Zune and Machine Intelligence

Even folks at Microsoft will be shocked to hear someone admitting to still owning a Zune, leave alone praising it! Here you go – I own a Zune, and what’s more, I think it's quite smart. It has the uncanny ability to sense what’s going on around it and respond with the appropriate collection of songs. My wife bought me one years ago. On the first looks, it looked more like a paperweight than an MP3 player. Once I got over the surprise, it's been great - it has served me very well.

Ok. This is about its intelligence, though. I walk listening to my Zune. While I walk, I like to play a shuffle of tracks of a genre, usually Tamil film songs. Some days I feel like listening to an eclectic collection. On others, I have specific tastes. I’m fortunate to have grown up in the golden era of Tamil film music – in 70s and 80s when Ilaiyaraaja went from a nice change to an object of adoration. Typically, on my choosy days I press a dismissive finger to skip a few AR Rehman and Harris Jayaraj numbers. My zune gets the hint and gives me a string of Ilaiyaraja numbers, my favourite ones at that.

Today’s walk started with a sad song, not a particularly good one. I hit skip, thinking hard thoughts about the overuse of Sivaranjani and Shubha Panthuvarali for sad situations. My Zune responded with three consecutive picks of sad numbers, all brilliant, and in very different ragas.

Onna nenaiche paatu padichen

I love this for the restrained rendering of SPB. The deceptive ease with which he sings and the eloquent wailing of the violins.

Chinna thayaval

 

I used to dislike S Janaki for her falsetto nasal voice. As I reflect on some of the older songs, I can see why Ilaiyaraja picked her for difficult songs even after her voice had aged  - for compositions in vivadhi ragas, for example. Can you imagine a music director teaching  Sangeetame (Kovil Pura) to one of the recent, over hyped talents?

 

Nalladhor veenai seidhe

Ok, this is M S Viswanathan’s composition. SPB overshoots his improv abilities in this song, but the lyrics and the elegance of the tune still keep the song eminently listenable. And Subramanya Bharathi - what a poet! Does anyone else think the references  'nalam keda puzhudiyil erivandundo' and 'nasai arum manam ketten' are to his own addiction?

So these picks were flukes, you say? Here’s  another example - It gave me three songs on Janmashtami. Not consecutively, mind you, but in a short span of time.

Radha Radha nee enge

Remarkable song, for the way it’s sung and composed. The glides and bends are brilliant. The singers rarely touch a note directly and hold it. Try playing it on a piano – it won’t sound anything like the song.

Vaan pole vannam kondu

I still remember the first time I listened to this. In a bus from Cuddalore to Chidambaram. I was so taken in by the tune and the flute interludes that I hunted down the movie name, located the cinema that it was playing in and watched it. Almost 30 years later, the song is still fresh.

Kannan Oru Kai kuzhandai

The story goes that this song was recorded on the day of a Krishna Jayanthi as well.

I didn’t start with the Krishna sequence, as someone is bound to attribute all this to a miracle and divert the whole conversation. I prefer my other interpretation - My Zune can pick the songs on its own.

My Zune's a keeper. I'll hold on to it despite the patronizing stares of the iPod owners. I just need to be careful not to drop it on a toe and risk a break!