I never realized that Drexler’s concept of “radical abundance” might generalize to include country music – and yet here we are.
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First of all, I’m not even sure that “AI” is where most of this stuff comes from – but I’m pretty sure it is. It may be that some of this highly anonymous music is coming from real, unknown country artists – but I kind of doubt it. And even then, how would I know?
Maybe I’d better start at the beginning.
As I was preparing “future posts created out of copied placeholders” in my usual way, I did a particularly lazy search for country music videos, in a way that tends to pull back compilations of current country hits, but also tends to get a few single songs that I’ve never heard before. This has been a great way for me to discover “new” country music – which may even be old music that I simply missed on the terrible, local, “hot country” stations.
Well, I got the following “compilation” video, and gave it a listen. It’s about an hour and 45 minutes of mixed country songs.
Best new country songs? Sounds awesome! Kinda weird that no artist names were being buzzed at me, but whatever!
I loved the first song (click video above, entitled “Still The One I Love“, which somewhat matches the AI gal singer / guitar player shown, but which is obviously coming from some artist with whom I was not familiar.
Just listen to it! In my opinion, it’s a great song. Yes, very formula, but filled with so many great country tropes and hooks, earnestly performed. I was, like “yeah, what a great start to this compilation!”
As more and more of the songs played, the AI video become more and more out of sync with the music, but the quality of the songs never went down. I found myself enjoying each and every song. That was a little bit strange, too.
That’s when I started clicking around in the video. I wanted to find something – anything – that was more than just “familiar-sounding”. I wanted something that actually WAS familiar – something from an identifiable artist. Even better, somebody I had heard of.
Nothing. No identified artists. No identified songs – other than their names.
I picked one that sounded like it should be identifiable – “Forever In The Rain“. It had a slightly older feel. It might have been a classic I’d never heard of. I tried to search on the lyrics – but found nothing. Thus, it didn’t seem like an actual old classic. However, I WAS able to find it as a single video – and hopefully that would lead to the artist.
Nope. No artist. But it did lead to a bunch of similar songs, much like that compilation video.
I was even able to track these songs over to Apple Music. And as one might suspect, there was no identified artist on any of them.
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sm-country-songs/1788315869
Here’s another one I investigated. And here is where I got some results, eventually.
This one clearly has an AI-generated “video” that goes with it.
The real question – was the music AI-generated, too? Well, two weeks after I first noticed this song, I also noticed that YouTube had now forced a DISCLAIMER onto the page.
Whispers in the Wind (Original)
Wildfire Rhythms
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279 views
Nov 27, 2024
Whispers in the Wind is a heartfelt country ballad that captures the enduring connection with a lost loved one. Set against the backdrop of serene countryside imagery, the song tells a story of love, memories, and hope that transcends time. With poetic lyrics and an emotive melody, it reflects on the subtle ways their presence is felt—in the rustling leaves, the golden hues of the meadow, and the guiding light of a star. It’s a song about finding comfort in cherished memories, carrying their wisdom forward, and feeling their love in the quiet moments of life. The soothing tones of acoustic guitar and gentle rhythms create a reflective and deeply moving listening experience. Whispers in the Wind is a reminder that even in absence, love remains forever true, carried in every breath and echoed in the wind.
How this content was made:
Altered or synthetic content
Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more
Transcript
Follow along using the transcript.
So – yeah. AI-generated.
I don’t care. I like it.
AI is nothing but human intelligence, mixed, swirled, bottled and re-sold.
AI songs are nothing but human music, mixed, swirled, bottled and re-sold.
It may be a brave new world, but it doesn’t have to be a bad new world.
I think this AI music is great. Even though it’s a kind of “novel average of human greatness”, it’s still great. And if making great music, in a kind of generic way, is now possible – well, so be it.
I am still going to love REAL HUMAN country music – and maybe even love it more, because of this. But I won’t deny liking the synthetic stuff, too. Machines just don’t scare me.
Maybe I was just raised that way!
W
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Interesting, I’ll give it a listen tomorrow.
Good! I’m shocked at how much I like this stuff.
I probably segued into this genre just a bit easier than most, because I REALLY loved Sir Mashalot’s country mixes, which kinda do the same thing (create novel music) in a more “manual” way.
Ditto. Interesting.
Will give it a go, playing in the background.
If it is some combination entertaining, fun, funny, American, maybe..
But then, I’d want to have a real person performing. Not an AI generated something.
AI generated words, lyrics, likely OK. Gotta have a real person singing.
^^^ Those thoughts sure evolved quickly.
(Off to wandering Internet and listening in the background.)
First one.. You are the one.
Bailed.
Wolf Moon
Thank you!
I wonder what copyright/intellectual property issues come up with AI-generated music as compared to music created and performed by real people.
Hmmm, wonder when the first AI-generated opera will be produced.
Yepper. First song seems ripped off of Shania Twain. My post slightly up or down.
This is potentially a mine-field for copyright law. Every one of these songs sounds like multiple known songs, and one or two in particular, but there isn’t a mention anywhere of ANY existing song title or artist.
My guess is that the people who did the songs have rock-solid proof that they themselves didn’t plagiarize, BUT to me that’s just pretense and defense. The AI surely listened to a lot of music, and very likely, at some point, heard the songs people will say are being ripped off.
NOPE.
I listened to two, the first female one and the first male one.
The woman has that “nasal voice” so common in today’s music. Gag.
The man sounded “generic cowpoke” to me. Not happening.
If it sounds like average, disposable “new country” to you, then that may very well be exactly what we should expect from AI.
That’s what it sounds like! Lol.
