Playlists killed the classic album

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

As someone whose musical tastes are so reluctant to be dragged into today that I spent last Saturday night at a gig featuring Carter USM and EMF, this week has been both beautiful and troubling.

On the one hand, Chinese Democracy, Axl Rose’s 15-year tortuous journey towards the Guns N’ Roses album he always felt he had in his brilliantly destructive brain, was released. On the other hand, a music software company came to our offices and showed us some software that analyses all the music on your hard drive, clusters it into a big cloud of tempos, styles, and other gubbins, then lets you choose your playlists visually by picking the clusters that interest you.

The two couldn’t have been further apart in what they represent. (more…)