Stop me if you've heard this before: musicians are urging people not to embrace new technology because it's not real music and it'll put real musicians out of work. This time the year is 2026 and the technology is AI, but it's a song we've heard before. I remember hearing it back in 1982, when members of the UK Musicians' Union wanted to ban synthesizers and drum machines to protect working musicians' jobs.
There's a long tradition of musicians going "nooooooo!" about new technology in music. In the 1960s there were calls to ban the Mellotron, fearing it would replace session string players. In the 1970s and 1980s disco and dance music's use of synths and drum machines was derided. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Autotune was the enemy. And now many people are arguing against the use of generative AI.
