AI and Music

[RemyZee]

I found this singer and was going through the playlist when the realization came that lo and behold it is AI, just like everything is AI nowdays. What do you think about this? Does it sound real? Do you Like it? Apparently she is the latest singing sensation, but it's almost like....too good. Real things aren't so weirdly absent of any mistakes. What are the implications that anyone anywhere can basically be artistically brilliant without having to know anything about the art itself or have to work for it. If you can create a great prompt then you can create great work. Are human beings going to turn into this incredibly lazy species--there will be no reason to innovate, no reason to create or need for genius, no need for novelty so we wind up evolving past the urge to create. What happens when what AI sings, writes, paints or invents winds up being far better what people can ever make?

 

[TBRS1]

I run into a similar problem.

I really like orchestral music, and there's a lot available on a particular platform.

But I can't tell, for sure, without doing a search, if it's real people or not - playing OR composing.

Music, to me, is a form of communication. Finding out that the "communication" is void of intent and created by formula leaves me with a really, really creepy "uncanny valley" vibe.

Makes OK background sound, though.

P.S. things should have a "Certified Human" label mandated by all governments.

 

[Misery]

Are human beings going to turn into this incredibly lazy species--there will be no reason to innovate, no reason to create or need for genius, no need for novelty so we wind up evolving past the urge to create.

The way I look at this is a bit different.

If someone looks at something like AI and says, "all I need to do is type a prompt" and then they STOP RIGHT THERE, that's entirely on them.

It's baffled me this entire time, absolutely baffled me: The idea that the use of AI in a project/creation/whatever has to be step one of one. Why is it not step one of fifty? Why in the world would anyone JUST use a prompt? Isnt that freaking boring to make? Where's the challenge?

I've only made a couple of AI creations myself, and they didnt work like that. The best one, the biggest one, hangs on the wall on the house here, and was made as a father's day gift.

It involved not one, but THREE AIs, multiple other apps, 8 hours of work, and I just about went mad trying to do it. I also had to learn new Photoshop functions, among other things. And the thing that usually surprises people once they hear about how it was made is that it is also a photo. A real photo. Easy enough to prove, the thing it's a picture of is right across the street. I dont hide how the project was done, either, and if someone asks, I'll talk their ear off about it. After all that work, I think I earned it.

AI is not making people lazy. People STARTED OFF lazy. The ease of use of AI (at a low level, anyway) gives them an OUTLET for that laziness. That's why you get so many who see AI as a get rich quick scheme (spoiler: no). It's also why so many people walked into the NFT funhouse, easy marks that they are.

It's also why you get so many AI creations that have bizarre errors in them. Those are not necessary or inevitable. You wouldnt find anything like that in anything I make, as I dont allow that.

But people want to DO without the LEARN part. They want to DO without the EFFORT part. They want immediate Tiktok-speed results because holy pudding they NEED those freaking likes on Facefart or whatever.

Even with something like music. Give me an AI made song and I'll turn it into something more. I've got the tools and the knowledge. Dancing, pulsing fractal flames, like a beating heart along with the music. That's not hard, not for me anyway, because I took the time to learn to not just use the AI properly, but to learn many other tools, and have the creativity and effort to put it all together.

Granted, some parts of the process can be spectacularly irritating, but still. That's no excuse to just be like, hit the magic button, take the first result, call it done.

Just... uuuuuuuuuuugh. Sorry, I dont mean to ramble so much, but this is one of those subjects that absolutely grinds my gears. People blaming the AI for their own blasted faults. That seems to be a running theme with humanity, doesnt it?

Same goes for the people who dont actually use AI themselves, but assume absolute laziness and a lack of skill on the part of others who even briefly mention that they've ever interacted with Midjourney or something. "Pick up a pencil" my left foot.

If the lazy ones who just prompt with a single bloody sentence and then call themselves the next DaVinci didnt have AI, they'd be the same people that do things like make braindead reaction content on Youtube or Tiktok. DO without the EFFORT. The AI never created that in them.


There, I'm done ranting, I think I got that out of my system.

 

[TBRS1]

The way I look at this is a bit different.

If someone looks at something like AI and says, "all I need to do is type a prompt" and then they STOP RIGHT THERE, that's entirely on them.

It's baffled me this entire time, absolutely baffled me: The idea that the use of AI in a project/creation/whatever has to be step one of one. Why is it not step one of fifty? Why in the world would anyone JUST use a prompt? Isnt that freaking boring to make? Where's the challenge?

I've only made a couple of AI creations myself, and they didnt work like that. The best one, the biggest one, hangs on the wall on the house here, and was made as a father's day gift.

It involved not one, but THREE AIs, multiple other apps, 8 hours of work, and I just about went mad trying to do it. I also had to learn new Photoshop functions, among other things. And the thing that usually surprises people once they hear about how it was made is that it is also a photo. A real photo. Easy enough to prove, the thing it's a picture of is right across the street. I dont hide how the project was done, either, and if someone asks, I'll talk their ear off about it. After all that work, I think I earned it.

