ai in pop music? sounds like a new kind of fan fiction to me
recent events suggest we have reached a tipping point in popular culture over the accelerating use of ai (machine learning) technologies, so much so that i feel confident in saying that an international deepfake smash hit is nigh. one that will trick you, i, the whole world into admitting that it was quite good actually.
what has surfaced so far is a glimpse of the ai tsunami (of the what? read here) that will overwhelm us all. and for a while, counterfeited songs produced on an industrial scale will become the soundtrack to industry bosses’ panic. as modern day innovations go, ai software is proving more disruptive than nfts ever were.
if the major labels’ engagement with game-changing innovations of yore are anything to go by (Napster says ‘hi!’), then they will try to suppress what they can’t control. but ai is here to stay in a big way, and if they aren’t ready for the impending deepfake pop explosion, then at least the rest of us should be.
let’s embrace the new wave by classifying it for clarity’s sake, i say. that way, the next time i go to a record store (virtual or physical) looking for contemporary music, i know to be faced only with choosing from the two genders: new music, and new music that sounds like old music. of course many artists will employ ai software in the making of the former, but it will be the latter where its impact will be most keenly felt. in fact, i believe it will further intensify the megatrend of our times, nostalgia (i wanted to use the phrase ‘future nostalgia’ somewhere in this post, but Dua Lipa got there first).
so prescient is that Dua Lipa, she knows what the new rules of this brave new pop world are… perhaps a [greater albania](https://twitter.com/DUALIPA/status/1284928447912050688?s=20) is around the corner?
so, what soothing sounds will this budding handmaiden we call ai bring us?
in the new music camp is the likes of Holly Herndon, who has created Holly+, a ‘digital twin’ utilising the component parts of her voice to expand the possibilities of anything she could and couldn’t already do. Holly+ also allows us mere analogue beings to upload polyphonic audio and receive a download of that music sung back in Herndon’s distinctive voice. the following blurb hints at the state-of-the-art, sky-is-the-limit levels of ambition behind the project.
Herndon and her collaborators are developing tools at the bleeding edge of artificial intelligence to allow anyone to make art with her voice and image. Further tools are in development to be released in the next year.
another example to file under the heading ‘endless possibilities explored’ is last year’s James Blake x Endel collaboration, which yielded an epic hypnagogic album (so on brand i love it, keep on snoozing bro).
admittedly, this terrain of ai-augmented releases will likely become the niche preserve of arty futurists who will use it to make the sort of music to be premiered rather than played — at concerts rather than gigs — with arts council subsidy support. if that sounds like a bit of you, then i’ll be seeing you at Cafe OTO soon, comrade!
on the nostalgia side of the coin is the feel-good stuff, attempting to fulfil audiences’ fantasies with their musical idols. what if x group hadn’t split up? what if y artist stayed alive? what if x and y at their peak made a song together? hence the term new music that sounds like old music. the joy is in reimagining the past rather than imagining a brand new future. expect a lot of unauthorised song lyrics and albums in tribute to defunct acts from superfans, like the AIsis Lost Tapes project, which sounds like fan fiction for those who want Oasis to reform. and judging from the YouTube comments, this is the future the people want.
so it shall be, with new remixes, interpretations, and adjacent versions of legendary artists’ signature tunes reaching new levels of sophistication. some fans may even dare to present these pastiches for their idols’ consideration. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all, no matter what Nick Cave thinks.
back in the niche corner, Holly Herndon is bullish about her vision of the ai-generated future. she claims that her ‘creative and economic experiment proposes a way for artists to take control of their digital selves without obstructing experimentation with punitive copyright lawsuits’. Grimes, alt-pop’s foremost technological determinist, agrees. obviously.
i admire such positivity, and am especially in agreement with Holly when she says that because audio deepfakes are here to stay then a balance needs be to found between ‘protecting artists, and encouraging people to experiment with a new and exciting technology’. however, i do wonder how tolerable their bold visions of the musical future of ai will be to major industry players. in fact, i am more certain that the new deepfake era of popular music will generate a conflict between creators who want to share their tunes with like-minded music fans freely, and record labels seeking to tighten copyright legislation to snuff out any and all innovations involving its signed artists’ output that it cannot monetise, which label execs will claim to be in the interests of protecting their clients’ livelihoods and reputations, but given how much control labels exercise as rights holders, will more likely mean protecting their business’s bottom line in any and every way they can. in fact, they are already doing it (Guardian, 18 apr). it’s the only behaviour they know.
Grimes may well suspect this; her comments on ai make more sense in light of her recent departure from Columbia Records (Billboard, 25 apr). on the other hand, i hope AIsis have good lawyers, because high profile instances of well-meaning ventures like theirs risk going the same way as the mp3 filesharers of yesteryear. imagine getting a 10-year prison sentence for using ai software to create a Ralph McTell meets American rom-dance anthology franchise mash-up parody prequel titled Step Up 2: The Streets of London?
exactly. don’t do it kids, it’s not worth it! you’d be better off asking McTell to play the old tune again.