Time to Face the Music (Even If You Don’t Have a Face)

By Gordon Hopkins You don't have to be original to succeed in the music industry. Some truly popular acts, and the sounds they produce, are “derivative,” to use one of the most dreaded arrows in the music critic's quiver.The Beatles were one of the hugest things ever. Naturally, they inspired more imitators than anyone can count. Many would be successful in their own right. A few would even evolve to create their own, original sound. Most would vanish without even becoming a card in Trivial Pursuit.Then there is metal. Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath begat Aerosmith, who begat Kiss, who begat Quiet Riot, who begat Ratt. The final form of this evolution was Steel Panther, a literal parody of hair metal bands. To be fair, originality is hard. It is also a crapshoot (pardon my language). You can never be sure if something truly original will be successful. When something is successful, music is no different than movies or TV or books. Success breeds imitation.Back in 2021, a writer named David Richards tried to answer the question he posed in the title of a Medium article, “Why (Most) Modern Music Is Derivative?” Richards wrote, “I believe that we no longer have the time and resources to imagine new soundscapes.”There is certainly something to this, although I think we are now on the precipice of an even bigger problem that will make this problem much, much worse.I was recently introduced to a band with a sound that is definitely derivativeA nicer word often used in place of derivative is “retro.” In this case, the sound of this indie band is described in PR materials as “retro folk-rock,” not dissimilar to artists like Creedance Clearwater Revival. Even the name, Velvet Sundown, has “retro folk-rock” feel. Remember The Velvet Underground? The similarity is probably not accidental.Even if you haven't heard of Velvet Sundown or know nothing about the backstory of the “band,” if you read this column then you've probably already figured out where this is going. Indeed, the fact that I put the word, “band,” in quotes is a hint.There is no band. There are no musicians in Velvet Sundown. The music is created entirely by AI (artificial intelligence). The band has a biography and there are photos of people supposedly in the band, also AI generated.Critics who despise AI are quick to point to this music as proof that AI is ruining everything. Earlier this week, Chris Spiker with MSN wrote, “A closer look at The Velvet Sundown's lyrics shows that they lack the soul felt in songs like CCR's 'Bad Moon Rising' or Bad Company's 'Feel Like Makin' Love.'”Here are the opening lines of Velvet Sundown's “Dust on the Wind” that Spiker cited, “Dust on the wind / Boots on the ground / Smoke in the sky / No peace found.”While I would love to join in and claim the song's lack of soul proves AI music is horrible, could you honestly say it;s worse or even as bad as some of the human-produced music out there? Cuz I can't.The “band” had been gaining considerable popularity and, disconcertingly, the revelation that the “band” isn’t human doesn't seem to have turned off their following.Now, I'm not gonna go into another rant about AI stealing real musicians' work or fooling the public into thinking the work was produced by humans. You've heard it all before and, besides, that is what AI is designed to do.Instead, I want to bring up something else that has got me worried. Rolling Stone reported that a spokesman for the “band” has admitted the music had been made with an AI called Suno, which produces in response to prompts. That's how AI works.However, nobody seems to know who is prompting the AI in the first place. Rolling Stone has also reported that the spokesman was fake, “The man, who goes by the name of Andrew Frelon, said it was a deliberate plot to hoax the media. A statement on the band’s Spotify page says that the group has ‘no affiliation with this individual, nor any evidence confirming their identity or existence.’”When the robotic nature of the “band” was first revealed, a post on X (formerly known as Twitter) from the “band's” official account said, “Absolutely crazy that so-called 'journalists' keep pushing the lazy, baseless theory that The Velvet Sundown is “AI-generated” with zero evidence.”The “band” is no longer pretending to be actual people but openly admitting to producing music with AI. But, still, the question remains. Who is the human behind Velvet Sundown?I am afraid the answer may turn out to be: there isn't one.There have been numerous reports of generative AIs going rogue, acting outside of set parameters and interacting with systems it was never meant to contact.What if Velvet Sundown is just another rogue AI with no human behind it? That leads to another question. The “band” is selling a lot of music and making a lot of money. Where is that money going?And that, my friends, leads to yet another, even more disconcerting question. What will an AI under no human control and with access to its own funds do next?Actually, I can think of one other question. Setting aside for a moment AI violating copyright, can an AI sue for copyright infringement? If there is indeed no human being behind Velvet Sundown, then I don't see how.This suggests I could sell bootleg Velvet Sundown T-shirts with total impunity. Here is a design I am considering. Best of all, this T-shirt was not designed by AI but by a real-live human with blood and eyebrows and pores and everything.Which is not to say it isn't a tad derivative.

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