Eclecticism In the Age of AI

 

Eclecticism is different in the age of AI. When I generate music, I can experiment with a wide number of genres, then curate the results. When I listen back to them, I'm not necessarily making any value judgments based on the genre itself, or what I would write or record; I'm essentially a lyricist, producer, and sometimes art director, and then I'm the listener with wildly eclectic tastes. This is vastly different from being a songwriter or composer. While we can have influences, it isn't an exercise in nostalgia--or eclecticism. If I want to write and record something that sounds like mid-70s pop, I'd never be able to do it. AI music gives us the impression that we can, because when you're in nostalgia mode, you're only the spectator, yet you have some creative input. I see it as making a radio station with all the songs I'd ever listened to over decades, not all the music I've ever written. So I can be as eclectic as I want and not feel I'm a part of the music-making process--which always has stylistic and cultural constraints built in. I'd never be a part of any blues record in any role, but now I can "produce" it.

Here are two versions of the same lyric that are stylistically different, but I like them both. I'm not loyal to either. The nice thing about eclecticism is that you don't have to have loyalty to any one genre. As a writer, I'm loyal to the genre I'm working in--while I'm making it. I'm loyal to ambient music if I'm making an ambient record, but it's not a hermitage. AI is fun in that way. I don't feel like I have to be an ascetic of a genre.

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Frank Gehry: "I think there can be an accessibility to an environment. You see it in an artist’s studio, where you feel like you can throw your coat on the floor. It’s not a Miesian house, where the chairs have to be exactly in line and set a certain way. For most people, that isn’t possible. I had friends who revered Mies and bought two lounge chairs and the banquette. I could never stand the formal way it was arranged, so every time I went to their house I moved everything around. Each time I did it they said, “God, that’s so much more comfortable,”