Why Human Feel Still Matters in an AI Music World

Earlier this year, a friend told me about an amazing app that could generate custom songs in less than a minute. Skeptical, I asked if these so-called ‘songs’ were actually any good, or just a gimmick to pass the time.

“‘Duuuude!’ he said. ‘This thing is insane. It’ll write a full song in any genre, from just a paragraph of text, in under 60 seconds! You’ve got to try it.’”

Hmmm, I call bullshit. There’s no way that can be a thing. No way.

Video Game Nostalgia

As an introverted socially awkward nerd from the 1980s, I spent countless hours locked away in my bedroom, playing musical instruments and creating various (mostly pointless) programs on my Commodore 64. Even the most basic programs took hours (and sometimes days) to write. The reward for an entire evening of typing line after line of code was seeing a medium-sized, white, pixelated dot move across the screen. If you had the patience and enthusiasm to keep typing (which unsurprisingly, I did) you would then see the same white dot move across the screen, but this time, it would blink while moving.

This type of thing was the highlight of any week and filled me with so much joy and satisfaction. Whilst I admit that being able to derive so much joy from watching a rather crappy looking white dot move across a screen might well be the result of me being an absolute hoot at parties (not), it was also part of the times. If you were lucky enough to have access to a computer, it was a big deal. And while we were at the early stages of technology starting to creep into our worlds, it was very simplistic and there was still plenty of room for our imaginations to flourish.

Going back to my friend telling me there was an app I could download to my phone that creates songs isn’t something I can wrap my head around. It can’t possibly be any good, can it?

Finally, after months of resisting, curiosity got the better of me. I downloaded the infamous app and was confident that I would be thoroughly unimpressed with the results.

I opened the app and a text box popped up, asking me what type of song I would like generated. Like a smug little so-and-so, I decided to pick something very obscure, and what I considered to be impossible for a piece of software to create. I asked it to write about a little-known village in rural Devon, England and asked it to make acoustic guitar the central focus.

Here’s what I requested:

Create a folk song about a servant girl, living in Cornworthy, Devon, England during the 19thC. Make the song melancholy with the main focus on her emotions of loneliness and feeling trapped. Acoustic guitar needs to be the main instrument. Catchy and filled with hooks but conveying emotion. 

I clicked Generate. I waited.

Less than 10 seconds later, I was given two song options, one with a male singer and one with a female.

I listened to the first one and couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

Now, production-wise, it’s obvious that this has been generated with AI, but for a piece of software to be able to generate an entire track, featuring drums, bass, guitar, vocals and keyboards is mind-blowingly amazing….and the lyrics? SO poignant and beautifully written, filled with heart and emotion. It even mentioned specifics about the tiny village I mentioned.

An app created this song in less than 10 seconds. Mind blown.

I sat there staring at my phone, equal parts amazed and uneasy. If a machine could create something so moving in ten seconds…what does that mean for those of us who’ve spent a lifetime chasing the perfect take, the perfect lyric, the perfect feel?

It seems as if Skynet is well and truly coming…..or is it?

Rise of the (AI Music) Machines

The Rise of the (AI Music) Machines is officially here, but instead of Arnold kicking down your studio door, it’s a friendly app asking for a paragraph of text. The threat isn’t physical, it’s existential. If a program can write a heartfelt folk song about a lonely servant girl from a random Devonshire village in ten seconds flat, where does that leave the rest of us?

I have been sitting with this question for a while now. I sense the anxiety within our music community, the fear that AI might threaten our identity, our livelihood, and our way of creating.

When we look back through time, history has shown us that every generation of musicians has faced a technological turning point. The synthesizer ‘threatened’ orchestras. The drum machine ‘threatened’ drummers. The laptop threatened professional recording studios. And while all of these fears have proved to be inaccurate, this time around it feels as though AI is threatening everything.

What We Have That AI Doesn’t

The current iteration of AI is in its most basic form, and yet it’s an expert in most fields and can produce results quicker and more efficiently than most of us.

The question is: What do we have that AI doesn’t?

My answer: Imperfection.

In our obsession to achieve absolute perfection in everything we do, we lose the most important part of us that makes us who we are. We are all imperfect human beings, constantly learning, always growing, and messing up along the way. A full range of emotions includes ALL emotions, not just perfect ones. It is impossible to emote if you’re not willing to be vulnerable.

I am incredibly drawn to people who are completely unafraid to be their true authentic selves, or songs that speak the truth in a brutally honest way. I will never forget hearing Adele singing Someone Like You on the Brit awards decades ago. Just her beautiful, emotive voice and a piano accompanying her.  I’m sure you can think of a similar experience, something that made you stop in your tracks.

Emotion. Connection. Authenticity.

That’s what draws us in. And as perfect and helpful as AI may or may not be, what it lacks is a unique and distinct soul, which each and every one of us has.

One of my favorite quotes is: authenticity has its own gravitational pull, and it has never been truer than right now.

My other half has just finished reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book All the Way to the River. Liz’s writing (as always) is superb, and she is far from trying to paint herself as a perfect human being, in fact quite the opposite. She puts it all out there and seemingly has no fear about being completely honest and vulnerable. She tells stories in a way that makes you feel something, and that spark, that voice within someone’s work, whether they are writing, singing, playing an instrument, mixing a song or creating a production, that unique stamp that only you have, is something that AI cannot replicate.

 AI as a Tool, Not Replacement

AI is integrating into our daily lives significantly faster than any of us were planning. As we move into this new AI-driven era, it is imperative that we stay true to ourselves and use AI as a useful tool, and to not view it as something that is meant to replace us.

I left school at 15, without any academic qualifications. I was unable to read or write and despite having many talents, being dyslexic put me at a significant disadvantage at school and my studies reflected this.

Spell checkers were just starting to become a thing in the 90s and I remember one of my teachers lamenting how they would be ‘the death of the English language’. Dramatic I know.  It’s hard to believe these days that something as simple as a spell checker felt threatening to some. But it did.

I, on the other hand, have to thank spell checking software, because it taught me how to spell. It put me on an even playing field with everyone else. Emails that were littered with spelling mistakes were now picked up with red squiggly lines and helpful suggestions from Outlook Express. It was an absolute game-changer for me, and I plan to view ChatGPT and others as a helpful tool and not something that will replace me.

Embrace the Fear

I completely understand why my creative community feels threatened and scared by this new AI epidemic. But now is the time to lean even harder into your true authentic self. Be brave. Be vulnerable. Be Yourself.

We don’t need you to be perfect, we simply need you to be you.

Even though we have all these amazing tools and platforms at our fingertips, we seem more divided than ever and crave community like never before. We don’t need more AI, we need more authentic, imperfect, human art that tells a story and makes us feel something.

AI cannot replace you. You are completely unique, with your own voice, talents, and story and what the world desperately needs right now is more YOU.