FEATURE:
40 Not Out
IMAGE CREDIT: dgim-studio via freepik
Why Music Is Still Fascinating Me As I Head Into My Fifth Decade of Life
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IN THIS PHOTO: Grimes
we are hearing about AI (Artificial Intelligence) playing a bigger role in music. Whether it is an artist like Grimes saying she is all for AI replicating her singing, and she’d split the royalties, or an AI-replicating Oasis tribute making a ‘lost’ album, it is all quite bizarre and frightening. It does seem like there is this curiosity with how machinery and technology can ‘replace’ artists. I don’t think it will ever become a reality. The point of AI, to me, is to provide back-up. Rather than completely replace the human voice, it could add to a song. Give an extra layer perhaps. At the moment, we are in a situation where AI is recording albums and songs that many cannot distinguish from the artists they are copying. Of course, as this is music, creativity and humans will win out. AI is limited in the fact that it does not have the emotional range and personality of a human. Every AI-generated piece of music I have heard feel soulless and flat. If it does do a good impression of an artist, it cannot create the nuances a human voice can. Even so, the fact AI is able to do an uncanny impersonation of different artists has led some to ask whether modern music is too homogenised and lacks this impenetrable and untouchable complexity and originality. I am hitting forty on 9th May, and it is an opportunity to look back at the music of my childhood and how it has influenced me.
For sure, things are very different now in so many ways. Entire genres have either lost their dominance or changed their sound radically. Pop music goes through these shifts of being diverse and full of interesting songs, to rather mediocre and homogeneous. Rap and Hip-Hop have a very different feel now, as does Rock and other genres. Even if, objectively, I would say the high watermarks of musical inventiveness and genius are in the past, that is not to say that modern music is a pale second. You will get some homogenisation as there is simply so much music around today. Thousands of artists around the world are putting out music! That was something I could not envisage or comprehend when I was a child. When I was growing up, the music I bought and heard played on the radio was by artists who had either been signed or were well-known. You did not have all these interesting and independent artists doing their own thing. If the music of my youth and childhood was breaking new ground and forming who I am today, there were limitations. I do think that there were plenty of duff artists. We tend to over-romanticise the ‘good old days’. For sure, the music of the '80s, '90s and early-'00s was tremendous and is so hard to equal. I don’t hold onto this notion that it is easy for AI to have such an eerie impact now because music sounds the same or lacks distinction. I think it would be easy enough for AI to go back in time and do the same thing. It is not that modern music is less interesting and original: technology and what it can do it more advanced.
I do not look ahead to my birthday and think that all of the best music has been and gone. Today, there is more choice than ever. You do not have to be part of any particular scene or tribe. Whilst those tribes could be very close-knit and incredible, there is less of that musical segregation. In terms of sound and genre, modern music is so much harder to define and limit. Even modern Pop has more dexterity and a wider palette than it used to. Maybe it is not as hooky or as indelible than it was, but I think modern artists are more personal and revealing. You feel more connected to artists than you would have been decades ago, and it is awesome that every type of music lover is accommodated for. There have been some definite changes and positive moves through the years. I think women are ruling music and, whilst there is still gender inequality in the industry, the best music today is made by them. That was true in decades past, but I think that there was less opportunity for many female artists. Many not getting signed or being overlooked when it came to radio airplay. Today, there are platforms and social media that means these incredible artists are more easily able to connect with their audiences and be heard. AI, whilst it seems like it will be the new normal, will never replace music. It is the personality and humanity of the artist that we are drawn to. I don’t look at a milestone age and feel that music very best is in the past. Instead, there are so many artists out there today that let me know that the future is in very good hands. The past year alone has seen so many phenomenal albums and artists come through. As we move ahead, I do feel like there will be even more choice and diversity in terms of sounds and options. This can only be a good thing. Rather than being too stuck in the past and relying too much on childhood favourites, I am embracing modern music and everything it has to offer. As much as technology will try, the brilliant artists and sounds of today will…
NEVER be replaced.