AI is not making people lazy. People STARTED OFF lazy. The ease of use of AI (at a low level, anyway) gives them an OUTLET for that laziness. That's why you get so many who see AI as a get rich quick scheme (spoiler: no). It's also why so many people walked into the NFT funhouse, easy marks that they are.

It's also why you get so many AI creations that have bizarre errors in them. Those are not necessary or inevitable. You wouldnt find anything like that in anything I make, as I dont allow that.

But people want to DO without the LEARN part. They want to DO without the EFFORT part. They want immediate Tiktok-speed results because holy pudding they NEED those freaking likes on Facefart or whatever.

Even with something like music. Give me an AI made song and I'll turn it into something more. I've got the tools and the knowledge. Dancing, pulsing fractal flames, like a beating heart along with the music. That's not hard, not for me anyway, because I took the time to learn to not just use the AI properly, but to learn many other tools, and have the creativity and effort to put it all together.

Granted, some parts of the process can be spectacularly irritating, but still. That's no excuse to just be like, hit the magic button, take the first result, call it done.

Just... uuuuuuuuuuugh. Sorry, I dont mean to ramble so much, but this is one of those subjects that absolutely grinds my gears. People blaming the AI for their own blasted faults. That seems to be a running theme with humanity, doesnt it?

Same goes for the people who dont actually use AI themselves, but assume absolute laziness and a lack of skill on the part of others who even briefly mention that they've ever interacted with Midjourney or something. "Pick up a pencil" my left foot.

If the lazy ones who just prompt with a single bloody sentence and then call themselves the next DaVinci didnt have AI, they'd be the same people that do things like make braindead reaction content on Youtube or Tiktok. DO without the EFFORT. The AI never created that in them.


There, I'm done ranting, I think I got that out of my system.

I have no problem with understanding the difficulty in making a computer sound like a harp.

I'm sure it's tough.

However, when I listen to harp music, I like it to be played by a harper, on a harp. Much of my appreciation of the music is the skill the musician developed which allows them get that sound from that instrument.

I never try to make my harp sound like a computer. If I wanted that, I'd learn to play a computer.

Techno is cool. Computer music that sounds like computer music. Very fun.

 

[SusanLR]

I think there will always be people that have a natural drive for creativity, imagination and the want to do the learning. Just as there will be people who don't and will choose the push the button easy way out.
It's a diverse world full of every kind of personality.

Personally, I have no problem with the use of AI as a tool. A tool that is still used to create the end result someone wants. AI can be helpful in many areas of humanity as long as we control it and it doesn't control us.
Right now, at this point in human evolution, it is a new innovation, and many people seem to find it is like a new toy
to a child.
Will the new wear off? It doesn't look like it. We'll see.

When I see everyone wherever I go looking like they were born with a rectangular object in their hand that they look at constantly, well, it makes me wonder.
They seem to feel the need to be connected to others via the apparatus so much so that they follow what the prompts tell them to do, to buy, to watch, to read... on and on.
I'm glad I don't feel that need.

Use AI as a helper with a human behind the actions. An individual person that can retain that individuality.
I don't use it because it's like Sci-Fi came to life or because it is fascinatingly something new.
And I really don't want to be a robot anyway.

 

[monkeyclogs]

interesting topic!!

listening to the track it very much fell into my category of audio wallpaper not music.

I maybe have a different perspective (having decades ago been a concert pianist). But, i feel this latest trend is a continuation of a long road in changes to how music is experienced and broadly understood within society.

I have never worked the piano i play the piano. My success was based on being able to connect with an audience and take them on a journey. That was always a two way human interaction that was alive to me. I practised to get full control and understanding of the work in order to have the flexibility to play. Not to create a concrete finished piece to churn out like a trained monkey.

Recorded music on the whole dimmed this connection. The effect of music becoming a predominantly prerecorded experience has imo detached the artist from the listener. And the gradual technological developments to make music more accessible has made music more of a background rhan an art. Less than a century ago most people only heard music in churches and public venues like dance halls, concert halls and the drunk guy at the pub rattling through sing a longs at the piano Now it's piped in everywhere and people mostly filter it out. With losing it's novelty im not sure many people are actually listening to music anymore.

so for me, AI music, just another step along that same road I guess. more audible wallpaper to add to recorded music sea.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I found this singer and was going through the playlist when the realization came that lo and behold it is AI, just like everything is AI nowdays. What do you think about this? Does it sound real? Do you Like it? Apparently she is the latest singing sensation, but it's almost like....too good. Real things aren't so weirdly absent of any mistakes. What are the implications that anyone anywhere can basically be artistically brilliant without having to know anything about the art itself or have to work for it. If you can create a great prompt then you can create great work. Are human beings going to turn into this incredibly lazy species--there will be no reason to innovate, no reason to create or need for genius, no need for novelty so we wind up evolving past the urge to create. What happens when what AI sings, writes, paints or invents winds up being far better what people can ever make?

