If you’re a typical music fan, in recent months you’ve likely been bombarded with alarmist news about how the very future of pop music is, at the moment, hanging in the balance. What’s the reason for this panic all of a sudden? If you trust some of the YouTube creators, reports, and the stats published by app platforms, AI is the culprit.
But, I’m not here to scare you straight, but rather to tell you that you’ve nothing to fear. And, I’d like to point to the classic heartbreak and Americana album “One-way Ticket from Earth,” made by Sweden’s Jon-Olov Woxlin, as proof of my theory.
Sure, if you’ve even remotely played around with one of those glorified chatbots, you’ll know that they can produce a scientific paper (with false data) within seconds, write you a novel within minutes (of dubious quality), and, recently, deliver songs in any style on the spot. Still, it’s not just that AI uses someone else’s work to create its own. The problem is that it chooses the worst aspects of it, and will never know any better.
Take, for example, Woxlin’s opening track, “How Did It Come to This?” In this one track, the singer uses a dramatic, clear singing style over a folk instrumental ot deliver a tale about ending up in a worse situation than ever seemed impossible. Earnestly, Woxlin sings about making bad choices, having life laugh in your face, and somehow, struggling to find the strength to come back from all of this. Any man or woman will know what this means. But can a computer? And why would it matter?
Elsewhere, Woxlin jokes about catching some deadly disease on the retro rock n’ roll of “Corona Corona,” or on “Folly of Man,” he muses about how humans still invest so much in the destructive capabilities of war. Just ask a chatbot about any of those things, and it’ll give you a report on why it cannot discuss these topics.
And, it’s not just the subject material that makes this unique. It’s also Woxlin’s style of singing, this stiff, clean-cut, Eurocentric tone. And, it’s also that this is the work of a folk, rock n’ roll, and C&W fan, reshaping these American styles to fit his Swedish sensibilities.
Yeah, AI isn’t much of a threat, because it cannot channel hurt as Woxlin does on “Lonesome Loner,” nor does it have a warm sense of humor as the songwriter displays on “I Dreamed I Saw John Prine,” where Prine’s ghost visits simply for the Swede to proclaim his undying admiration for the great man.
And where does it all leave us? A little comforted, I would think. And, certainly, unlike the people who now converse with chatbots instead of a therapist, they are just a little bit more on the sane side. “One-Way Ticket from Earth” is a wholly human affair. It makes you remember that you’ve laughed, and cried, and that, given the opportunity, you’ll want to go out and do more of that while there’s time.
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