On Music (New Entries)

 

 The first edition ends at 3047 and this is the supplement.

• 3052. The door to jazz is through rhythm. If you don't like jazz, your body probably doesn't understand swing--or it actually does, and your mind gets in the way.
• 3055. Art allows you to see technology in a different way than the mainstream.
• 3057. You can't really play until you know how to play.
• 3059. Artists know what they want faster than what AI can tell them what they should want.
• 3060. Stop using a tool if it isn't producing interesting results for you. People are using AI as a tool and we don't consider whether it's interesting. It just mass-produces something. Imagine scissors were just invented. We'd try them on everything. This happened with cameras when they became affordable.
• 3074. Sometimes art is spiritual; Sometimes it doesn't have time for it.
• 3078. If I decide rock music is now a 'classical' music, I don't have to feel too old to play it.
• 3079. If music is too much about emotion, it will never go in a different direction. It's too hard to reinvent. The emotions would need to be reinvented first.
• 3082. Even if you've made 20 unfinished things you've made something.
  3086. If our brains are wired for music, what happens if we don't use our brains and not care about music?
• 3098. Even if you're not an artist you can show artistry.
• 3102. Playing music is a way to be genuine. (11/4/2010, 11/4/2024)
• 3107. What all AI-generated content lacks is specificity: human artists typically want something specific. That's what ideas do. AI throws other ideas at you, killing your original one. This is like hearing a musical idea in a dream--you type it in as a prompt and it generates something other than what you heard in your dream.
• 3108. Good art should animate the mind.
• 3111. If AI is in fact a tool, when do we know we are over-using the tool, or realize it's not a tool at all?
• 3113. Music is a matter of finding.
• 3114. A useless tool can become an interesting toy. This is what AI is at the moment. (11/2024)
• 3133. Humans will always be better at blues.
• 3146. In order for there to be a paradigm shift in music, young people have to say, "I want to do that!", but with AI music there's not much to do. [Which is the reason I focus on the visual elements. Being a musician (or musicist) means you can be creative in lots of different ways: what does the music suggest visually or metaphorically?]
• 3154. Rhythm is the morphic field for melody. 
• 3165. With AI music you have to wait for something interesting to emerge, but with manual creativity something interesting can emerge more quickly. The human 'data set' is as big as the universe, whereas a contrived digital data set is tiny and earthbound by comparison.
• 3186. Music can be 'noise' if it drowns out a lyric. Music can be oppressive to the meaning of a song. The music may be too good and it diverts attention away from the meaning in the lyrics.
• 3189. The gift of rock ‘n’ roll was that it would allow old people to continue to be playful.
• 3196. Of course you can be a musician and not be an artist. [Some musicians aren't into the arty thing--they just want to play. Mick Ronson and Trevor Boulder weren't into Bowie's camp approach to rock'n'roll but obviously warmed up to it. I think looping in the art world makes it a lot more interesting, but it will always cause friction. "How did Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz react to Brian Eno as producer?"  
• 3210. A clever rhyme will change the meaning almost every time.
• 3218. Your main objective as an AI music artist is to create a song you wouldn't skip over on a playlist. This is different from what a real songwriter does. The former is a listener to what other people have already created, the latter the listening to your inner voice and being guided by your sense of style. When I pick up a guitar or bass, I am playing it with my hands, not someone else's.
• 3223. AI will take away our creativity, which is why it's imperative that we find it elsewhere by changing its focus.
• 3224. Skills are useful, even if useless. [They are useful in the sense that they get you out of a ruminative mind. If you had woodworking skills, and got a new idea, you'd be applying your skills to build it. This is how I approach music].
• 3227. If lyrics don't have to mean anything you don't have to be concerned about meaning. Meaning is a byproduct of the passage of time: meaning grows on you.
• 3228. Technology kills aspiration. [If something is made automatic and convenient and you get gratification you don't aspire to acquire new skills. This is what AI music does to people just getting into songwriting. You won't aspire to learn to play any instruments other than the internet].
• 3252. Music remains a mystery even when it isn't. [Music is a very simple generative system, and is base-12 or base-60. People are intimidated by it as a "formula" or "code", but is just an "OS". The software is what you do with it]. 
• 3271. If you happen to be musical, you could be a musician, but it’s better to be a celebrity. [It's undeniable we live in a society where you're more important if you're popular. But in music, I was always interested in what was possible with it, so I was more open to esoteric experimentation, e.g. alternate tunings, generative music. Music For Places...]
• 3280. What's popular is not necessarily what's interesting. [What's interesting is not necessarily what's popular].
• 3284. Even if you generate art with AI you still need art direction. [3146]
• 3318. AI music makes music 'hardware'.
• 3328. Music is a frame for silence. [Or silence is a frame for music]
• 3355. Melody makes rhythm a riff.
• 3365. It doesn't matter if AI-generated music has soul or not. Like all recordings, unlike live performances, they are disembodied. [You may be moved by AI music, but no one is there. If I write the lyrics I'm the only one there. We don't know who the guitarist is. This is the reason I create fake artists and bands].
• 3379. The ultimate in creativity is to design a Seed. [The main idea behind the Curios. Seeds might be a way to claim ownership of AI-generated art. In music, the lyrics can be a seed. People can steal the seeds and cultivate them (make knockoffs) but I still have the patent].
• 3398. Like a hit song, you want meaningful 'rotation' in your life.

How AI summarizes them:

In the modern landscape, art allows us to see technology through a different lens than the mainstream. As artificial intelligence becomes ubiquitous, many are treating it like a newly invented pair of scissors—trying it on everything without questioning if the results are truly interesting. While AI is capable of mass-producing content, it often lacks the specificity that defines human artistry. A human artist typically starts with a specific idea, perhaps a melody heard in a dream; however, typing that into a prompt often kills the original idea by throwing generic alternatives at you.

There is a fundamental distinction between a songwriter and an AI music artist. A real songwriter listens to their inner voice and is guided by a personal sense of style, whereas an AI user functions more as a listener to what has already been created by others. When a musician picks up a physical instrument, they are playing it with their own hands, and this act of playing is a vital way to be genuine. Furthermore, there is a risk that technology may kill aspiration; when gratification becomes automatic and convenient, the drive to acquire new skills or learn instruments beyond "the internet" begins to fade.

We must remember that the human "data set" is as big as the universe, making contrived digital data sets appear tiny and earthbound by comparison. While an AI-generated track might move a listener, it remains a disembodied experience because no one is actually "there". This is likely why humans will always be better at the blues--there's more nuance arising from fingers hitting strings, keys or drums. For music to undergo a true paradigm shift, young people must feel there is something for them to "do," but AI music offers very little for a creator to actually engage with.

To navigate this era, we might shift our focus toward designing a "Seed"—a core idea or lyric that serves as a claim of ownership even if others cultivate it. Skills remain useful because they move us out of a ruminative mind and into the act of building. Whether music is a complex generative system or a simple frame for silence, the most important part of creativity is simply showing up, even if no one else does. In the end, artists know what they want faster than AI can tell them what they should want.