Authenticity in Music, & Jeff Buckley for Three Tune Tuesday

riverflows in Rant, Complain, Talk • 2 days ago

'I feel gross' a good friend says in response to me telling her that the music she sent me for Samhain blessings was generative AI. 'Violated.'

I felt bad. The link to the song on Spotify was well intended, and I could see why it appealed to her. The persona seemed authentic. There's a bio. Photos of the women - let's call her Lou Raven, because I don't want to push traffic her way because I too feel gross and violated for listening to music which has been AI generated. Her whole person seems to be about interacting with nature and ravens, which is why my friend probably got sucked in, being her thing and all.

A magpie, not a raven. Nothing to do with this post. I just didn't want to use AI. I try!

Here's the fine line - she says her lyrics are written by her, as part of a healing process. Scroll down, and realise that somewhere in the fine print it says 'generative AI' - that is, the instruments and lyrics are created by Suno, an AI music generator. Plug in your lyrics, choose your genre, and create - and earn money for doing so.

A few AI checkers were only moderately convinced it was partly human written. We all know they aren't accurate, particuarly as AI is shaping the language we use and thus even human generated content will sound AI. But it's enough to create some doubt. Is she outsourcing all her creativity? Look at her website, and it seems so - her images are clearly AI generated, though it doesn't say so. My friend may have been decieved because she doesn't deal with AI to the extent that I do.

The 'artist' calls it co-creation, as if that lends a humanness to her process and the generated content. Let's not be bamboozled by such pretty terms. Spotify has created new laws against content farming - I mean one guy famously made millions before he got done for fraud - which helps us figure out which content is AI. I'd like a toggle switch to remove any AI content coming up in my feed. If it's not entirely human, can it be truly music, who by design takes our deepest emotions and turns them into something moving?

My friend asked how I could tell. Jamie thought the song was terrible but that wasn't really an answer. Perhaps it was my gut, but I'd like to think I understand music enough to realise there was something off about it. Some repetitive riffs that felt formulaic, perhaps. An inauthenticity between the bars.

All the brilliant music out there, and we're now navigating AI slop music?

Yeah, I feel gross.

Meanwhile...

I've been listening to Grace by Jeff Buckley again this week. I used to really love him back in the mid 90's when we were travelling Australia, and had the luck to see him play in a natural ampitheatre in Western Australia before he died swimming in the Missisipi. It's one of those perfect albums of the '90s worth listening to.

These days of course you could create music in the style of Jeff Buckley, lyrics and vocals including. I wonder what he would think of that.

And certainly, I wouldn't have drooled over him so much if he was 'co-creating' or if he was created. Here's a guy who was known for resisting pressure to create what they wanted and instead sung from this place of vulnerability and pure emotion. I'll never forget the intensity of his performance on that stage under the full moon. Sent shivers down my spine.

A new documentary It's Never Over purports to explore the music behind the myth - I think it's on Netflix which I don't have a sub for but I'm looking forward to seeing it at some point. I wonder if any of these generative AI artists will have a doco made about them twenty years after their death. Maybe, by generative AI. God help us.

`With Love,`

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#threetunetuesday #ttt #music #ai #aislop

2 days ago in Rant, Complain, Talk by riverflows

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goldenoakfarm 2 days ago

Yeah, I've had to warn my sister about sending me AI stuff she finds. She says she doesn't care if it's AI if she likes it...sigh....

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jacobtothe 2 days ago

I hate A.I. music, ads, voiceovers, and images. The harder it is to detect, and the harder people try to hide what it is, more more I detest it.

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goldenoakfarm 2 days ago

Same here…

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riverflows 2 days ago

I can't understand people who don't care. What they are saying is they don't trust or like human beings and that's sooo sad. How have we got here?? Why don't people like facts and truth and reality anymore??

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goldenoakfarm 2 days ago

Sigh….

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jacobtothe 2 days ago (edited)

I was listening to music with a friend while we played video games and shot the breeze the other evening. Our playlist is eclectic. One of the songs that cycled through was Feel Good, Inc. by the Gorillaz.

