AI music threatens the rampant music scene of UC Berkeley. From student organizations like Golden Records and Public School Records to the school\u2019s rigorous music program, tangible music practice defines the academic pursuits of many students and the social life of most. It has also played a commanding role in continued on-campus political resistance since the anti-war and free speech movements in the 1960s, which featured protest singers such as Terry Garthwaite and Joan Baez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the face of AI music, students and music-based organizations should remain faithful to the uplifting, unifying human stories and expressions characteristic of musical history. Such AI music creators threaten the real people brought together by music creation and consumption.<\/p>\n
Musical history drips with resistance, community and catharsis. It has permeated campus from the Free Speech Movement to decades of live shows to coursing through thousands of students\u2019 headphones on their way to Dwinelle Hall. Music has a\u00a0 grounding ability; its centering of humanity makes it medicinal. Yet as the rise of corporate monopolies and conservative social values hurl us toward an age of homogeneity, the humanity characterizing music is a burgeoning target.<\/p>\n
As of late, artificially generated and AI-assisted artists have begun appearing on Billboard and Spotify music charts, including \u201csoul singers\u201d and anti-migrant music rejecting the creation of asylum centers. These \u201cartists\u201d feature images of generic AI portraits, vapid lyrics and naturally blank biographies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Contrastingly, music connects familial and cultural generations through its raw expression of timeless experience, builds solidarity and spirit through struggle, and establishes cultural signifiers of changing times. Emotional in name and subversive in history, R&B and soul music are rooted in Black cultural expression, reclamation and community amidst the emerging civil rights movement in the 20th century \u2014\u00a0genres that AI artists Xania Monet and Sienna Rose attempt to forge. AI personas lacking soul and history cannot produce soul and blues music, and it would be disdainful to claim as much. I was nearly driven to clarify my reference to \u201chuman-made music,\u201d however this is too redundant to ever be a sensible categorization; one cannot exist without the other. The existence of AI music is thus a contradiction in itself.<\/p>\n
AI, in co-opting and regurgitating pre-existing artists\u2019 music into the most palatable stream of sound it can formulate, is bound to produce something which lacks story, effort and innovation \u2014 the foundations of affective music.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
JW \u201cBroken Veteran\u201d a Dutch AI assisted artist claimed in an email to The Guardian that AI is helpful to those who \u201clack traditional musical training\u201d and that the technology has \u201cdemocratized music creation.\u201d However upon any further thought, these arguments fall flat. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and every member of The Beatles are a few names among a sea of successful musicians who lacked \u201ctraditional musical training.\u201d A lack of care, effort and valuable story hinders successful creation far more than an absence of \u201ctraditional musical training.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The idea that AI has democratized music is ironic if not absurd. The energy hubs that power AI systems are predominantly located around marginalized communities, dangerously decimating and polluting their air and water supply. To legitimately increase the accessibility of music would involve increased, equalized funding of the arts and attention toward musical voices from diverse communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
AI, instead, actively discourages arts education and serves to amplify the profit-centric voices of already privileged individuals at the harm of lower class communities and actual artists. Most of all, AI cannot democratize music creation because at the end of the day, robotic reproduction is not creation. Rather, it is indicative of increasing prioritization of efficiency and material outcome, signifying a larger cultural shift toward controlled uniformity with misleading justifications which deter equitable change.<\/p>\n
Students of this generation will have to bear the brunt of long term ramifications of AI art \u2014 both musically and politically \u2014 should it continue to be uplifted. With this at our feet, there is a responsibility which accompanies students\u2019 roles as emerging artists and intended consumers of contemporary music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t fall into the allure of apathy when it comes to artificial intelligence and its increasing entanglement with art. Normalization thereof would be the driving detriment toward the survival of musical communities. Engaging in human music culture is not only readily accessible in Berkeley, but it is socially engaging and personally cathartic. Reject AI Music platforms and \u201cartists\u201d such as Rose. Instead, support local and on-campus music labels, savor a live concert and listen exclusively to music made through human creativity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AI music threatens the rampant music scene of UC Berkeley. From student organizations like Golden Records and Public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,79652],"class_list":{"0":"post-164911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news","11":"tag-the_soapbox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}