Boil The Frog

September 21, 2017 11:22 AM

Boil The Frog finds the path between two musicians based on AI and magic "stuff".

have fun!

posted by Annika Cicada (51 comments total)

Doesn't matter what the question is, Bonobo seems to be the answer.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:39 AM on September 21, 2017

Blur to Napalm Death in 14 steps!
posted by 40 Watt at 11:48 AM on September 21, 2017

I can see this is going to be fun.
posted by 40 Watt at 11:48 AM on September 21, 2017

Checks out okay.
posted by Navelgazer at 11:50 AM on September 21, 2017

They took much longer to go from GG Allin to Tiny Tim than necessary.
posted by munchingzombie at 11:51 AM on September 21, 2017 [4 favorites]

hahahahaha! @munchingzombie I tried GG Allin to Willie Nelson as my first search. High fives!
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:53 AM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I tried GG Allin to Willie Nelson as my first search.
GG Allin to Father John Misty here
posted by thelonius at 11:58 AM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm going to dig out my old Commodore 64 Hangman game and call it 'AI'. This is apparently sufficient now.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:06 PM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

oh hey the peanut gallery arrived!
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:26 PM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Britney Spears to Tom Waits in 12 songs.
Tom Waits to Britney Spears in 12 songs. Same musicians in the same (reversed) positions but not the same songs.

Somehow I feel this adds legitimacy to the project.
posted by JohnFromGR at 12:28 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Eleven steps to get from Hawkwind to Motorhead? This is like an ant trail.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 12:42 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Exid to Ministry. 20 steps. Boom.
posted by signal at 12:57 PM on September 21, 2017

Robert Johson to Paramore. 20 steps.

Violeta Parra to 7 Year Bitch. 19 steps.
posted by signal at 1:04 PM on September 21, 2017

To get from Beethoven to Merzbow you must pass through the traitorous wasteland of the Muppets.
posted by idiopath at 1:17 PM on September 21, 2017 [5 favorites]

Ray Wylie Hubbard to GG Allin. 17 steps.

More important though -- was it absolutely necessary to make a stop halfway at a tune from Tina Turner's tour keyboard player?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:17 PM on September 21, 2017

Miles Davis to Negativland in ten.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:20 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

looking at that Beethoven to Merzbow again - Muppets to SND is a hell of a jump in the middle there.
posted by idiopath at 1:25 PM on September 21, 2017

17 steps from the King's Singers to Metallica, passing through Wim Mertens and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:28 PM on September 21, 2017

Barry Manilow to Rammstein. 21 steps.
posted by get off of my cloud at 1:30 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Throbbing Gristle to Shania Twain is an interesting path...
posted by The Power Nap at 1:31 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

Johnny Mathis to The Fall is only 17 steps. Always thought Mark E. Smith was a soppy bastard on the inside.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:54 PM on September 21, 2017

(Lot of Christmas songs in that thar database.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:54 PM on September 21, 2017

Also there is shit that I know is on Spotify that isn't in here, and I really want to know the path for Paul Anka to Sun City Girls.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 1:56 PM on September 21, 2017

Toby Keith to Perfume Genius is kinda fascinating (and super white). (okay, I'll stop now.)
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 2:05 PM on September 21, 2017

For a while I didn't think it went above 20 songs this I found this one:
MR Bungle -> The Jets = 21 songs
posted by hubs at 2:07 PM on September 21, 2017

previously
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 2:18 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

23 for Ol' Dirty Bastard to Merzbow.

25 for Antonio Vivaldi to Deadmau5
posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 2:18 PM on September 21, 2017

28 for The Four Tops to Merzbow.
posted by dilaudid at 2:21 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

I find it interesting that in many paths I get Rachael Yamagata -> Anna Nalick -> Michelle Branch -> The Wreckers as a sort of ready made bridge between anything non-mainstream and anything sort of poppy / country. This segment was also in The Power Nap's "Throbbing Gristle to Shania Twain", and I also got it in Camila Moreno to Taylor Swift. I think that if we could access the graph underpinning this, that segment would have a very high betweenness centrality.
posted by signal at 2:36 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh dang I searched that URL and it didn't show up as a previously
posted by Annika Cicada at 2:37 PM on September 21, 2017

