Fuck 2024: Why we need real music more than ever instead of fake artists & AI

Remember when a year had to be as shitty as 2020 for Scooter to make a song about it? Not that I wish 2020 back, but somehow I have the feeling that we have become so used to the constant state of “polycrisis” and that they follow each other so strongly that we have all actually just resigned ourselves. Racist memes, fantasies of annihilation, suffering, pain, war, exploitation, oppression and dead children on our screens are already so normal that we have become desensitized. Nazis and people who were previously considered “moderate right-wingers,” some of whom sit in the Bundestag, want to expel citizens who do not suit them from the country? We were interested in the spring and even drove millions of us onto the streets. But the fact that everything has actually gotten much worse since then and that multi-millionaires who are too cartoonishly evil even for a comic are now calling for the AfD to vote in German newspapers doesn’t seem to matter. Scooter, please get in touch, we urgently need a “Fuck 2024”.

Although the biggest music business story of the last two weeks (which hardly anyone except the nerdy Bubbles noticed because, well, everything else) shows: maybe streaming providers will soon no longer need real bands to capture our moods. Instead, there are indications that perhaps already popular playlists such as “Ambient Relaxation”, “Deep Focus”, “Cocktail Jazz” and others are filled with music by artists who do not even exist. How is that supposed to work? Music journalist Liz Pelly explains it in the current issue of the US culture magazine “Harper’s” in their research on “Ghost Music” and “Fake Artists” – the streaming provider works with companies that sell so-called “royalty-free” music. In other words, catalog music that was previously more interesting for soundtracks, advertising or background music. It was written – at least until recently! – from real musicians, but as commissioned music for which they waive their usual royalties. These pieces would then be streamed on Spotify under some made-up name with a made-up bio and story. If Pelly’s theory is correct, it could be much cheaper for Spotify to conclude deals with these companies and fill its playlists with their music offerings instead of paying out the usual royalties.

And as the most horrible song of the year, the deeply racist, sexist and all-round disgusting “Crush on a Talahon” from the summer showed, you might as well put an AI to work. I tried this over the weekend and had a music AI generate a 2024 version of “Fuck 2020”. The result was of course nonsense, but not in the “so bad it’s actually good” way like Scooter, but really something like hazardous audio waste. I didn’t even have to enter lyrics, the program did it all by itself. “Let’s dance like it’s spring” was a gem. Practically, no one needs to think about it anymore.

Fortunately, it has so far been rare for such a “slop”, i.e. AI sludge, to become a chart-topper, but the mess is already spreading more and more to streaming platforms, as Eike Kühl wrote in “ZEIT”.appears on the artist pages of real musicians and will probably make its way onto unobtrusive music playlists more and more often in the future. If it hasn’t already been the case, because whoever is behind the alleged fake artists can’t be traced anyway. Do we hear gentle beats from an ambient musician who finances her rent by composing and producing irrelevant background noise for a catalog music provider, or from someone without much musical feeling who simply types prompts into an AI generator to create the supposedly perfect meaningless track for them Generating a suitable playlist, who knows? And who really cares if the playlist is just supposed to play nicely in the background while we work, clean, or fall asleep?

It should interest us all – because especially in times like now, when humanity seems so rare, in this era of constant crisis that just doesn’t seem to end, I need at least something human even more. With art we locate ourselves in society, with art we question ourselves, we reflect ourselves in it and through it we connect with one another, from artist to audience. It inspires and motivates us to believe in a better future, even if it may not seem like it is there at the moment. Music is not just sounds, it is also community, it is warmth. And no waste heat from a server tower will ever replace that.