Berrycakeness

An impromptu invite to the pub is always welcome, especially if it’s to the one across the road from me. This week, I was invited by a couple of local friends for an evening meet-up, and on my end of the table, the discussion was hugely focused on AI. Before I go into that topic, I also want to mention that for the last hour or so of the evening, we got heavily stuck into Cards Against Humanity, and needless to say, it still stands up as the best worst game I’ve ever played.

My blog title should be fairly familiar to you, and note that it is indeed a 90’s track, 1890’s of course. In the 1960’s, it was the first song recorded and performed solely by a computer with a voice. Programmed to do so, I can only imagine the feeling in the room when it was first played.

“What in the creepy ‘puter batman?”

1998 blessed us with Believe – Cher, the first song to have autotuned applied to a voice – completely unnecessary, but why not play around with technology? It still holds the record in the UK as the biggest-selling chart single by a female solo artist, so they were doing something right. And of course, it’s used widely in the industry today as a default, because YOU CAN BE A SINGER, YOU CAN BE A SINGER, YOU CAN BE A SINGER. Thanks, Oprah.

And now, we have ghost artists created with AI tools to top the streaming charts and dominate playlists. You can listen to the likes of Blow Records, Sienna Rose and Xania Monet without even thinking, “that slight digital feel to their voice is 100% AI” – probably because we’re so used to auto-tune, and all the other digital processing music has applied to it. AI seems to have hit a nerve, and it’s seen as one step too far.

Remember, art is subjective, and music is personal. Your go-to might be Mr Brightside because you were 16 when it was released, when you were carefree, and nothing was stressful, and no one else knows that song as well as you do – along with a whole generation of millennials. You may hate anything released by U2 and scoff at people who say they love them – that’s your (and my) opinion, move on.

In short, AI music doesn’t particularly offend me, but I wouldn’t actively go to listen to an AI artist unless it is for research. Out of the three I mentioned above, Sienna Rose is the most authentic-sounding to me, and I’m still not entirely convinced it’s 100% AI.

I think my “stuck in time” music approach is probably a good thing, as much as I try to dabble with new music, I can fall back on the 1990s and be comfortable with classic hits like “MmmBop” and “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”, and not forgetting “Things that make you go Hmm”.

Hasn’t music always been a little bit weird?

Peace Out xoxo