>I’m really enjoying some AI music
I think I would rather shoot myself in the head
I think I would rather shoot myself in the head
I walked into a paint store recently and there was some interesting music playing on the PA. It was some sort of spanish-language 80s new wave I'd never heard before. It had a nice groove. I asked the guy at the counter about it and was surprised to find out it was AI.
So... was it as good as great music? No. But it beat the hell out of muzak. And it was genuinely novel in a way that pop music isn't. I will sacrifice a lot of pride for novelty.
AI music is a complete waste of compute. It exists only to further enrich an already wealthy stakeholder, and we should all be ashamed to have ended up in a place where it even exists.
And I think it can be uniquely fun, because it allows for the very rare combination of truly off-beat ideas with excellent execution.
In real life, it very rarely happens that somebody will spend a lifetime learning, gather a band, and then record something extremely off-beat. Because there are risks to that. Destroying your image, having to find people that are on the same wavelength, having to justify the time and money it costs to record something weird and not marketable.
Sure, people make weird stuff once in a while, but very rarely, and generally it takes unique individuals that find some particular weird niche to work in, like Weird Al or Max Raabe. And even then they tend to pick something relatively tame and marketable and stick to that.
But AI can bypass all that, and that makes things interesting.
My jaw literally dropped. Do you really believe this?
I think you just don't spend much time around people who love music.
It makes sense that someone like you would like AI music, I guess. You are clueless.
Sure. It happens in every field. When you invest a lot into something, it becomes risky or unprofitable to do some things.
Tech often drives things in the opposite direction. As it gets easier/cheaper/faster to create something, doing something odd and risky becomes easier to justify because there's less invested into it and there's fewer people whose cooperation is needed.
I'm not saying nobody does anything risky traditionally of course. But there's barriers to it, which become lesser once tech trivializes a good part of the process.
> It makes sense that someone like you would like AI music, I guess. You are clueless.
I like music in general, and am fairly indifferent as to how the goose is cooked. I listen to almost everything. There's no reason to exclude AI music. If it sounds good, it's good.
> Sure, people make weird stuff once in a while, but very rarely, [...] and even then they tend to pick something relatively tame and marketable and stick to that.
> But AI can bypass all that, and that makes things interesting.
> Very few people genuinely "love music" in the way that you have in mind.
Those claims. They clearly come from a tech person’s surface level understanding of the music industry, which is a tiny fraction of all music and not representative of why people make it or what they enjoy. "Very few people genuinely love music" says it all. Have some self awareness. You're describing nothing but your own narrow perspective.
There are a finite number of musicians in the world. Most of them are working on music that either 1) appeals to them, specifically, or 2) appeals to enough of an audience that they can eek out a living. And chances are, if you're hearing it in public, you're getting #2.
I want music that appeals to me. My tastes are broad but not infinite, and I've already thoroughly plumbed the depths of my favorite genres - many of which are largely ignored by modern musicians (see #2 above). AI offers a way of getting new music for neglected or underdeveloped genres. Spanish language 80s new wave combined with reggae? Why not?
I listen to a lot of music across many disparate genres. I even play music (for fun). I have also enjoyed some AI generated music. It's not either/or, I can listen to both.
This doesn't contradict GP at all. Very few people genuinely "love music" in the way that you have in mind.
> Your comment just shows how young you are.
And often the weirdest artists are also the most prolific because they tend to like experimenting for experimenting's sake.
Most of the "top 40" consistently comes across the same way to me (and pretty much always has), so.
>it was genuinely novel
Look, I don't know the song so I can't say how novel it is, but to me, it completely misses the point if its made by a music generation model. The point of music is not to make a bunch of novel sounds. Music is a means by which a human can express themselves, the whole _point_ of art is human expression.
Bird's aren't making art when they sing, I still like listening to birds. Why can't the sounds AI make be in the same category.
Human expression with art can go both ways from producing and experiencing.
For my part, I mostly dislike AI music. But if there was to be some AI music that I didn't already dislike for its content, then I would dislike it specifically for being AI. Call me close-minded if you will. Some people don't really like music at all. In general, I love music.
I saw a live band last week (daft punk meets prince), they wrote a song about Ai and used an auto tuner for it
> And it was genuinely novel in a way that pop music isn't. I will sacrifice a lot of pride for novelty.
For one thing, "interesting" and "novel" are not particularly the point of art. An infinite TikTok feed of AI slop is in some sense infinitely interesting and novel.
But also, those concepts are subjective. Pop music has a ton of evolution and innovation if you break it down. Sure, not every hit is doing something clever, but plenty of them are. You might not find those features to be interesting but it takes ingenuity to stand out in an era where the barrier to entry is so low.
2. Call it slop
3. Claim victory
Controversial take: AI shows that people simply don't give a shit and just confirms that mass culture is a mistake and the death of everything that is good and sacred.
Controversial take: For ages, it's been clear that most people have never given a shit, it just took AI for most to realize it.
My experience has been that AI music mostly is that.
You're right, this sure was a controversial take.
Anyway, surely this dichotomy only matters if your only choices are "AI generated music" and "autotuned, quantized, mass-market-optimized slop that dominates contemporary pop "music"". However, there is a bunch of good music outside of the "pop music" zone, which isn't AI generated, so why not go with some of that instead? Nobody is forcing you to listen to pop music.
I don't know what to tell you, but me and my kid are having a blast writing ridiculous songs and plopping them with song descriptions and some of those make it to our drive playlists.
Note: same guy; just not anywhere near my account
You are making the argument that the type of activity does not matter as long it is 'spending time', but to say that is almost reductionist to say that that it understates how ridiculously unnuanced an opinion it is. You might as well tell me that the quality of food does not matter and generic burger should suffice.
But what if I want a burger that is custom to me and not a generic slop generated by a human to appeal to the widest possible audience[1]? What if I want something that was created just for me? Good grief? Why do I have to defend having fun and why on earth would you assume that one is mutually exclusive to the other?
Geez man. [1]https://genius.com/Bo-burnham-repeat-stuff-lyrics