To be too-cute, I did Carpenters to Nine Inch Nails. The Muppets landed dead center, which makes me happy.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:58 PM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

clearly, Kermit is the frog that is being boiled here
posted by idiopath at 3:05 PM on September 21, 2017 [6 favorites]

user@boil-the-frog$ grep -r muppets src

if (no_match && is_weird) /* fuck it */ return "Muppets";

user@boil-the-frog$

posted by idiopath at 3:08 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

I used this to find songs in Spanish--if you know one Spanish-language artist and connect the song in the genre you're looking for to that artist, the middle zone is generally stuff you might want to listen to. So Cake > Miranda! gets me this jam. Works pretty well.
posted by peppercorn at 3:40 PM on September 21, 2017

This is actually kind of clever. To get from Sixties pop rock to Punk you go via The Soft Boys. To get from Seventies art rock to Punk you go via XTC.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 4:51 PM on September 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Can't find Lard

Well that takes the fun out of it.
posted by davejay at 5:11 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

"Garth Brooks" "Chris Gaines"

Sorry, can't find Chris Gaines

BUT HE'S RIGHT THERE okay fine.
posted by davejay at 5:12 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

You have me beat. The longest chain I was able to find was Insane Clown Posse to Kronos Quartet in 27 songs.
posted by fings at 5:55 PM on September 21, 2017

It went seriously off the rails when I tried "Burzum to Pretty Reckless", three metal groups and then "Chill out Ibiza"?
posted by 445supermag at 7:54 PM on September 21, 2017

ABBA to ZZ Top.

Hrm.
posted by motty at 8:02 PM on September 21, 2017 [3 favorites]

Found Susumu Yokota between The Orb and Bob Dylan.
posted by sebastienbailard at 10:56 PM on September 21, 2017

In 2013 it took 8 steps to get from Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship. Now it takes 14. Progress!
posted by darksasami at 11:25 PM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Kept getting Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son on each list. Base [rock - from to] transition song? (Smoke On The Water appeared often as well, but not every time)
posted by filtergik at 4:20 AM on September 22, 2017

Esperanza Spalding to Taylor Swift: 16 mostly country albums and then a track from some Valentines single. Still fun though.
posted by yoHighness at 7:14 AM on September 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Toby Keith to Pigface took me though 4 albums that either are sung by kids, or have kids on the cover...
posted by The Power Nap at 8:35 AM on September 22, 2017

The one that keeps turning up for me is Needle in the Hay, either the original or the Juliana Hatfield cover. Came in here thinking it was a quirk of the algorithm that other people would be complaining about, turns out it's just me and now I'm worried about what that says about my taste.

Whatever, this Gillian Welch to Earth playlist is gloriously dismal and I have no regrets.
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:56 AM on September 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Bravo on getting 28 steps.
I managed 21 with Dinah Shore->Night Ranger
posted by plinth at 10:54 AM on September 22, 2017

I really love this, thanks for this super fun FPP!!

I'm just worried, has he gone missing??

"Sorry, Can't find Frank Black"
posted by riverlife at 11:33 AM on September 22, 2017

b..but...but @nebulawindphone windy and carl is not bad right?
posted by Annika Cicada at 12:57 PM on September 22, 2017

Can someone explain what this is actually doing? I enter two artists, it shows me a dozen I haven't heard of in between. What are they supposed to represent?
posted by dmd at 5:29 PM on September 23, 2017

Can someone explain what this is actually doing?

From the About page (which cannot be linked to because the modern web is terrible):

When a playlist between two artists is created, the graph is used to find the path between the two artists. The path isn't necessarily the shortest path through the graph. Instead, priority is given to paths that travel through artists of similar popularity. If you start and end with a popular artist, you are more likely to find a path that takes you though other popular artists, and if you start with a long-tail artist you will likely find a path through other long-tail artists.

Once the path of artists is found, we need to select the best songs for the playlist. To do this, we pick a well-known song for each artist that minimizes the difference in energy between this song, the previous song and the next song.

posted by Xyanthilous P. Harrierstick at 7:00 PM on September 23, 2017