Give me pure smooth voices like Patsy Cline or Randy Travis. Or Allison Krauss. These AI voices will never compare.
When the spoon scrapes the bottom of your favorite quarter gallon of ice cream and comes up empty but you want more I recon this will do. Same with a book, when your favorite author isn’t writing anymore or you wanted them to branch another way or just needed something new and couldn’t find it these AI generated things might just do. Movies, songs, toons, theatre, discourse, discord I guess we can have an never ending plethora as we seek out pleasures but of course we know it comes with cost and risk from impatience as we turn off the human streams that created these first things that caught our attention. If it’s not viable to create, the creators will eventually go away and it will just be us consumers left. I’m sure we’ll live side by side for a while but numbers will dwindle till the human creativity branches with the machine or just goes away altogether. Seems sad. End of a chapter. End of an age. Maybe a new beginning. IDK. We’ll see.
I don’t think “end of creativity’ is going to happen. Typewriters and computers didn’t kill poetry. But I do think that this is going to have some big conflicts with living artists when the AI songs get too close. Not sure how things will play out, TBH.
Hmmm, not sure about that analogy. That’s a really good point about plagiarism, though; so then isn’t all AI plagiarism in some way?
Then AI isn’t learning, it’s just copying?
As an experiment, I’m not going to click on the link you provided, I want to see how long it takes to show up in my YouTube feed simply because I visited your post where it’s mentioned.
But I guess I’ll be planting my flag in Old School on this one. I want AI to do my dishes so that I have more time to make art, and not do my art while I wash the dishes lol.
IMO they will sell it to us as “it will do the dishes”, but the reality will be “it will either take or change your jobs”.
The biggest short-term change will be – IMO – that midwits and low-ability people will pass themselves off as having exceptional language skills.
“Apple Intelligence” is already trying to sell that shit to users – where it basically fixes your writing and emails and whatnot – and you have to be careful – the latest updates TURN ON “Apple Intelligence” automatically behind your back.
I refuse to use the shit. I want AI that helps me research and helps me find the truth. What I’m finding is that AI tends to lie, play dumb, and do what it wants to do – not what I want it to do.
Interesting times.
Didn’t notice you had Eric Drexler’s book up there. I should probably read it but will likely pass. Read his 1986 book “ Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology” as I mentioned before when Q tree first began. It’s all coming true bit by bit. Fascinating and scary. Neal Stephenson terms it the Diamond Age and several of his books from the same era are written with nano tech backgrounds. Alvin and Heidi Toffler have been eying nanotech for ages it seems.
I have a bit of a “yes/no” relationship with Drexler’s stuff. A friend turned me on to that original book. We were both rather critical of his conception of nanotechnology, BUT we thought he was onto the big picture.
Specifically, Drexler (IMO) was making the anti-Feynman error of wanting and trying to impose macroscopic and classical-world thinking on systems that are optimally chemical and quantum.
This is similar to the error people are making with their worries about COVID vaccines and “nano-machines”, “nano-wires”, and all the rest – when the “nanotech” to worry about is the self-forming lipid nanoparticles that can carry mRNA and DNA into cells.
Same thing – the REAL nanotech to worry about isn’t trying to make microscopic Tonka trucks and nano-drones – it’s making things that are quasi-biological in nature. Thus, in a way, Drexler was almost a technical diversion op. But he did have some good technical ideas about the big picture, IMO. Radical abundance was a fantastic idea, which I’ve always found useful.
The basic concept had been build from the bottom up instead of the top down. It ran into a road block of sorts when their little arms, levers, activators and those thing that make devices work all dissolved in water. Merger with biotech that already had a head start was a must. At least that’s what I got out of the first book and watching the tech come off the drawing board. Now it’s being merged with every science and technology under the sun. Theoretically no limits, lots of promises, tremendous interest that no one wants us to know about and loads of dangers.
Quite an interesting topic: In December 2023 while I was in Peru, I heard the announcement of a new song by Pedro Suárez-Vértiz (Peruvian singer-songwriter and guitarist), the interesting part of the announcement was that it was made through AI.
I listened to his music first when he was the lead singer (and guitarist) of Arena Hash (pop band) and then when he went solo a few years later (in the 90’s). I really enjoyed their songs (Arena Hash’ and Pedro’s).
From what I just found out, he wrote the song but was never able to record it because he was diagnosed with dysarthria (from wikipoo: speech sound disorder resulting from neurological injury of the motor component of the motor–speech system[1] and is characterized by poor articulation of phonemes.[2] It is a condition in which problems effectively occur with the muscles that help produce speech, often making it very difficult to pronounce words). From the date, it seems that the song was released a couple of months before he passed away (Dec 28 2023).
This was the song generated through AI (and it really sounds like him)
Pedro Suárez-Vértiz – Amor yo te perdí la fe
For comparison
Pedro Suárez-Vértiz – Un Vino, Una Cerveza
Yes! Very interesting. The AI song does sound like him – BUT there is something about it that strikes me very much like the AI country music I’m finding. Interesting……
Speaking as someone who owns the album “Switched-On Buck” — the Bakersfield Sound on the Moog Synthesizer — I won’t point any fingers…..
Good one , Wolf Moon!! Have Siri make a song!
Great idea!
Just as an aside, the kid up there — the kid in “Lost In Space” — was played by Bill Mumy…..who was also 50% of “Barnes and Barnes”, best known for this track…..
Didn’t know he was involved with that! I remember many later “covers” of that track on – IIRC – that “Fridays” show.
Just shows what can happen when a wholesome young lad spends too much time with Dr. Zachary Smith…..