September 12ths

 

 9/12/2005        

Idea: Analysis of song lyrics from 1900-2000 showing how ideas of love, suffering, and social commentary were treated in song lyrics.

[9/12/2025: Definitely an interesting use of AI (Perplexity.ai) 

9/12/2022

There used to be a philosophy that being able to compose was only possible once the musician’s skills had matured. I never understood it because as skills develop you can use them compositionally. Once you know all the major scales and know the relative minors, and perhaps the modes, you can use them to build something. The musician might stop with the skills but the artist proceeds to shape something original.            

[9/12/2024: I’m always asking myself whether whatever I’m working on is achieving a state of art. It’s a matter of mindfulness of noticing it and moving in that direction].            

In pop music, skills are less important than artistic expression—which can be achieved by combining sounds without ever playing an instrument.            

The recording studio became an instrument in the late 60s. Now the internet can be an instrument. Internet artists can be musicians but not in the traditional sense. “Audio artist” is actually more accurate—and there have always been artists who have used sound as a medium, for gallery installations for example. They wouldn’t want to be called musicians because the term is a “container” word that includes musical instruments.    

9/12/2023

Song in dream: 

Change (9/12 Dream) by meta4s 

In a recent Steven Wilson interview he was talking about never wanting to repeat himself, even if that’s what the fans prefer. He cited the Beatles as the paradigm shift in creativity allowing them to quickly evolve from She Loves You to psychedelia within 3 years. The late art historian Kirk Varnedoe also touched on this in regard to the rapid pace of change in the art world during that same period]            

But at the core were songs, not conceptual albums. If you’re always simply writing songs that’s essentially traditional and modernist—over which you can apply a postmodern treatment. Coltrane circa 1966 was a postmodern approach but it still had a foundation of all previous forms of jazz, and perhaps classical in which it might be pre-modern in some respects.     

9/12/2024

Another problem with AI music is that you can’t just pick up an instrument other than a computer. Of course you can use your phone and laptop, but can you play a rhythm or melody that just came to you or something you heard in a dream? You’d have to type a prompt to that effect: “Play the rhythm I heard in my dream.” We order music like ordering lunch. Also, since it’s AI-everything now, why can’t someone find a way to pay composers every time their sound file(s) were used?