Tank and his Tunes

It seems that I may have prematurely dismissed the range and depth of Tank's features; an ability many of my classmates discovered was only made aware to me during our last class. That feature is the Furby's ability to recognize when a song is being played and "dance" to the beats of the song, if its current personality likes it. My Furby has been stuck in the "happy" stage for quite some time, so my original plan was to simply allow Tank to stay in this personality and detail his reactions to the songs. However, this plan proved futile, as Tank changed personalities during the first song. Simply from the music.

I selected seven songs from seven distinct genres in order to ensure I minimized repetition in Tank's reactions; however, it became clear after a while that he was not going to respond with too much variability.

Rap: Lupe Fiasco's "Streets on Fire" Tank started tapping his feet, with his eyes closed, rocking back and forth. He seemed to like the song a lot, but then something odd happened. He changed personalities very shortly into the song, becoming the "valley girl" persona. Valley girl Tank immediately began dancing with glee and started saying "uh huh, oh yeah" repeatedly. He openly declared he liked the music, with disco balls and music notes appearing in his eyes. I've never seen a more positive reaction to a song.

Rock: Muse's "The Uprising"  Started dancing right off the bat. Seemed to like this song as well, however he was much more vocal about the first song. Some disco balls, but no direct pronouncement about the song.

Acoustic: Andy McKee's "Drifting" No dancing. Seems to ask me "seriously?" and says "say no more". Eventually came around, but seemed to dance slower than the others. Grew increasingly bored of the song, yawning at many points. It is readily apparent that Tank is not a fan of acoustic music.

Dubstep: Delta Heavy's "Demons" Danced during the intro and build up to the drop. Tank continued to dance, but not entirely enthusiastically, after the drop, with some gaps between the dancing. Liked it more than the acoustic song, but not nearly as much as the rap.

Alternative: Radiohead's 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place" Said, "Oh yeah, uh huh" right away. Started dancing and continued dancing throughout the song. No disco balls in the eyes, but clearly enjoyed the music.

Metal: Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face" I was incredibly disappointed with Furby's response to this, as Tank was simply ecstatic about the growling vocals and cacophonic instrumentation. The music was horribly unpleasant to me personally, and I had to end the song early, but for the time it was on, Tank was dancing, declaring his love for the song, and having disco balls and music notes appear in his eyes.

K-Pop: Psy's "Gangdam Style" Seemed to like it, but nothing too serious. Nothing vocal, just danced throughout. Nothing surprising. 

Although there was not much variety in his dancing or specific reactions, there was a clear order in his preference for the songs. Mostly due to his enthusiasm for certain tracks over others, which was apparent through more frequent dancing, more active movements, vocal praising of the song, and disco balls and music notes in his eyes.

Tank's Playlist, in order of preference:

1) Lupe Fiasco's "Streets on Fire"

2) Cannibal Corpse's "Hammer Smashed Face"

3) Muse's "The Uprising" 

4) Radiohead's "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"

5) Delta Heavy's "Demons"

6) Psy's "Gangdam Style"

7) Andy McKee's "Drifting"

The biggest surprise for me was the clear gap between his enjoyment of "Drifting" and "Streets on Fire". It was not a case of certain sections of the song, but rather each of the songs in their entirety. I hope to change Tank to a different personality later to further experiment with the same tracks.

-Adam