I have a very pragmatic view on music: all I care about is whether it sounds good or not. That’s it. That’s literally it. And from that standpoint the advent of AI music has been a major net positive for me.
You can choose to ignore that and come tell me about the ethics of using AI or how you care about the story behind the song and so on and that’s all fine but just note that you’re no longer addressing what I’m actually saying here.
I’m also not claiming it’s great - only that it’s good. I’ve yet to discover an AI song that I go back to like I do with many human-made songs but if I want to put on a playlist playing in the background then one consisting of entirely AI-made music reliably provides me well above average track after another whereas with organic music I need to sift through a ton of absolute crap to stumble upon the occasional good track that still rarely exceeds what AI is able to output. I can go on YouTube and put on a 2 hour playlist of Jazz House or similar and I don’t get the urge to skip a single track.
Currently I feel like where AI still trips is lyrics - they still are only plausible sounding nonsense once you actually start paying attention to it but especially for instrumental music it has far exceeded the level of a good average human artist.
Few examples of what I’m refering to: with vocals and without.
If you just want to be distracted and have happy ears then this seems a reasonable take.
I guess it’s a bit like burger chains - lowest common denominator for the largest market share. The thing is, the real food lovers will always be at the artisanal meat patty stand instead.
I hate every sentence I just read. Take the upvote. AI music is the music for people who say they like all kinds of music. Music with no taste. Its like saying you could cook a potato a million ways but your favorite is raw.
Edit: since the music you posted is a pale imitation of trip hop please listen to something with some artistic value that might make you feel something.
“all I care”
no. you do not care. you clearly state you would never put ai slop in your favourites, you just want one big play button to generate background noise.
It violates my sense of decency that you think a communicative medium can be replaced by something that can’t communicate.
… You get a upvote but I’ll be mad the entire time doing it
I upvoted this, but now I need to go take a walk and cool off for a bit. 😡
Congrats. I hate this opinion, so it fits!
this is a great post, upvoted cause I definitely don’t like AI music
It doesn’t make sense how someone can enjoy art that doesnt have some sort of connection with you, as its literally a bot manipulating your emotions, but I cannot and will not judge! life is too short lol
Downvoting not for the unpopular opinion, but for not knowing what “objective” means
Unpopular, yes, but also an objectively wrong use of objectively. Subjectively you find that music enjoyable, but objectively it’s a statistical average of the bog standard crap you can find on on basically any radio station. Nobody can stop you from enjoying that, but don’t think it makes your personal taste anything other than statistically average.
Quality can be recognized without personally liking it. I don’t mean good as in enjoyable to everyone but rather up to the standard that we expect from good music.
up to the standard that we expect from good music.
“Art is paintings of horses”-ass statement. Good music is a gestalt, not a simple sum of its parts. There are plenty of technically skilled musicians who make shit music, and plenty of shit musicians that make good music. There are musicians of dubious ability who make great shit music, or possibly shit great music, but either way do it with a purpose that elevates it above just being noise. There is no standard to be held to because art is not standardised - look at how The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or Wire changed the face of music with art that was initially critically panned. Look at how the hip-hop and punk scenes dragged people who had never touched an instrument before into the limelight.
It is entirely possible for a theoretical person to recognise quality without liking it, but you don’t understand what makes music good, so you personally are not able to.
You don’t like music, you like Muzak, and you have garbage taste.
I like both. You don’t know what all different kinds of music I listen to and you’re being mean.
You also don’t respect music or art. You’re a consumer, no more, no less.
I’m a real person with real feelings who’s done nothing to you to deserve being talked to like this. Absolutely nothing.
People like you are why the internet is such a horrible place to be.
So are people who make real music and art. Your whole take is an active and thorough disrespect, you’re spitting In people’s faces.
You’re mindlessly consuming and advocating for universally detrimental trash, you are a consumer. You are actively harming music, musicians, art, and artists, because you simply don’t care what others think. Why should I give any positive consideration as to what you think?
I don’t think you like music. Or even understand music.
That’s ok, you don’t have to, but you do not know what you’re talking about.
Out of curiosity, can you tell me a human artist or band that you really like?
Maribou State, Emancipator, Bonobo, Parov Stelar, Wintergatan, Seven Beats, Nigel Stanford …
There aren’t that many artists that I know more than one good song from. My playlists are filled with individual tracks from artists whose name I can’t even remember. The ones I listed are the exceptions that came to mind.
I have a very pragmatic view on music
You’re quite self aware in your assessment, you just don’t realize that being “pragmatic” about music is like being “efficient” about sex; you’re doing it wrong.
This is an incredible comment
Gross
Congrats, you have an average taste in music?
AI are statistical algorithms. The current design means they can only ever be average.
I can’t believe nobody’s called you out on not knowing what “objectively” means yet.
I just think people understand modern colloquial use, even if OP below erroneously declares it was intentional. In the same way we can parse “I could literally eat a horse right now” as, in fact not literal, we can likewise parse the colloquial use of “objective” in this case.
I object to the death of literal, as well. These things only happen if we collectively allow it, and I’d rather not. Especially with the declining literacy rate.
You’re welcome to do so, honestly probably even right to, but know that unfortunately to the majority who have integrated the colloquial use you’re probably going to come off similar to the guy who insists on using the “Þ” instead of “th.”
No. It’s not the same as “literal/figurative”. At least not yet. And it’s important that we don’t allow that to happen to these words as well.
Language directly informs our thoughts. Like literally, we think in our respective language, and controlling/molding that is an extremely powerful tool of control and oppression. Perhaps the most powerful. Read 1984 if you want someone to explain it much better than I ever could.
We cannot allow words like “objective” and “subjective” to colloquially mean the same thing. It will just continue making it more and more difficult for people to grasp what’s real and what is not.
I’m quite careful with my choice of words and that was a deliberate one.
Humans are just as good at detecting AI music as we’re at detecting toupees: the bad ones stand out and the rest go undetected. Most of AI-made music is indistinguishable from organic ones purely based on the sound of it and the claim that a track is shit is often only applied retroactively after people learn it was made with AI. It’s an emotional reaction and thus not an objective one.
My problem with it is that there is no objectively good music. The whole premise was bad from the start.
I can recognize something as good even if I don’t personally like it. I’m not claiming that everyone will like all of the AI music in existence - I’m claiming that it has everything going for it that we expect from good music. Pretending that it’s all bad just because it’s made with AI as many people do is disingenuous.
That’s not really the issue. Your opinion is that AI music is subjectively good. Objective things aren’t opinions.
How did you validate your ability to recognize objectively good music?
My best friend’s band is objectively the best hardcore show you’ve never been to yet. :)
I don’t think “not technically bad” necessarily means objectively good. The artistry is in the intent just as much as the execution, so I think my post hoc disappointment at learning something was made with AI is regret at the time spent considering what is literally random noise with all of the “bad” parts taken out.
Actually objectively, rampant AI use is harming us more than it’s helping right now.
