Song Demos 1997/2025

It's interesting to compare the demo process from 1997 to 2025. Back in 1997, I would typically write lyrics and possibly some music, and then go out and try to find session players and vocalists to create demos to shop around to publishers. It might take weeks or months, but now it takes just minutes to generate a few demos. 

This particular lyric was never used in a song, but I did have some chord changes for it, which are somewhat different than the ones that AI generates. The AI chord changes are typically generic, although there are some interesting twists in them--not to mention the melodies. The second demo has some vocal gymnastics that would be difficult for a real vocalist to sing.

What's also interesting about AI-generated music is that you can create different versions of songs, which we’ve never been able to do before (easily). It would be like me sending my lyrics to several different songwriters, they would book the studio and hire all the players, and send me the results. And this is what this is essentially.

The other question as an artist is whether I can own this music because I don't write country music. But I'm fine with people creating country music from my lyrics. Back in 1997 I was fairly indifferent to genre because I wouldn’t have to speak for that part of it. The singer always has to speak for the lyrics in some way, unless they are singing in the voice of another character. 

What I also like to do is contextualize them with some kind of visuals–in this case snapshots that someone got from an estate sale. The music and the photograph seem to go well together for both demos.