Mary Spender - thoughts on future-tech in the music business

[ElmerJFudd]

 

[Docbop]

I agree with a lot of Mary's points she's making.     I think AI generated and or assisted music is going to be real popular for awhile.    I remember back was it late 70's-early 80's when people started complaining about music becoming too perfect Steely Dan was one of the main bands they pointed to as too perfect.   That brought about punk, grunge, and other music that was more basic more human.   I think in the end people always want to come back to things that sound human.     

[Stokely]

And here I thought tracks were as bad as it could get.  Glad I got my time in before the robots replaced me!

I'm not as optimistic that things will swing back (no pun intended).  Generations are growing up with perfect studio music (notes shifted by pro tools, autotune, etc) and perfect "live" performances "just like the record" because it quite literally is the record.    The singer in my band has a duo that can't play a couple places because they don't run tracks.  The manager thought people wouldn't like it because it "wouldn't sound full."  JFC...

[ElmerJFudd]

I’m convinced that eventually there will be a folk music resurrection. Where all tech other than microphones and amplification are eschewed.  But I don’t see that wave coming too soon - we are in the age of the bedroom producer where Ableton and FL Studio are the most popular production tools.  

[Docbop]

14 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

I’m convinced that eventually there will be a folk music resurrection.

No, don't overdo it we don't need to get that raw.   <grin>   

[David Emm]

It took a while for me to pull out of my nose-dive against so-called folk, but when I saw how broadly the name can fit, that fixed my attitude problem. I'm a great appreciator of Mike Oldfield, whose folk influences crop up beautifully. Kate Bush had a similar thing going, which was a wild match with a Fairlight. I also took to Pentangle, the Chieftains and others because the instrumentation was Way Over There, when contrasted with other styles, especially synths.

 

So when Zappa said of Folk, "Remember when that sh*t almost caught on?," I got the joke, but I sure wouldn't want the higher forms of it to disappear.

[ElmerJFudd]

I’m sure I didn’t mean folk specifically/narrowly as we think of folk music post the 60s - Guthrie, Dylan, Baez, etc. (which was a revival itself).   But more stripped down acoustic music - whatever style it draws from or morphs into.  It seems inevitable to me that the “kidz” at some point will reject the tech and rebel by not using it.  I could be wrong. 🤷‍♂️ 

[jazzpiano88]

I look at AI replacing Pop Top 40 music today as equivalent to writing human-like believable thank you notes, sympathy notes, etc.   Hallmark had writers on staff to do this but they're now all unemployed (in the next year) because the bar is not very high.

 

However, when it comes to creating music that will break new ground and stand the test of time, AI will never do that because it cannot create like a human.  It can only create like a human has created in the past.  It may get lucky once in a while (equivalent to a one hit wonder).  

 

The biggest downside is that the world will be deluged by a tsunami of trash mixed with gold that will be impossible to filter.

 

Perhaps a technology can be invented that labels music as organic versus cultivated.

[Docbop]

56 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

I look at AI replacing Pop Top 40 music today as equivalent to writing human-like believable thank you notes, sympathy notes, etc.   Hallmark had writers on staff to do this but they're now all unemployed (in the next year) because the bar is not very high.

 

However, when it comes to creating music that will break new ground and stand the test of time, AI will never do that because it cannot create like a human.  It can only create like a human has created in the past.  It may get lucky once in a while (equivalent to a one hit wonder).  

 

The biggest downside is that the world will be deluged by a tsunami of trash mixed with gold that will be impossible to filter.

 

Perhaps a technology can be invented that labels music as organic versus cultivated.

 

 

But your not factoring the continued dumbing down of the masses that grow ever more tied to their smartphones and other devices to think for them.     Their short attention spans and the acceptance of "close enough" in how that live today.   In general they don't care about quality they subscribe to services so they can be feed mass quantities of music.    It all started with the internet and people instead of talking about the 20-30 albums they owned and love it turned into... I have a hard drive with 10,000 tunes I downloaded.   Everything is about status symbols and available quantities of media today.    Like social media not about the handful of friends to hang out with and talk to person to person, it's I have 500 friends and a 1000 followers none of which I've never seen in person.   It's a very different world and it changing faster and faster everyday.     But that just how I see it from my little plot of sand in the desert.