JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum The new great thing

They said the same thing about drum machines. They said the same thing about Samplers. They said the same thing about Synthesizers going back to the 60s. The Beatles USED SAMPLES! Strawberry Fields used a synth that played recorded instruments on a loop. Paul McCartney is 100% hypocritical because tech innovations are what took them from their early pop rock to the deeper more interesting tracks that gave them credibility. Now he is saying that using new tech decreases credibility? Nice try, but it falls flat.

As long as you create the underlying words and/or melody, you are 100% a valid as any composer in history before or after. Is Bernie Taupin a songwriter? Yes. His lyrics are some of the most popular ever written. Is Elton John a songwriter? Yes, his melodies are some of the most popular ever written. Is Elton John a superstar musician? Of course. So how would any lyricist, or melody composer be any less than them, not to mention if they do BOTH?

Every recording made in the past 50 years has used significantly advanced technology than what came before. But you can go back to the dawn of recording and find lots of huge advantages gained by every innovation, not to mention recording itself. A.I. is not even as good as older tech in creating tech assisted music. DAWs are FULL of high end processing which do FAR MORE to bend sound in interesting ways to make music. All those plug ins are just more affordable versions of their physical synths and samplers of the previous generations. Look at The biggest selling Double Album of all time. Frampton Comes Alive was that bit because of clever use of the TalkBox. He wasn't the first, but he made it the most popular. Phil Collins, the respected brilliant prog rock Drummer used drum machine to make really catchy synth drum samples sound great in his recordings. He COULD have played it live, but he didn't. Recording drums is difficult. A dum machine is simply a superior way to get drums into the right rhythms to fulfill the artistic desires of the composer. Every generation makes doing manual tasks EASIER with technology. Once you write words and/or music, you are a legi songwriters. How you produce the recording for consumption is itself a variety of artistic choices, same as it every was. If Mozart got a better piano, he used it. If Phil got a better drum technology, he used it. A.I. isn't artificial anything. It is smart programming by the same minds who make your reverb and synths and delays and compressors and everything else. HUMANS. They make better tools. You can refuse to use them, fine. That is a choice. But your "song" is no better or worse because of it. Either you connect with others or you do not. The rest is really mostly about who can hire the best producer, engineers, studios with the highest end technology and gear to make the best finished recording. All A.I. has done is removed the middle people between SONGWRITER and LISTENER.

Now poor people can make radio ready music. If they write a great song, it connects. If they have clever artistic instincts as to what will amuse or move an audience, it doesn't matter what tech they used to finish it, they will succeed based on THEIR talent and THEIR artistic vision and instinct.

I throw away 98% of what A.I. gives me back, just as I throw away 98% of what I try on a DAW. But I take the 2%, keep refining it until it pleases me, then it is done. After that, it is up to the listener. Your opinion is yours, but you are being hypocritical if you use technology of any kind, but draw some red line for others saying they may not pass it or you will condemn their efforts. That is simply hypocrisy. If you think all analog is better, but down electric instruments and still you need a mic, recording device, converters to make it uploadable to even reach an audience. You can't escape tech. Amps, Speakers, etc. are all tech. My view is NONE of it matters and all of it is a choice YOU make artistically.

A painter has new brushes, new colors and paint technologies. New canvases, new tools of sorts I don't even know to make paintings. Theirs are as legit as Picasso or Van Gogh. The results move you, or they do not.