Computer Written (and Sung?) Songs

[kfbkfb]

COMPUTERS could write film scripts by analysing popular movie tropes

Study authors discovered that big movies tend to stick to the same core tropes, with clusters of storytelling devices appearing repeatedly in the biggest films every year.

www.dailymail.co.uk

^^^
...This, in combination with new AI techniques could theoretically create interesting scripts...


How much longer before popular song structure and lyrics are analyzed and AI computerized?


Kirk Bayne

 

[TheBigA]

How much longer before popular song structure and lyrics are analyzed and AI computerized?

It's happening now. It's been going on in one way or another for 60 years. It can be done, the question most musicians ask is how much of it they want to let into the process. It's not unusual for songs to be written with computer-assist. It's harder to do during covid, because musicians aren't in the same room, and it's tough to get everyone to play in sync on zoom. But it happens.

Ultimately, it's up to consumers to decide how much of the electronics they want in their music. One of the first computerized albums was Switched On Bach in 1968. Around the same time, there was an electronic rock band called Silver Apples led by a man named Simeon.

Sort of primitive, but remember it was over 50 years ago. Ray Kurzweil invented this keyboard instrument that made it easy for composers to write music with the computer. A program would translate the performed notes into written music. This was also in the 60s. So it's a big subject, there are lots of discussions in the music world about the ethics of it, and whether or not it's music. I've actually attended a few seminars on this exact subject.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I'm not sure about songs, but regarding the article you posted, I couldn't agree more about movies, and it's one of the reasons I don't go to cinemas often unless we decide to go there on "date night", as it seems so many movies are just the same ole', same ole', mixed up a bit with slight variations on themes, but many use the same regurgitated story lines and plot twists.

It became more apparent when we watched a LOT more movies than usual during the early days of Covid. We watched a lot of newer releases, but went back and watched some older movies as well. After a while it kind of became monotonous and predictable what was going to happen next. There were a few really good ones out of the bunch, but not many stood out as being unique or great or much different from plots we'd seen a handful of times before.

 

[boombox4]

They talk about the possibility of AI in writing circles. AI still has a way to go, but it will get there, eventually.

One of the LA newspapers (or TV stations) had an AI bot generate a complete news story a few years ago, probably later in the decade. It gathered the basics from police reports or some such and then put together and posted a story. It's probably still operating.

I wouldn't doubt that AI could be used to come up with hit music. What factors make a hit have been determined by researchers numerous times. It wouldn't take too much to program it into a computer. Some of it would undoubtedly sell.

Eventually, AI voice capability will become so genuine sounding that singing versions of Alexa (programmable to sound exactly like the singing star of your choice) will be belting out the hits. Give it time.

 

[kfbkfb]

The whole AI/computerized creation of things (historically created by people) to provoke an emotional response is kinda sad, to have everything so precisely defined and quantified (no spontaneity, no feeling that the singer/band are playing their hearts out for the performance [since there would be no singer/band, just voice and musical instrument synthesizers]).


Kirk Bayne

 

[frankberry]

Sort of primitive, but remember it was over 50 years ago. Ray Kurzweil invented this keyboard instrument that made it easy for composers to write music with the computer. A program would translate the performed notes into written music.

"Cakewalk" software was able to record from a MIDI keyboard on your computer and then produce a written musical arrangement. I still have a copy of the software.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's an article about how AI has written a new song by Nirvana:

In Computero: Hear How AI Software Wrote a ‘New’ Nirvana Song

Computer-generated artificial tracks by Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison highlight a new project that helps bring attention to mental illness

www.yahoo.com

Now an organization has created a “new” Nirvana song using artificial-intelligence software to approximate the singer-guitarist’s songwriting. The guitar riffs vary from quiet, “Come as You Are”–style plucking to raging, Bleach fury à la “Scoff.” And lyrics like, “The sun shines on you but I don’t know how,” and a surprisingly anthemic chorus, “I don’t care/I feel as one, drowned in the sun,” bear evocative, Cobain-esque qualities.

 

[kfbkfb]

This is both Spectacular and Sad - the creative process of writing a song (music and lyrics) boiled down to something a computer program can output.

But can the computer program rhyme a correctly pronounced word with a mispronounced word (which I've heard in a few songs on the radio)?


Kirk Bayne

 

[oldradiotapes]

Versificator (Nineteen Eighty-Four) - Wikipedia

It was only an opeless fancy
It passed lika an Ipril dye,
But a look an' a word an' the dreams they stirred
They 'ave stolen my 'eart awye!'
They sye that time 'eals all things,
They sye you can always forget;
But the smiles an' the tears across the years
They twist my 'eart-strings yet!

 

[Mikey Radio]

This is both Spectacular and Sad - the creative process of writing a song (music and lyrics) boiled down to something a computer program can output.

I think that's part of the problem - There doesn't seem to be much of a "creative" process anymore, at least when writing movies (the story you linked to in your original post that started this thread was about film scripts specifically). There have been very few "original" action movies, for instance, that strayed very far from the same ole' story lines, plot twists and "shock reveals". You know - the guy who was helping the most throughout the movie was actually crooked and becomes the antagonist. That explains, in part, why/how a computer can easily write a script. Most aren't too dissimilar.

I'm not sure if it costs so much $$$ to produce every movie that comes out today that they always play it safe and are afraid to take any chances and do something original and creative? I've always enjoyed comedies, but it's been at least a few years since a movie came out that caused me to laugh at least mostly all the way through it. Again, the creativity just isn't there.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm not sure if it costs so much $$$ to produce every movie that comes out today that they always play it safe and are afraid to take any chances and do something original and creative?

It doesn't have to be. I know people who make indie movies. No big budgets. But you still have the battle of coming up with someone that connects. It's just like music: There are no barriers an more. Everybody has access. So you just want to get your project in front of enough eyeballs to make back your investment.

The other thing to know is there are "script doctors." So even if you do a standard script, the producer might send it over to the doctor, who will do a re-write. That process may end up rounding off any sharp corners.