And the winners are...

 
Music  

4 days, 19 hours, and 45 minutes after submitting my music database to the in-development iTunes Music Recommendation service, here’s what it came back with:

  1. I will always love you, Dolly Parton
  2. Madeline, Hanson
  3. A mighty wind, A Mighty Wind soundtrack
  4. I can't be with you, The Cranberries
  5. I ain't goin' down, Shania Twain
  6. Take her to sea, Mr. Murdoch, Titanic soundtrack
  7. A promise kept, Titanic soundtrack
  8. Do-re-mi, The Sound of Music soundtrack
  9. Nowadays (Roxie), Chicago soundtrack
  10. The lady's got potential, Evita soundtrack
  11. At last, Etta James
  12. Keep the faith, Jo Dee Messina
  13. Make me love you, Jessica Andrews
  14. Volunteers, Forrest Gump soundtrack
  15. Comfort ye my people, Handel's Messiah
  16. Grande Valse Brillante in E Flat Major, Op. 18, Chopin
  17. In my business, Whitney Houston
  18. Squeeze me in (w/Trisha Yearwood), Garth Brooks
  19. Happy days are here again, Barbra Streisand
  20. Up!, Shania Twain
  21. Blue jeans, Keith Urban
  22. She is a diamond, Evita soundtrack
  23. Always been your girl, Heather Headley
  24. Let's get together, Forrest Gump soundtrack
  25. Who am I supposed to love, Wynonna
  26. 4, 3, 2, 1, Lisa Angelle
  27. Above all, Michael W. Smith
  28. The happy worker, Tori Amos
  29. The sacred romance (instrumental), Michael W. Smith
  30. Pink moon, Nick Drake
  31. Bohemian rhapsody, Queen
  32. Vollig losgelost, Peter Schilling
  33. Party music, Hair soundtrack
  34. Colored spade, Hair soundtrack
  35. Sodomy, Hair soundtrack
  36. Take her back again, Patrick Doyle
  37. Santa Fe (reprise), Jack (Christian Bale)
  38. Seize the day (chorale), The Newsies
  39. King of New York, The Newsies
  40. Gummi Bears theme, Brown University Derbies
  41. Where do I go?, Hair soundtrack
  42. I got life, Hair soundtrack
  43. We're dancing, P.Y.T.
  44. Strike up pipers, Patrick Doyle
  45. I sing the body electric, Fame soundtrack
  46. I feel fine, Riddlin' Kids
  47. The flesh failures / let the sunshine in, Hair soundtrack
  48. Easy to be hard, Hair soundtrack
  49. Now we are free (w/Lisa Gerrard), Hans Zimmer
  50. We're gonna win, AP Review

Believe it or not, this is a thousand times better than the stuff Goombah came up with, which as of the last update in January leads off with almost every track from Jagged Little Pill, A Rush of Blood to the Head, and Californication. It gets worse from there.

This list isn’t great, but after I rip out the soundtracks (especially Hair), the country, the spurious Hanson track, and the two songs that I already have (Make me love you and Bohemian Rhapsody), there are maybe a dozen things that I haven’t heard that I might like. That’s pretty darn good for a student project.

Bad news: if you submit your iTunes database today, it’s claiming it will take about six days to come up with recommendations for you. But with the amount that the database has grown in the past week, they’ll be better than the ones I got.