Jaime this was a beautiful read. I feel like you can and should write an entire book on this topic. I don't want to fall in a reductionist view on this matter but it's hard not to see how corporations try to capitalize on "progressive" technologies to further their control on entire industries and I don't see how they eventually won't end up winning with Hatsune Miku already serving as a successful predecessor.
While I care little about Drake's personal success as a musician or businessman I don't think he or any other artist today can willingly accept this kind of technology taking over their likeness and control of their narrative as anything other than a complete monopolization of whatever they can consider as their "brand". If this technology is to become mainstream what other way is there than to use it against itself? Sort of like if banksy were to use LLM's to mass produce works based on his artwork and sell it to millionaires to then make the millionaires look like imbeciles for paying so much for something he hardly put any thought or time into.
May 17, 2023·edited May 17, 2023Liked by jaime brooks
good article, but there's something that doesn't sit right wrt your interpretation of louis armstrong's home recordings. of course armstrong was concerned with racism and minstrelsy; however, louis armstrong was one of *the* most boundary pushing artists of all time, and his use of new recording technologies -- which, i don't think a clear as a line as you think can be traced from home recording and AI -- prefigures a lot of the visionary use of splicing, DJ-ing, etc. by black producers (of all genres) in the 80s and 90s. i don't think it's entirely fair to minimize the artistic aims of armstrong's work to purely a critique of minstrelry when the legacy and complexity of jazz is already so misunderstood.
Right, there's definitely a bigger story to be told there. I remember thinking about Oscar Peterson's love of synthesizers and Miles Davis' efforts to keep pace with new technology throughout the seventies and eighties as well as how remarkable it was that Armstrong kept having huge hits like "Hello, Dolly!" and "What a Wonderful World" during the final decade of his life. There's absolutely a lot to dig into between his twenties small band records and the present day.
thanks for your response! yeah, i am always thinking of the quote "one must be absolutely modern." AI is such a reactionary shit show scam but when the bottom falls out i wonder how the technology could be used towards liberatory aims from the wreckage...if it ends up being viable as musical technology..we will see i guess!
I don't know what AI music scene is like now, but "bottom falls out" -it might not happen that way. I remember the reactions to sampling in the 80s, and hearing songs like "Ice Ice Baby", didn't do much to dispel the naysayers. What I'm saying is that good use of AI might gradually replace the bad (I'm still trying to figure out how AI can be "reactionary"). Basically, I'm just agreeing with you about "liberatory aims", but I'm betting it will be part of a continuous process. The only counter-example I can think of is the Atari era of video games -when they tried to exploit the game coders, and the US game scene ended up crashing entirely in '83, until Nintendo came to the US. And maybe looking at it from a tech point of view instead of a music angle, maybe there will be that kind of a reckoning before liberation. But all tech moves so fast now..., maybe one day we'll just wake up and the good starts replacing the bad.
Thanks! While I wasn't around to verify Warren's characterization of that era firsthand, Elijah Wald has a book called "How The Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll" that spends a lot of time fleshing out a similar argument. Covers a lot of the day-to-day specifics of life as a musician in the publishing era and traces the changes that occurred in the fifties and sixties. I really recommend it.
Thank you! I’ve actually read that book years and loved it. I’ll have to return to it. Also, is there anyway to get in touch via email? I write about some of this stuff and would love to chat.
I think one of the best pieces of music writing I’ve ever read. Deeply satisfying to read something so lucid, informed and persuasive about music and the future.
This was an amazing, necessary read. We're not headed toward anything good, I fear, and what this means for artists and, as you point out, BIPOC artists in particular, is more than a little sickening. I think of it in contrast to a band like ABBA, whose music is still popular today, who always had smart business acumen and control of their image and went on very recently to create a digital/virtual version of their younger selves for a new tour. This was mostly given very positive press without a lot of curiosity over where this sort of tech would lead. The Disney-fying of art is so depressing.
I still think all the 5 million profiteers that are gonna jump into the "AI Music" space are gonna cannibalize each other; + poison each other's datasets, + through their almost certainly careless low-effort offerings they will begin to insult the audience's savvy and tastes so much that it'll take this fad most of the way down by 2026.
Yeah, the tech will hang around; but it ain't gonna destroy the whole industry like its hype men are claiming these days.
I'm sure there's great opportunity being between paradigms, as we are....but as an older artist I don't see myself capitalizing on it. At this point my artistic interest is in refining my art. My commercial interest (such as it is) is in creating products that fulfill a metaphysical need of the audience. I like to believe there's still an audience for that. But I do hope the younger musicians will take the responsibility to shape the paradigm of the future. As they say-- shape your paradigm, or someone else'll shape it for ya.
Jaime this was a beautiful read. I feel like you can and should write an entire book on this topic. I don't want to fall in a reductionist view on this matter but it's hard not to see how corporations try to capitalize on "progressive" technologies to further their control on entire industries and I don't see how they eventually won't end up winning with Hatsune Miku already serving as a successful predecessor.
