First things first. No. You didn’t miss last week’s post. I did. I could offer several reasons or excuses except I don’t know that they would matter. Yes, I had been on holiday from the day job and last week was the return. Yes, I have a friend going through some health issues and I am hopefully being supportive. Yes, I’m working on art projects. Yes, I have music I’m working on, and I have Taekwondo, and it’s summer here in the northern hemisphere. That’s life.
I also backed off on several things because I didn’t think the post was long enough. They were only a page long but as I’m accustomed to writing longer posts, and the algorithms say posts need to be at least a certain length that meant that they were too short. I think I’m going to set a new standard. I’ll post. Sometimes they will be short, even if they aren’t an announcement. Sometimes they will be long. Somethings don’t require a long dissertation. I just feel they need to be mentioned or observed. So, with that let’s get to this week’s topic.
It was a toss-up this week. I thought about telling you about some new music I have and have listened to. And I thought about talking about the AI thing with Hollywood. I’ve decided to tell you about both, because, why not.
I have two things to share on the music. Both are women singer/songwriters, that I came across because they each did a duet with Olivia Newton-John 20 or so years ago. One was released then, the other was just released in May. Both are outstanding.
The artist on the song released in May is Vanessa Amorosi. They song is a duet of ‘True to Yourself’ that was released on the Olivia Newton-John duets compilation ‘Just the Two of Us’. I recommend that CD as there are some great tracks, including a great rendition of ‘Jolene’ with Dolly Parton. But back to Vanessa Amorosi. When I listened to that track, ‘True to Yourself’, I was expecting something completely different from her vocal. It’s rich and textured and wow. So, I did a little YouTube and Google search and the first thing I came across was her incredible performance of ‘I Am Woman’ at the ARIA Hall of Fame induction of Helen Reddy. I was floored. What an incredible voice and performance. The second thing I found was her performing ‘Still Got the Blues’ with Orianthi. Yes. I had to forward links of both those videos to at least two music friends because, as I said, wow. She’s on most of the streaming platforms. Her cd ‘City of Angels’ is the latest and it’s great. She has also done some great work with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.
The artist on the song that was released 20 some years ago is Tina Arena. That song ‘I’ll Come Running’ is a Diane Warren song and it’s also on the new duets complication cd. I could write a lot about Tina Arena. She also has a stunning voice. She’s written some great music as well. During the pandemic when we were all being encouraged to stay home and flatten the curve, she helped to entertain followers with her Instagram episodes of QuaranTina. She has a new cd out called ‘Love Saves’. This one is brand new as in this week. It fits with a lot of her earlier work. There’s a lot of great tracks on it. I’m looking forward to building a new playlist and adding everything to it.
Before I get to the AI topic, I want to mention how you can already see the impact of the pandemic and the lock downs and restrictions in our art of the time. So, Tina Arena wasn’t the only one entertaining people from home during the lock downs. Sam Neil from Jurassic Park was posting regularly on Instagram and Twitter. Sometimes they were short musings sometimes little sketches. If you can find it, the one with Helena Bonham Carter as his needy iPhone is quite humorous. Patrick Stewart read us Shakespeare’s sonnets. Jimmy Barnes and his family, a very talented crowd, regaled us with daily performances of whatever song. Those were always a great thing to see first thing in the morning. All of that was great and a lovely treat during a very uncertain time. But there are other things that I’ve seen that reflect the time as well and they will be a bit less fleeting.
Those are the videos of performances and music videos that were made as things were tentatively opening up. Restrictions were lifting and people, performers in particular, were trying to get back to doing what they do. The music video for ‘Jolene’ with Dolly Parton and Olivia Newton-John is a good example. The part of the video of Dolly in the control room with the engineers shows them wearing their masks. Dolly’s of course matches her top. There is also the Orianthi concert dvd, and videos from it, for ‘Live From Hollywood’. One of the musicians playing with her wears his mask for most of the performance, and if you look at her right wrist, you can see her mask looped around it the same way many people would during that time. These are signs of the times we have just come through. And they are preserved now for the sake of history. And I find it really interesting.
Now to the AI thing. I could say a lot on this topic. I could give both sides equal weight and try to go really in depth. Truth is I can’t. I can admit that there are some good uses for it, and that it might even be helpful as a tool for brainstorming ideas, even for creatives, and it might be faster at sorting through some scientific results. That’s all the good press I’m going to give it right now. When they first started openly touting what they could do with it, like the artistic mash ups and some of the writing stuff, it came to light that what they did with the bots that fed it was they stole. They scraped the internet and stole the works of artists and writers and musicians. And now the movie studios are wanting to use it to basically steal again. Only they want the actors and writers to sign a contract telling them they can do it. Legal theft. Yes. I am being simplistic in my assessment and explanation. You can read about why the actors walked out. You can read about why the writers walked out. And I would encourage you to. Because after you do, you might think about that show you’re so upset about missing out on because the actors are striking, a little differently. The big names are striking for not just themselves, also for the little names. The bit part actors that make their living appearing in the background as the person at the bar, or in line at a check out, etc. The studios want them to agree to scans that are taken of them during that filming to be owned by the studio so they can use it whenever they want, without paying for another performance.
There is a lot of that happening all over, but it doesn’t usually consist of you signing over the rights to your own likeness. Businesses are using bots to ‘streamline’ repetitive activities and to automate those things. And while one could argue about the jobs it eliminates for that as well, in general those are processes being appropriated, not likeness and creation or creativity.
The writer’s complaint is equally compelling. They are fighting the studios using AI to write stories and scripts that then the writers have to clean up because the studios pay less for re-writes than for new ideas.
I was discussing this with my mother the other night. She’s an anthropologist. And she is very curious to see the music that AI creates. Because she sees the AI that scrapes the internet and then compiles from that as a reflection, a mirror, of our times. That’s what music, art, film, stories, creativity in general ultimately are. They are a reflection of the time in which it was created, and the reality of the person creating it. It is our humanity. And what bothers me is that what we will find, when AI is creating music, and anything else, that what it reflects back to us is how much we have lost our humanity. How much we have sacrificed of what makes us human for what. For efficiency to save the studios some money so they can pay their CEO’s and shareholders even more money?
As an artist and a musician, the idea of AI art or music ‘taking over’ nauseates me. It disturbs me. I’m not against progress if it is truly progress. I’m against losing our humanity. I’m against being treated as automatons. I’m against being treated as our feelings, our fears, our joys, our accomplishments, our failures, our triumphs are an inefficient waste of time or energy. And by letting AI take over the creating that we do as part of expressing those things I think we lose just one more part of who we are as humans. So, I absolutely support the writers and the actors on strike right now. They are standing up for all of us regardless of which creative endeavor we are a part of.
And no, I won’t be giving up creating art or music because of AI. I will continue to do it because that is what I do. And I hope you will too. If you create, create with abandon. Share it with abandon. And if you want to change it up, do it. Share your humanity. Cheers.