Apple Music inquired: “Which tunes would you like to listen to?”
My response: “Instrumental black metal with an atmospheric vibe, suitable for creative work.”
Apple Music then offered: “You’ll find here three metal compositions featuring singing, a natural sound recording, an electronic ambient piece, and a segment of doom jazz.”
Initially, I harbor doubts regarding AI’s capacity to furnish my desired musical selections, yet I was somewhat taken aback by the unimpressive nature of Apple’s fresh Playlist Playground beta. While YouTube Music’s AI playlist creator is hardly flawless, upon presenting it with an identical request for instrumental black metal, it wasn’t until the fifth piece that lyrical content appeared, marking an anomaly rather than the norm. Apple Music, however, fell short right from the outset and continued to do so persistently.
Yesterday, feeling inclined towards metal, I additionally requested Playlist Playground to compile a playlist based on the suggestion: “contemporary ambient black metal hailing from the American South.” Seemingly, Apple managed to locate only three tracks that might satisfy these specifications. One such track originated from the band Woman is the Earth, based in South Dakota. As an American, I acknowledge our notorious lack of geographical precision. Nevertheless, I am virtually certain that South Dakota does not belong to the South.
Perhaps Apple isn’t quite current with black metal. Therefore, I attempted a seemingly simpler task, prompting it for “child-appropriate contemporary hip hop.” The initial selection was merely the edited rendition of Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA.” One might contend that, being the expurgated version, it technically meets the requirements.
Subsequently, it presented the edited rendition of Kid Capri’s “We’re Unified,” a release from 1998. As a man in my middle years, my interpretation of “modern” is quite broad, yet this selection falls outside it. Out of the 16 tracks incorporated into the playlist, six had been released more than 15 years prior. Three were older than 25 years.
The most significant issue arose from the inclusion of Chicken P’s “ABC,” a song enumerating, in alphabetical order, all the women he’s been intimate with, featuring lyrics such as, “Desiree, take dick, she be telling me ‘go deeper.’” I am uncertain if I wish for my four-year-old to reiterate such phrases to their peers.
This particular oversight is especially vexing considering the availability of the Spider-Verse movie scores, Tyler the Creator’s The Grinch EP, and Aesop Rock’s discography.
I presumed a request for “industrial-tinged dance punk” would be reasonably straightforward. My assumption proved incorrect. My mind was on two distinct groups, Model/Actriz and Special Interest. Neither materialized on the compilation. A full half consisted solely of classic industrial acts: Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Ministry, Front 242, and Nine Inch Nails all featured. However, New Order’s “Blue Monday” and the Irish rap group Kneecap also made appearances.
Playlist Playground is currently in its developmental beta phase, and naturally, certain glitches are anticipated. Yet, judging by my findings, I would contend it’s not quite prepared even for a public testing stage. Even when its performance wasn’t catastrophically flawed, the outcomes tended to be rather uninspiring and seldom presented creators unknown to me. Apple offered no reply to an inquiry for their perspective.
The AI-powered playlist creator from Apple evidently contends with comprehending musical categories, geographical locations, temporal aspects, and song texts. Consequently, I administered a final trial, requesting it to generate a playlist for “School collection on a cool day, sans children’s songs.” I might as well have simply played the Garden State soundtrack (featuring Shins, Nick Drake, José Gonzalez). Still, at least I avoided hearing any Parry Gripp.
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