Music Of Language (Cont)

As good as AI is at the moment for quickly churning out completed songs, on closer analysis they aren't as good as humans have historically written them. As good as the "singers" are they don't get the right music in the lyrics.

A question I keep returning to: Is sound a song? In this case, yes, because it sounds good as a production, but they are far from well-written songs. Even after songs are done you'll find a line that doesn't work or wasn't phrased well by the singer.  

Typically when a singer works with a lyric that has been given to them, they find the natural rhythms of the words, either falling on natural upbeats or downbeats--as we do in speech. Words and phrases are coherent because of the accent we give them. Every singer is different in how they find it, but usually, they fall into the same patterns. But AI algorithms don't get this. They tend to squeeze lines together in unnatural ways--but that's if you're in analysis mode (and why shouldn't you be as a writer?)

A friend suggested AI cover bands, covering AI-generated songs. That's a good idea and I presume it's already being done. But I would be amazed that you'd find a singer that could belt like this, and whatever actual human who could, would be changing lyrics to fit their voice and style. That's the way I would want it, rather than over-the-top renditions like this one--a lyric I wrote 30 years ago, which has music, but nothing like this 70s-era metal. As bad as my demo was at the time, I still like mine better. But I can see how a writer could use AI to run a few to get ideas on how AI singers suss the lyric.

11/18/2022

A realization I had years ago was that music had become all about the sound rather than music for music's sake. It was after I had seen a Japanese blues singer on TV: He said, "I didn't know what I was singing about, but I liked the sound." (A testament that American pop music is primarily about sound.) People are looking for an emotional connection with music and it's interesting how that's now done more electronically. 

11/18/2024

AI music is all about the sound. If the sounds weren’t good, bad lyrics would sound even worse. Pop music never really needed good words, or that they were intelligible.