There is a liminal feeling every time you listen to AI-generated music, especially if it’s an AI cover of a song you know well. It feels different and has a hundred variations.
It’s not the same as listening to a cover by a random or famous musician. And it doesn’t matter if it’s mellow or upbeat, the song feels lonely and melancholic, like you are the only one left in the room with a different version of the music you grew up with.
You don’t know who is behind the vocals, the drums, or the guitar. A simple error in the vocals or lyrics isn’t just a simple mistake, it’s one that is going to destroy your perception of the original music.
And they are everywhere now, in the supermarket, on public transportation, in your random mix playlist. This country might be late in AI development, but as the 17th largest consumer in the world, this stuff spreads like a virus, silently and secretly invading.
People might not mind. My parents don’t mind. Physically, I don’t mind. I use Suno, I’ve learned about ACE-Step 1.5. But mentally, I’m bothered. I’m not ready.
Did you know that music can evoke memories? It activates the hippocampus and amygdala at the same time, triggering your old memories based on auditory information with intense emotions and episodic context.
We’re heading to a new world, where no one owns anything, and anything is created by no one.
I wonder how future residents will talk about their favorite music, since not even anonymous musicians are singing the song. How will future residents talk about their favorite anime? Their favorite movie? Their favorite novel? Their favorite artwork?
I am learning about FL Studio, about Synth V, and about how to arrange stuff (high level) to address this issue. Using Kasane Teto’s voice bank to turn soulless Suno music with no identity into something that has one. But probably, it’s not enough.
Because when we talk about music, we’re not talking about the music alone. It’s about the lyrics, the story the musician wants to tell, the feeling the musician wants to express, the process behind it, the hype, the personnel, the nostalgia. Everything.
The singularity is near, but this already makes me wonder what kind of future we are heading toward. Let alone recursive self-improvement.
And we’re not only talking about AI-generated music.