10 points
Six (or more) Degrees of Kevin Bacon's rock band by kevnull
July 24th, 2006 4:57 PM
Wow this task is deceptively difficult. I started first with these:
Start: Fryderyk Chopin
End: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Except classical composers only have "See Also" and no "Similar Artists". I thought those were the same thing and cycled through all the composers before realizing this wasn't just difficult, it was impossible.
So I switched to:
Start: MC Hammer
End: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
and the sequence went like this:
1. LL Cool J
2. Sir Mix-a-Lot ("hm nothing promising here. let's go back")
2. Busta Rhymes ("he's got 'heavier' stuff maybe that'll break into rock")
3. Lauryn Hill ("ok that's not rock but that's the most different")
4. Imani Coppola ("promising")
5. Billie Myers ("more promising")
6. Jennifer Paige ("please stop feeding me chick rockers now")
7. The Cardigans ("kind of a different sound")
8. Garbage ("whoops, no promising candidates there. go back")
8. Weezer
9. Flaming Lips
10. Radiohead ("saw this in an earlier artist but there's nothing else")
11. Snow Patrol ("ooh! indie band!")
At which point I ended up cycling for literally half an hour trying to figure out a way to break out and couldn't.
The bizarre thing is that I was able to go from Yeah Yeah Yeahs back to Snow Patrol in 3 or 4 steps. I wanted to do both directions but I just couldn't seem to do the former so here goes the reverse:
START: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
FINISH: MC Hammer
1. The Strokes ("let's go with the most mainstream")
2. Razorlight
3. The Killers
4. Snow Patrol ("aha! now it'll be jus reversing what i had!")
5. Coldplay ("there's no freaking radiohead to reverse to! wtf!")
6. Dave Matthews ("well may as well go mellow")
7. Sheryl Crow ("let's move towards the lady rockers")
8. Billie Myers ("whoo! back on the reversal track!")
9. Imani Coppola ("yay. finally two artists that are similar from both directions")
10. Lauryn Hill ("i might be able to reverse all. the. way.")
11. Busta Rhymes ("sooo close. now for LL Cool J ...")
12. Black Eyed Peas ("there's no freaking LL Cool J link!!")
13. Digable Planets ("going back in time")
14. Black Sheep ("keep moving back")
15. Beastie Boys
16. LL Cool J ("aha! next one's hammer!")
17. Young MC ("#$!$ no reverse relation again!")
18. Tone-Loc ("keep trying artists around the same time")
19. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince ("parent just don't understand")
20. Marky Mark ("hammer's white, right?")
21. Will Smith ("if jazzy jeff didn't work I don't see how this would ...")
22. MC HAMMER ("FINA-effin-LLY!")
That was a b!+ch.
Start: Fryderyk Chopin
End: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Except classical composers only have "See Also" and no "Similar Artists". I thought those were the same thing and cycled through all the composers before realizing this wasn't just difficult, it was impossible.
So I switched to:
Start: MC Hammer
End: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
and the sequence went like this:
1. LL Cool J
2. Sir Mix-a-Lot ("hm nothing promising here. let's go back")
2. Busta Rhymes ("he's got 'heavier' stuff maybe that'll break into rock")
3. Lauryn Hill ("ok that's not rock but that's the most different")
4. Imani Coppola ("promising")
5. Billie Myers ("more promising")
6. Jennifer Paige ("please stop feeding me chick rockers now")
7. The Cardigans ("kind of a different sound")
8. Garbage ("whoops, no promising candidates there. go back")
8. Weezer
9. Flaming Lips
10. Radiohead ("saw this in an earlier artist but there's nothing else")
11. Snow Patrol ("ooh! indie band!")
At which point I ended up cycling for literally half an hour trying to figure out a way to break out and couldn't.
The bizarre thing is that I was able to go from Yeah Yeah Yeahs back to Snow Patrol in 3 or 4 steps. I wanted to do both directions but I just couldn't seem to do the former so here goes the reverse:
START: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
FINISH: MC Hammer
1. The Strokes ("let's go with the most mainstream")
2. Razorlight
3. The Killers
4. Snow Patrol ("aha! now it'll be jus reversing what i had!")
5. Coldplay ("there's no freaking radiohead to reverse to! wtf!")
6. Dave Matthews ("well may as well go mellow")
7. Sheryl Crow ("let's move towards the lady rockers")
8. Billie Myers ("whoo! back on the reversal track!")
9. Imani Coppola ("yay. finally two artists that are similar from both directions")
10. Lauryn Hill ("i might be able to reverse all. the. way.")
11. Busta Rhymes ("sooo close. now for LL Cool J ...")
12. Black Eyed Peas ("there's no freaking LL Cool J link!!")
13. Digable Planets ("going back in time")
14. Black Sheep ("keep moving back")
15. Beastie Boys
16. LL Cool J ("aha! next one's hammer!")
17. Young MC ("#$!$ no reverse relation again!")
18. Tone-Loc ("keep trying artists around the same time")
19. DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince ("parent just don't understand")
20. Marky Mark ("hammer's white, right?")
21. Will Smith ("if jazzy jeff didn't work I don't see how this would ...")
22. MC HAMMER ("FINA-effin-LLY!")
That was a b!+ch.