Ever since Beethoven dismissed the newly invented metronome – “Whoever has the right feeling, needs none” – musicians have reacted against the advent of technology. The Musicians’ Union voiced alarm when Wurlitzer organs became appended with a drum machine in 1959, calling it a “stilted and unimaginative performer” – but today, drummers are still in a job while music from rap to techno has blossomed thanks to that very technology.
There’s still plenty of concern about the newest wheeze, however: AI. Big software companies such as Adobe are creating tools where a mere text prompt can produce a piece of music. Or what if you can’t sing and don’t want to pay someone who can? Don’t worry! Numerous AI services online will take your lyrics and sing them for you in convincing simulacra of various human voices. Professional vocalists might wince at the new album from Caribou, Canada-born Dan Snaith, populated as it is with multiple ersatz AI singers – all of them altered versions of Snaith’s own voice.
