Amazing, raw records can work commercially. | | | | David Murray in 1975.
(David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "Amazing, raw records can work commercially."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// Two very different takes today on the value of AI-generated music. CHERIE HU, in her WATER & MUSIC newsletter, wonders about its monetary value, i.e. what consumers will be willing to pay for a piece of music made by a performer without a functioning heart or soul. TAISHI FUKUYAMA, co-founder of AMADEUS CODE, an AI songwriting assistant, is interested in the financial question, too, but mostly he has a different kind of value in mind: How will we come to assess such music on emotional and aesthetic levels? Will we recognize it as music at all? Fukuyama has an obvious bias. He also has some history to teach. Visual art connoisseurs were skeptical of both photography and film in their early years, unsure if mechanically assisted, easily reproducible work could be considered art. Some music fans, you may remember, had similar reactions to synthesizers, drum machines and samplers. Some no doubt still do. But all of those machines, like AI apps today, are merely doing what humans with functioning hearts and souls have programmed them to do. Fukuyama, sounding like he could be writing a press release for an early PERREY & KINGSLEY album, argues that assistive AI introduces a new paradigm; it "frees humans to imagine new creative processes introduced by the machine—something not possible independently, by either human or machine." And it will force us "to reckon even more explicitly with the tension between originality and value, collaboration and consumption." Hu, sounding like a software rockist, says AI music won't be able to compete with its human counterpart commercially until it comes packaged with an "identify-driven backstory." She says people will pay good money to see AMY WINEHOUSE and MARIA CALLAS hologram shows because the human story is built in. She's more skeptical of our willingness to pay for music generated by AI from scratch in the same way that an art collector was willing to shell out $432,500 for a pure AI artwork at CHRISTIE'S. The $400,000 question: Will you keep paying $9.99 a month for SPOTIFY if machines start taking over all its playlists? Then again, what if you don't know? Do you mind the MIQUELA and SKYGGE tracks that are in your playlists already?... In the run-up to one of the most consequential midterm elections of our time, musicians are knock knock knockin' on young people's doors, or social media feeds, or headphones, with one simple request: Vote. The individual knockers may be on one side or another, but there's nothing partisan about the idea. MusicSET: "Music the Vote"... A history of chairs in pop... Trick or treat or RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS?... RIP BEVERLY MCCLELLAN. | | | - Matty Karas, curator | | | |  | Rolling Stone | | Greta Van Fleet are the latest in a long line of bands slagged for obvious musical borrowing. But is sounding like an earlier act really such a bad thing? Experts weigh in. | | | |  | The New York Times | | The rapper and singer's death at 21 left questions about the future of his songs. Now his closest collaborators are preparing his first full posthumous statement. | | | |  | Music Business Worldwide | | 'AI is merely forcing us to reckon even more explicitly with the tension between originality and value, collaboration and consumption.' | | | |  | Water & Music | | Public recognition of AI-generated music as viable art has gradually expanded from the confines of esoteric research centers and experimental composers into the commercial, playlistable, VC-funded mainstream. | | | |  | REDEF | | In the run-up to one of the most consequential midterm elections of our time, musicians are knock knock knockin' on young people's doors, or social media feeds, or headphones, with one simple request: Vote. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | A new song by Spice titled "Black Hypocrisy" brings Jamaica's bias toward light skin -- and the lengths people will go to get it -- out into the open. | | | |  | Complex | | From 2Pac's "Hit Em Up" to Pusha-T's "The Story of Adidon," beef is always in season. Complex has compiled the 50 Best Hip-Hop Diss Songs for your consumption. | | | |  | The Bitter Southerner | | Two weeks ago, we published South Carolina native Warrington Williams' "Why I Hate 'Free Bird.'" The outcry was so swift and stubborn, readers used the hashtag #Skynyrdgate. Today, Tennessee's Rachel Bryan waves the flag (no, not that flag) in defense of the bird we cannot change. | | | |  | The Guardian | | Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber are among the stars using social media to counter industry pressures. | | | |  | The New Yorker | | It is the one song in Dylan's vast catalogue that he has never seemed to be finished with. The slightest lyrical change, shift in tempo, or variation in delivery causes the song to reveal itself in unexpected ways. | | | | | The New York Times | | Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley's "Interstate Gospel" is dropping into a Nashville landscape that's still far from their own aesthetic. | | | | | Music Business Worldwide | | How ambitious is Spotify's ad team? | | | | | Rolling Stone | | In 2018, "Africa" follows us everywhere, like the sound of wild dogs crying out in the night. The whole weird history of American culture is in this song somewhere. | | | |  | Noisey | | How acts like Robyn -- with her recent secret-gig social app -- and Rina Sawayama are finding innovative ways to unite their fans IRL. | | | |  | Vulture | | The music-industry adage "numbers don't lie" isn't always true, but it is important. Hip-hop artists and fans genuinely believe in the idea, to the point that it has become a lyrical weapon, deployed at crucial times in the life cycle of dueling singles or albums. | | | |  | Billboard | | On Oct. 26, the first major crop of Christmas releases arrived, from John Legend, Gwen Stefani and Pentatonix. But with the holiday itself two months away, what's the rush? | | | |  | The Quietus | | Heavy rock music has long plundered the scriptures for something to fight against. But what if metal is more dependent on religious faith than its worshippers admit? Dan Franklin takes the sacrament. | | | | | The New Yorker | | Freddie Mercury could be mischievous, but there are moments, particularly when he sings about love, that he is almost unbearably earnest. | | | |  | Touré Show | | Santigold on making music in the modern world and all you have to do to make it as a recording artist. And learning how to be an artist. And the advice-filled email from a singing superstar that helped her understand more about how to shine. | | | |  | Stereogum | | SOB x RBE seemed like they were the crest of a whole new wave. Instead, there's a good chance that they'll go down in history as a brief blip of excitement. | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group | | |
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