That was released over 20 years ago already. oof. If that embedded video doesn't play where you are, I'm sure you can find it elsewhere. It broke out of obscurity to hit the charts.

Anyway, the main thing I wanted to note was the structure of the song. It has distinct movements in its short 3-1/2 minutes. The band is "virtual" in the sense the members are all fictional animated characters, but real human beings wrote and performed the music. For the video, 2D and 3D animation were designed and drawn, not generated by an algorithm. This song was, and remains, special. The lyrical obscurity and allusions still mean something.

As it stands now, pop music has trended more and more toward formulaic nothingness, or else we remember what broke out of that background blandness that may have always been there. In any case, A.I. slop can only manage to swim in that soup of mediocrity from which it is drawn, but it can hide there too well if we continue to tolerate boring nothingness from corporate studios.

I also listen to a lot of folk music, and you can go see local bands play real instruments in person for any genre, but I especially like the folk music scene because you simply can't fake authenticity like that. I picked this one from a channel I found with loads of folk music festival videos from around the Pacific Northwest.

I am also tangentially a metalhead - not obsessed with the genre, but I have more in my rotation than one might expect, too. Some think of metal as just a wall of noise, but many bands are proficient musicians with a deep understanding of music theory. They play intricate and complex music with extra volume and distortion. That takes real talent, especially live.

Is it cheating to link prog metal? I say not for my illustrative purposes.

Anyway, authenticity will soon have its own value in the market, whether measured in money or attention. We will see a divide far more heated than the electric vs, acoustic or guitars vs. synthesizers feuds of the past.

I probably should have made this into a post of my own.

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riverflows 2 days ago

I don't personally like metal but I appreciate it a lot, and know it's not just a wall of sound. You really must catch Ralph Fiennes performing Satan to Iron Maiden turned up to 11 in The Bone Temple.

I am very familiar with that Gorillaz track... Bless em. Loved that album when it came out and we all listened to it a lot.

Bluegrass is awesome. I love a good Bluegrass festival and old timey/folk, which can have a different feel whether it's UK, Australia or the US.

There still are some wonderful folk out there doing original, inspired music. Why they're being drowned out by AI slop I don't know. Fake seems to sell. Anyone who actually choses to listen to that shit is a certifiable idiot

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jacobtothe 2 days ago (edited)

I see I was a day off in my mental model. That's what I get for writing when insomnia strikes. Should I still make this a post, since it is on fact Tuesday still?

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riverflows 2 days ago (edited)

I think you pretty much do what you like my love!!! Sorry I was asleep. Don't forget Tuesday is earlier for me in Australia!

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beelzael 2 days ago

Oh yeah, Jeff Buckley has that special thing... And people will be looking for that again. Now, everything is AI. With time, people will learn again how to distinguish.

For a long time, music has been manipulated. Voice tuners and such. With the AI-Overload, I hope that people will start developing a taste for "real" music again, enjoying the rough edges that makes it unique. A little hope. Tiny. But maybe.

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thekittygirl 2 days ago

"'I feel gross' a good friend says in response to me telling her that the music she sent me for Samhain blessings was generative AI."

Your friend's intent to send you blessings was pure, and sweet. And, if she liked the song, hey... there's nothing wrong with that. We like what we like. Sure, there's more 'soul' in music produced by humans rather than AI, as that music has lyrics infused with genuine human experience and emotions, which can be mimicked but never truly copied (in my humble opinion, of course). I don't think she should feel gross, or any other negative emotion, for liking the song, nor sending it.

I value music greatly, and it would tick me off, majorly, if AI-music became such a thing that hardworking musicians begin to suffer from its presence. That one guy who made millions farming AI content as something he created is frustrating and such a disgrace. 😠 But, a one-off, here-and-there song doesn't ruffle my feathers.

That Jeff Buckley, though — what raw emotion! 😯 ✌️

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riverflows 17 hours ago

I do think it's hard not to feel icky when you're being scammed though. Even if somewhere in the fine print it tells you, sometimes that's hard to find and most people won't look. My friend and I connect to the human aspect of music so this did feel gross. And believe me when I say AI music is everywhere... It's definitely not just a one off.

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