johndoe@gmail.com
Since the dawn of electronic music in the 20th century, music has been created out of, and responded to, the digital technologies of the era. But the emergence of new AI technologies poses greater questions and problems to artists as the ability to produce AI-generated music in a matter of minutes becomes a reality. What does the future look like for musicians and the industry alike in the face of AI developments? How have artists responded to these technologies? From virtual animation software to AI-generated EDM, from singing and dancing holograms to computer-created mashups, we've curated four chapters examining this relationship with an eye to what the future holds.
In the wake of new digital technologies, artists are able to explore different ways of representing a world where the virtual is becoming an increasingly unavoidable part of reality. Steen Ledet Christiansen, in his chapter from Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision, explores the significance of Radiohead using the MASSIVE animation software to create the music video for their single ‘Go to Sleep,’ the same technology used to generate the large-scale battle scenes of Lord of the Rings. Through this example, Christiansen examines how artists in the 21st century have adopted digital technologies as a crucial and core part of understanding the world around us, as well as a way to express the growing importance of the digital in our lives.
➜ To learn more, read Steen Ledet Christiansen’s chapter “A MASSIVE Swirl of Pixels: Radiohead’s “Go to Sleep”” from Cybermedia: Explorations in Science, Sound, and Vision.
Throughout its history, electronic dance music (EDM) has always involved collaboration between human and machine, the biological and the nonbiological. However, developments in AI technologies have blurred the boundaries between these defined roles as we enter an era of generative AI that can itself create music. Andrew Fry argues that these developments may soon (or may already) compel the machine to become the artist, breaking free from the limitations of biology, while the human becomes the tool, supporting the machine artist in their creative endeavours. To explore this as a possibility, Fry takes as his example the role of AI within EDM, specifically outlining the dynamic between the biological and the nonbiological.
➜To learn more, read Andrew Fry’s chapter “EDM, Meet AI: Cognitive Tools and (Non)biological Artists in Electronic Dance Music” from The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music.
Can digital technology prolong the artist’s life, even after death? The surge of interest in hologram concert performances by deceased artists has pushed the limits of this question, with famous performances by Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, and Roy Orbison all trading heavily upon notions of nostalgia, heritage, and the mythology of the deceased performers. These performances are often estimated to have cost multiple millions of dollars, even for as little as a four-minute performance. In Alan Hughes’ chapter from The Future of Live Music, he explores the commercial success of these tours, the increased sophistication of hologram technology used, and addresses the future of live music through the medium of stage hologram performances.
➜To learn more, read Alan Hughes’ chapter “‘Death is No Longer a Dealbreaker’: The Hologram Performer in Live Music” from The Future of Live Music.
The recent rise in popularity and sophistication of generative AI has many musicians wondering: how long until these computer algorithms replace humans in the creation of new music? Will tomorrow’s musicians be competing with robots for the top of the Billboard charts? Although AI tools to create entirely original music currently exist (and have existed for more than half a century), the general rise in popularity of AI has recently brought this concept to the forefront of the public mind. In their chapter from Remediating Sound: Repeatable Culture, YouTube and Music, authors Christine Boone and Brian Drawert explore the concept of AI-created art with regards to a single genre of music: mashups. A mashup is a new song created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs, a process that can be easily replicated by generative AI systems. In the process, Boone and Drawert provide an examination of the current state of AI-created music at its most rudimentary, and predict what this could mean for the future of music creation.
➜To learn more, read Christine Boone and Brian Drawert’s chapter “‘Technology Allows More People to do Things’: Artificial Intelligence, Mashups and Online Musical Creativity” from Remediating Sound: Repeatable Culture, YouTube and Music
Homepage image credit: A holographic image of Michael Jackson performs onstage (Kevin Winter/Billboard Awards 2014 / Getty Images)
Visit our Previously Featured Content page to view other topics we have covered.
