Hey guys - short one today.
I wrote this two weeks ago and forgot to publish it. So here it is. If you’re short on time, go read the thread here on Memo’d (and give it an upvote / comment).
I’ve been busy on a new thesis / approach for the business respect to Bias in Ai. I’ll publish on that soon too.
I came across this Drake <> Weekend song.
It’s apparently 100% Ai generated. Check it out before you read on.
I listened to it, and credit where credit is due, it sounds like Drake & The Weekend.
If I heard this on Spotify, I’d think it was them, because while I can’t stand Drake or his voice, I used to listen to the Weekend - especially in my days of solo travelling and slaying. I might’ve even added it to one of my playlists and used the story as a conversation point. Luckily for me times have changed. I prefer a more wholesome life, than mindlessly chasing a notch count.
In any case..back to the question at hand.
Why does this song actually “work”?
Why is it blowing up on Tik Tok and trending on Twitter?
Why are the nerds talking of the coming of Ai artists?
Well…
Like I’ve said in the past, Ai is not conscious, nor is there any real “agency” behind what it is or is doing.
It’s just putting things together in such a way that emulates coherence and agency. It does this through probabilistic and stochastic means, not insightful or inspired means - which are the source of real human creativity.
Now..if you think about how modern music is made, it’s actually not far off from this Ai generated stuff in the first place.
In fact, AI and Big Data have been used by record labels to guide their direction for years, whether that be the kinds of music and sounds being produced, or the kind that they get behind and market. Modern “music” has therefore already become a meaningless aggregation of sounds and beats, tuned to drive listenership from the middle of the bell curve “masses” and designed to be easily re-mixed for use in clubs.
Modern music with meaning still has listenership, but you’ll scarcely find it on a top 40 list. In fact, you really need to search for it, or do as I do, and listen to old tunes.
But…if you do make the mistake of listening to these modern rappers, hip-hoppers and so-called artists, you will likely hear absolutely nothing of substance being said. The lyrics are a meaningless jumble of words about my bitchez, my niggaz, my kicks, my slacks, my ride, my wheels, my gat, my bling, my Gucci and my whatever the hell else they consider cool or “clutch”.
I honestly find that entire world so nauseating that I don’t even know if any of those terms are relevant anymore or if they’ve moved onto more meaningless abstractions for words - but you get the point.
So I ask you…
Did you listen to the Ai song of Drake and The Weekend? If not please do so and then try to tell me what in the world they are actually talking about. What are they saying? What’s the message? What’s the meaning? What’s the point?
If you can find it, please tell me because I for damn sure cannot.
From where I stand, there’s a bunch being said, and words are certainly being strung together in what one could argue are “coherent sentences” (maybe?), but I can neither see, nor feel, nor hear any substance. There is no life there. It’s hollow. There’s just….words…and sounds..
Which brings me to my first core point:
I guess you could consider this “music”, because it has a beat, a rhythm, and teens will twerk to it, in the same way they would to anything else produced today. So in that sense, “it works” because it’s already not much different to the hack artistry and music out there.
Then my second and more sobering point…
If art is a supposed to be reflection of the times, and music is a form of art - then it says a lot about where we are as a civilisation.
A lot of noise, a lot of words being said. No Substance.
Nietzsche was right. The Nihilism is real.
I don’t think this Ai song is the W that the nerds think it is. At least civilizationally and humanistically speaking. Vending machine “artistry” is a sorry state for art. It just shows how empty and lost we really are as a species. At this rate of producing less and less, while consuming more and more, we’ll make Wall-E a reality in no time!
In any case, maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe this is just early days, and we will see truly creative stuff come out of Ai. Maybe. And maybe bugs are good for us, inflation is 2% and climate change is man made..
Never say never.
Svetski
If you found this useful, you can tip some sats below.
PS. I’ll also bring you some more upbeat works in the coming weeks & month. Promise !
It is no accident that for some time now 'hits' have come and gone without leaving any impression on the culture. Just an indistinguishable cacaphony of resampled beats derived from mathematical algorithms to create 'hits' by hacking the thickest common denominator in the middle of the bell curve. And yet ... And yet.... When an old song comes on, something from the pre-algorithmic age, something imbued with the soul and energy of human artists, you see the ears perk up, even the young sing along. I have seen this many times.
There is something universal to humanity, something that is also accessible to the middle of the bell curve, that is not at all 'elite', which cannot be replicated by the machine because it is not in any sense reducible to mathematics. We instinctively respond to it. And while it cannot be quantified our souls feel its absence the way our bodies feel the absence of micronutrients in processed foods ... With the compulsive eating that comes from the latter, which arises from the inability of the artificial to satisfy the full range of our hunger, being precisely mirrored in the compulsive autostimulation of this empty modern music.
Peak empty late stage fiat culture.