While I care little about Drake's personal success as a musician or businessman I don't think he or any other artist today can willingly accept this kind of technology taking over their likeness and control of their narrative as anything other than a complete monopolization of whatever they can consider as their "brand". If this technology is to become mainstream what other way is there than to use it against itself? Sort of like if banksy were to use LLM's to mass produce works based on his artwork and sell it to millionaires to then make the millionaires look like imbeciles for paying so much for something he hardly put any thought or time into.
good article, but there's something that doesn't sit right wrt your interpretation of louis armstrong's home recordings. of course armstrong was concerned with racism and minstrelsy; however, louis armstrong was one of *the* most boundary pushing artists of all time, and his use of new recording technologies -- which, i don't think a clear as a line as you think can be traced from home recording and AI -- prefigures a lot of the visionary use of splicing, DJ-ing, etc. by black producers (of all genres) in the 80s and 90s. i don't think it's entirely fair to minimize the artistic aims of armstrong's work to purely a critique of minstrelry when the legacy and complexity of jazz is already so misunderstood.
Right, there's definitely a bigger story to be told there. I remember thinking about Oscar Peterson's love of synthesizers and Miles Davis' efforts to keep pace with new technology throughout the seventies and eighties as well as how remarkable it was that Armstrong kept having huge hits like "Hello, Dolly!" and "What a Wonderful World" during the final decade of his life. There's absolutely a lot to dig into between his twenties small band records and the present day.
thanks for your response! yeah, i am always thinking of the quote "one must be absolutely modern." AI is such a reactionary shit show scam but when the bottom falls out i wonder how the technology could be used towards liberatory aims from the wreckage...if it ends up being viable as musical technology..we will see i guess!
I don't know what AI music scene is like now, but "bottom falls out" -it might not happen that way. I remember the reactions to sampling in the 80s, and hearing songs like "Ice Ice Baby", didn't do much to dispel the naysayers. What I'm saying is that good use of AI might gradually replace the bad (I'm still trying to figure out how AI can be "reactionary"). Basically, I'm just agreeing with you about "liberatory aims", but I'm betting it will be part of a continuous process. The only counter-example I can think of is the Atari era of video games -when they tried to exploit the game coders, and the US game scene ended up crashing entirely in '83, until Nintendo came to the US. And maybe looking at it from a tech point of view instead of a music angle, maybe there will be that kind of a reckoning before liberation. But all tech moves so fast now..., maybe one day we'll just wake up and the good starts replacing the bad.
Unbelievable writing here. Thank you for this. Do you think Warren was exaggerating the effects of radio in the 1960s?
Thanks! While I wasn't around to verify Warren's characterization of that era firsthand, Elijah Wald has a book called "How The Beatles Destroyed Rock and Roll" that spends a lot of time fleshing out a similar argument. Covers a lot of the day-to-day specifics of life as a musician in the publishing era and traces the changes that occurred in the fifties and sixties. I really recommend it.
Thank you! I’ve actually read that book years and loved it. I’ll have to return to it. Also, is there anyway to get in touch via email? I write about some of this stuff and would love to chat.
You know honestly, I haven't even thought about that. I guess I should probably get a public-facing email address.
You can reach me at cdallarivamusic @ gmail. I also write about music and data on Substack. Thanks for the great read and research!
I think one of the best pieces of music writing I’ve ever read. Deeply satisfying to read something so lucid, informed and persuasive about music and the future.
This was an amazing, necessary read. We're not headed toward anything good, I fear, and what this means for artists and, as you point out, BIPOC artists in particular, is more than a little sickening. I think of it in contrast to a band like ABBA, whose music is still popular today, who always had smart business acumen and control of their image and went on very recently to create a digital/virtual version of their younger selves for a new tour. This was mostly given very positive press without a lot of curiosity over where this sort of tech would lead. The Disney-fying of art is so depressing.
I still think all the 5 million profiteers that are gonna jump into the "AI Music" space are gonna cannibalize each other; + poison each other's datasets, + through their almost certainly careless low-effort offerings they will begin to insult the audience's savvy and tastes so much that it'll take this fad most of the way down by 2026.
Yeah, the tech will hang around; but it ain't gonna destroy the whole industry like its hype men are claiming these days.
I'm sure there's great opportunity being between paradigms, as we are....but as an older artist I don't see myself capitalizing on it. At this point my artistic interest is in refining my art. My commercial interest (such as it is) is in creating products that fulfill a metaphysical need of the audience. I like to believe there's still an audience for that. But I do hope the younger musicians will take the responsibility to shape the paradigm of the future. As they say-- shape your paradigm, or someone else'll shape it for ya.
If U really want to know about generative 'art' then read this
https://bilbobitch.substack.com/p/generative-ai-the-new-hollywood-images