This is What Worries Me
Watching this Rick Beato video this morning, I’m reminded of something Paul Mahern said to me when we met up at his house back in April, that kids are singing, naturally sounding like they’re auto-tuned because they’ve heard so much music that’s overly auto-tuned. While that was shocking at first, I quickly accepted that this is a natural reaction. When young singers start singing, they want to sound like their favorite singers. It is why people thought Green Day was from England back in the day.
AI is a great tool if used ethically. The problem is…
The humans using it are not ethical.
Let me clarify. As Rick pointed out, if you’re using it to practice your improvisational skills or something similar, that’s a great use. When Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) were created, people recorded to tape then dumped those recordings into ProTools so that they could edit much easier than taking razor blades to the audio tape. Eventually, cost and ease of use moved most recording from tape to digital. Digital sounds great. People talk about the loss of warmth of analog, and that’s true to some degree. It’s enough of an issue that people have worked hard to create digital plug-ins to recreate tape saturation, so there, problem solved right?
I’ll give you another example. I have purchased some plug-ins from Waves, but I won’t be purchasing the Abbey Road Reverb Plates. I can understand people wanting to get that sound. The sound of your favorite records that were recorded there. And I also know that most people are not nerds like me, going on vacation to see places like Norman Petty Studios (Clovis, NM), FAME Studios (Muscle Shoals, AL) and other historic studios around the country. Not everyone thinks it’s a highlight of their life to play the celesta that Vi Petty played “Everyday” on like I do. But the reality of it is, sounding like you recorded at Abbey Road is not the same as recording at Abbey Road.
At FAME Studios, Muscle Shoals, AL - October 2023
We have lost the ability to distinguish between consuming something and experiencing something. Sitting in that chair that Buddy sat in, listening to his music out of the same speakers in the same room; playing that celesta, it’s a bit mystical, but it’s real all the same. I connected to the music, to Buddy, to Norman Petty and everyone else on a deeper level than I had in more than thirty years of listening to the same songs. I experienced that room and felt the weight of the keys the same way Vi did.
I don’t have the answers. I have ideas, but there are people much more knowledgeable and intelligent than me who have similar ideas that I do that are working on this. I do know this, it is a sign of our shifting values in our culture. No disrespect to Marvel, but no one is going to say Avengers 10 is on par with Casablanca fifty years from now. It’s okay to watch dumb comedies, not every movie has to be an art house work of genius. It’s okay to listen to music in the background, but if all music is created to simply be listened to in the background? Well, we already have had Muzak for decades.
If all the money is in the AI generated background music, the infrastructure will be suited towards AI generated background music. It was already difficult for an artist like Guy Clark, but it’ll become impossible in the future. There will be no kids pissing off their neighbors jamming in their garage trying to play Led Zeppelin songs so that they can learn to play together and write their own songs.
Maybe you say, so what?
Well, creativity is a skill that you work at. Producing things creatively; playing music, painting, whatever you do, you’re working parts of your brain that you cannot work by consuming things. I know people who grew up playing piano, who no longer play, who are creative thinkers in business. They’ve learned to find connections in things that either don’t currently exist, or don’t seem to currently exist. I believe that the consequences of this trend won’t just be the quality of the music that is produced, but it will influence, negatively, every facet of our lives.
Call me hyperbolic if you want. I definitely hope I’m wrong, but right now, I’m definitely worried.