The Playgen Blog
On prompt-driven playlists, the ceiling of taste-based recommenders, and why the scene in your head deserves a soundtrack Spotify can't give you.
frMontreuil sonne : Bamako-sur-Seine, l'Usine de la rue Kléber et la longue couture musicale du 93 (1984–2026)
Quarante ans de musique à Montreuil : Salif Keita s'installe en 1984, 200 punks attaquent la police rue Kléber en 1986, les Instants Chavirés ouvrent en 1991, La Pêche en 1994, L'uZine en 2007, La Marbrerie en 2014. Cinq scènes superposées qui ne se sont jamais effacées.
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enTropicália, 1967–1968: how a fourteen-month movement got its founders arrested
Tropicália lasted barely a year and a half before the Brazilian junta jailed its two architects. A field guide to the records, the cast, the arrests, and the long afterlife — with every song traced.
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frFest-noz augmenté : kan ha beatbox, bombarde-electro, bagad cosmique — où en est la musique bretonne en 2026
Trente ans après le rave Astropolis dans un champ du Finistère et le pic d'Ar Re Yaouank, le fest-noz a fusionné avec l'électronique, le rock et le beatbox. De Stivell à Modkozmik × Bagad Cap Caval : cartographie d'une tradition qui se réécrit.
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enBristol, 1991–1995: three records, one studio, and a genre named in the wrong city
Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky put out three landmark albums in fifty months, all from one Bristol crew that came up in the same sound system. The genre name was attached afterward by a London magazine, about a record made in California. A field guide to how this happened.
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enWhy searching 'trader music' on Spotify gives you slowed-reverb TikTok songs — and what LLMs fix
Spotify playlist search is keyword-matching on user-generated titles. The top 'trader music' playlist is slowed+reverb aesthetic tracks, not focus music. Here's why LLMs fix this — and why a model knowing a song is actually a quality signal.
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enNeo-Tokyo 2045: what happens when you ask an AI for a city that doesn't exist yet
Playgen turned the prompt 'make a playlist to feel like walking in Tokyo in 2045' into a 20-track Spotify playlist. Here's why Spotify's own recommendations can't do this, and how Playgen does.
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enGoing Totally Bananas: why Hollaback Girl is a banana song, and why older playlist tools miss it
Playgen dropped Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl into a playlist about bananas. At first it looks broken. It isn't — and the reason is the whole thesis behind running the latest LLMs for playlist generation.
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