New Mediums, New Massages

 

Writing lyrics in the AI era is a new form of writing. Obviously, lyrics are a form of poetry, but ultimately, music shapes the meaning--if it has any at all. With AI-generation, the process of idea to a final mix is very fast--too fast in fact--which drives forms of writing that could become lyrics. It's another form of "the medium is the message": the medium makes messages possible things that weren't possible before. 

It also makes it more difficult to find relevance: It may mean something to you because you wrote them, but is it a song as relevant as The Streets of Minneapolis in 2026--or any protest song? An AI-generated protest song is actually a strange idea and highlights the difference between AI and humans, primarily an awareness of a galvanizing moment. It can generate a protest song and use Springsteen's voice as a model and might actually have the same emotional valence, but there aren't 10,000 people gathered in a park listening to someone perform it. But AI can allow anyone to write a protest song and shape it to the point where you are motivated by it in the same way. 

Music always requires a moment and a context--and they can shift from day to day. That song that meant nothing yesterday can gather meaning today, and once it has a meaning, it always has relevance, regardless of whether it was slopped. AI music can be the new wabi sabi in music--the sense that you're allowing imperfection. 

The typo in the book cover, "massage" was left in because it was a meaningful happy accident for McLuhan. [More]