself.  

This also applies to iTunes updates, which happen nearly as often, and which are even more annoying because usually I can make out no discernible difference between my iTunes pre- and post-update.  

However, for once iTunes has actually created an update that is not only significant, but which is also kind of cool.  Behold: the Genius Sidebar. 

Basically, click on a song, and the sidebar will list other songs by that artist that you’re missing, as well as songs from other similar artists.  A blatant attempt to make you buy more music?  Sure.  But I like music…and the Genius feature suggests more music for me to illegally download!

The other cool thing that Genius does is create a playlist for you.  Click on a song, click on the little Genius button at the bottom, and BAM - you have a list of 25 songs, from your music library, that theoretically make a great playlist. 

Unfortunately, this feature is a lot better in concept than it is in execution.  Example: I created a playlist based on my favorite Sam Cooke song, “That’s Where It’s At.”  The result was a list of songs by African Americans (with the sole exception of Amy Winehouse.)  The inclusion of the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson generally made sense.  But…Usher?  Destiny’s Child?  TLC?  What do they have in common with Sam Cooke other than being black?

Therefore, I’m going to make Genius a buy, with the warning that it’s kind of like an old white man who can’t distinguish between all the crazy doo-wop’in and hip-hoppin’ those black people do.  (Which is to say…John McCain.  Maybe I don’t buy this after all.)