NO MAN BANDS

 Three years ago, I wrote a piece on the sudden influx of A.I.-generated music on the internet. At the time, much of what was being brewed were existing recordings tweaked to sound like someone else. 

Some of it sounded OK, while the majority of the semi-faux recordings could be charitably described as unlistenable. But as I warned then, "Given that A.I. is in its embryonic stages, it's likely that future counterfeit vocalizations are going to get better, fast."

What hath A.I. wrought since then? Ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, you and them, please welcome the electrifying old school R&B sound of Eddie Dalton!

You've probably guessed by now that Eddie and his band don't exist. Every sound you hear, including the melody, is a software creation controlled by a someone who may or may not be named Dallas Little. And anyone who says, "Oh, I can tell that's A.I." lies like a Saxon dog. I suggest they listen to Steely Dan, whose relentless drive for "perfection" made their music more sterile than the operating rooms at Mt. Sinai Hospital, while Eddie Dalton, who lives inside a laptop, sounds more human than any track on Aja.

The future of human musicians?

People are outraged that Eddie Dalton's YouTube page has received tens of millions of views. Eddie himself (itself?) has placed at least three songs on the iTunes Top 10. 

Read the comments listeners have left on Eddie's YouTube page. Most seem to be over the age of 50 -- some are in their 80s! -- and it's unclear if many of them even realize the soulful guy they're listening to is a figment of a software's imagination. And even if they do, it doesn't matter; the listeners relate to the lyrics and arrangements. And they love Eddie's voice.

Devo, still devolving at Coachella last week.

Many people are afraid A.I. will replace human-made music. Forty years ago, the same cry went out when synthesizer-heavy New Wave dominated Top 40. Today, only Devo has managed to find new generations of fans. The rest -- Human League, Thomas Dolby, Gary Numan, to name three -- are footnotes in the book of music, something to spark a "Hey, I remember that!" if they appear on a soundtrack or commercial.

The Polyphonic Spree. And this ain't the half of it.

Human musicians won't be replaced by A.I. They will co-exist as Kraftwerk does
with the Boston Symphony, or one-man bands like Tame Impala do with Polyphonic Spree (anywhere from 12 to 24 or more members depending on what album or concert we're talking about). Just as younger people gradually started buying vinyl records in greater numbers than CDs, so will they continue to play instruments for all the right reasons: to make real music and to get laid.

In conclusion, I ask a question that seems to be going unasked by both sides of the A.I. debate. What does it say about contemporary music that its A.I. cousin Eddie Dalton is more popular than much of the real thing?

Maybe we should ask IngaRose. She's another A.I. R&B singer and is currently sitting at #1 on iTunes. 

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