Right off this sounds fake to me because everything is mechanically on the beat.

 

[RemyZee]

The way I look at this is a bit different.

If someone looks at something like AI and says, "all I need to do is type a prompt" and then they STOP RIGHT THERE, that's entirely on them.

It's baffled me this entire time, absolutely baffled me: The idea that the use of AI in a project/creation/whatever has to be step one of one. Why is it not step one of fifty? Why in the world would anyone JUST use a prompt? Isnt that freaking boring to make? Where's the challenge?

I've only made a couple of AI creations myself, and they didnt work like that. The best one, the biggest one, hangs on the wall on the house here, and was made as a father's day gift.

It involved not one, but THREE AIs, multiple other apps, 8 hours of work, and I just about went mad trying to do it. I also had to learn new Photoshop functions, among other things. And the thing that usually surprises people once they hear about how it was made is that it is also a photo. A real photo. Easy enough to prove, the thing it's a picture of is right across the street. I dont hide how the project was done, either, and if someone asks, I'll talk their ear off about it. After all that work, I think I earned it.

AI is not making people lazy. People STARTED OFF lazy. The ease of use of AI (at a low level, anyway) gives them an OUTLET for that laziness. That's why you get so many who see AI as a get rich quick scheme (spoiler: no). It's also why so many people walked into the NFT funhouse, easy marks that they are.

It's also why you get so many AI creations that have bizarre errors in them. Those are not necessary or inevitable. You wouldnt find anything like that in anything I make, as I dont allow that.

But people want to DO without the LEARN part. They want to DO without the EFFORT part. They want immediate Tiktok-speed results because holy pudding they NEED those freaking likes on Facefart or whatever.

Even with something like music. Give me an AI made song and I'll turn it into something more. I've got the tools and the knowledge. Dancing, pulsing fractal flames, like a beating heart along with the music. That's not hard, not for me anyway, because I took the time to learn to not just use the AI properly, but to learn many other tools, and have the creativity and effort to put it all together.

Granted, some parts of the process can be spectacularly irritating, but still. That's no excuse to just be like, hit the magic button, take the first result, call it done.

Just... uuuuuuuuuuugh. Sorry, I dont mean to ramble so much, but this is one of those subjects that absolutely grinds my gears. People blaming the AI for their own blasted faults. That seems to be a running theme with humanity, doesnt it?

Same goes for the people who dont actually use AI themselves, but assume absolute laziness and a lack of skill on the part of others who even briefly mention that they've ever interacted with Midjourney or something. "Pick up a pencil" my left foot.

If the lazy ones who just prompt with a single bloody sentence and then call themselves the next DaVinci didnt have AI, they'd be the same people that do things like make braindead reaction content on Youtube or Tiktok. DO without the EFFORT. The AI never created that in them.


There, I'm done ranting, I think I got that out of my system.

Yep. Rant justified.

 

[Misery]

With losing it's novelty im not sure many people are actually listening to music anymore.

It probably also doesnt help that so many songs are just... super bland.

The way I always like to put it is that there are exactly 3 major modern song themes:

1. Love
2. Relationships
3. How great some guy's girlfriend is

On rare occasions you might get someone singing about alcohol for some reason, but it's mostly those 3.

They all blend together, and all the related songs are pretty much interchangeable. The actual music behind the lyrics is somehow even more bland. Is there even a melody to any of them? I'm not sure. But it's all just... "mass produced". Corporate.


"Audio wallpaper", as you mentioned, is pretty much the perfect way to describe so much of it. You hear it, technically, but you're not REALLY hearing it, because it's got the creativity and heart of wet cardboard.

I mean maybe I'm being kinda harsh, heck maybe I'm the odd one out and most people just love it, but after having to hear WAY too freaking much of it over the years.... ugh.


All the music I personally listen to is game soundtracks, and that's a huge part of why.

 

[monkeyclogs]

yes, I usually look beyond the lyrics but thinking about the lyrics that are memorable to me, the words are rarely about your list of three or at least have a more direct relationship between words and soundscape.

The mass produced stuff i really can't connect to at all. Producing music is itself an art you can tell when it's been done by a talented musician, not just someone who thinks their job is technical, the latter being a bit like asking the decorator to paint your portrait.

i'm not such a fan of gaming tracks. Maybe i've been playing the wrong games but they seem quite repetitive. Growing up i loved the quirky sound tracks in old school cartoons and i'm notorious for loosing the thread of plots in TV and film because I"m more focussed on the soundtrack.

 

[SusanLR]

i loved the quirky sound tracks in old school cartoons and i'm notorious for loosing the thread of plots in TV and film because I"m more focussed on the soundtrack

Guilty of the same many times while watching films.
I can also get caught up in the tv commercial jingles. Not for what they are trying to sell, but I just oft times find them fun.

I agree today's music does all seem to sound alike to me also. Even the singing styles are the same.
As far as topics in songs, I always said Country was basically all about the same themes.
God, Sex and a lot of drinking.