I've been looking into AI's progress, at least what we're shown, for many years, and I knew that at some point it'd be involved in music to some degree, but I doubt I could've predicted this. I wonder how much human involvement there was...someone had to enter a program. I'm guessing a human came up with the name and basic idea, but I don't know that for sure. If not, then AI's been programmed with a sense of humor.
AI sure did run with it. It sounds like it was recorded during the 60s, with the instrumentation and recording technology of the day. It's almost too good. I'm guessing the LP jacket is fake too, but there's even ring-wear on it. Dang...AI is good, I must admit.
Even though this is fantastic and I'd cover it in a band all day of the week, I wasn't happy to see AI get so directly involved in music that there's no actual humans in the mix, so to speak, not even pushing buttons on a drum machine.
Sure it's cool to add in some deceased vocalist's voice to a track or whatever, and it's one thing to replace humans with robots in a factory, but replacing them in music is a different deal. I've always said that when it comes to drum machines vs real drummers and things like that, the end justifies the means, but I always figured in the human factor to some degree.
Like everything else, this came in increments, and I'm going to say it's part of the plan. It was a gradual progression from 100% humans playing music, to 100% robot. First came Disco, which some say was when the Devil really made his appearance, and who am I to disagree. Since people were dancing to it, they wanted the tempos to remain steady, so they started using click tracks for Disco records, and then it spread to all other genres of music.
These days most popular bands play to a click, even live. Back when I started learning to play it wasn't like that. No drummer wanted his meter to be all over the place, but if a song sped up or slowed down a hair, as long as it felt good it wasn't a crime.
As far as tempo goes, that's an area in which I'm lacking, and God's honest truth it's amazing that I even got away with playing in bands. I respect the heck out of drummers who have excellent meter, as all should. Having said that, music is an emotional thing, or at least human-created music is, and we're emotional beings, so when we're playing music, especially with drummers, there's a tendency to rush.
Think about people clapping in rhythm at a football game. They'll speed up until it just sounds like clapping. It's a physiological reaction to being excited by the music, which makes us do everything faster. Record producers know this, so many times when a band is recording a song, they'll speed up the click track a few BPM for the chorus, and then bring it back down on the verse. I've always figured that the day I stop rushing the tempo (when I play without a click) is the day that music no longer excites me, and if that happens, I'll put down my sticks for good.
The first workable and realistic drum machines came out in the 70s, and record producers said, "Screw it...who needs to hire a real drummer?" I couldn't guess how many studio drummers were put out of work overnight. For many drummers of the day, the drum machine was the Devil, and I can understand.
Next came sampling, and then Autotune, which I think is the Great Satan. Now we're at a time where music is being created completely artificially. It went from 100% human to 100% AI, and this is the logical conclusion I guess. I don't know how it could go any further than to completely replace humans in music. Wow.
Well, this is interesting. I took a salsa break and clicked on a video by a guy I like. It was a thing where he was talking about random images he'd found recently, and it didn't say anything about AI in the title, but toward the end he was talking about AI in music, just as I'm writing about it. These little syncs are coming fast and furious.
He was saying that he doesn't think AI will replace the "Rock Star," since we need our idols to worship, and even though he doesn't think AI can replace truly talented musicians and singers, he thinks AI will eventually replace about 85% of the bullshit Pop stuff, because AI can do it better. I'd have to agree.
I have to give AI credit...it wrote my theme song, and had it actually been written back in the 60s, it'd have been my theme song for most of my life. But is it a good thing or a bad thing? The jury's still out, but I'm wary of it, and I like humans in music.
I just started reading about this and I'll look into it more. Apparently they're doing a lot of stuff like this, and I hear they can do pretty much anything you can think of. I guess if they can make a song called It's Raining Bullshit, it must be true. I never thought AI could make me want to be in a cover band.
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