AI Music: the great debate

Something that's causing debate in line dance circles is artificially generated music - AI music; dances written to tracks that were created by a computer. I've been thinking about this a lot and there are definite arguments on both sides of the question.

So I thought I would try to lay out the main arguments, both for and against, and try to explain what conclusion I've come to. If you have a view, I'd be very pleased if you would add your comments below - I want this to be an open debate.

I wasn't aware of AI music at all until fairly recently - we've actually been dancing to the occasional AI track over the last few years and I didn't even realise. When I choose a dance, it's quite common that I've never heard of the artist who is performing the track; there's a lot of great music out there by people I've never heard of. For example... Mr Showman, a jazzy number we danced to about a year ago. The track was "I am the man" by 2341 Studios. There was no band image, but again, that's not uncommon. And yet, it's AI generated music. Who knew? I certainly didn't.

There are some key arguments against using AI music, I'll put these in my own words:

• Creating them takes a lot of computer power, energy, and water (literally - to cool the supercomputers). There's a very real environmental impact; just because it happens somewhere else, doesn't mean it isn't real.

• Using AI music takes away revenue from real human artists. (Every track I play has to be reported to a body called PPL - there's a separate post about this, coming soon; I pay an annual fee and a small amount of money is given to each artist whose music I play.) It may not be much money, but thinking of all clubs - I'm sure it adds up.

• The quality of the music itself. Do the lyrics have meaning? Do they communicate emotion? And what about the sound? One of my dancers says she can hear a "white noise hiss" on AI tracks - I can't hear it myself, but I absolutely believe her concern is valid.

So, what are the counter-arguments?

• The tracks and dances are sometimes really popular! I don't generally teach an endless round of "chart dances" (which are sometimes "here today, gone tomorrow"), but I occasionally hear a track for a dance and immediately think, LOVE IT! This happened this year with "Stomp 2, 3, 4" - I didn't realise it was an AI track. I think it would be fair to say that most of my dancers love it too :) It's easy, upbeat, and it celebrates having fun on a Saturday night, line dancing with your friends in a barn in the country.

• One of the tricks AI music creation has up it's sleeve, is that it can analyse music to discover what it is about music that makes it popular; and then it gathers that insight into creating new music. Clever, evidence-based... hmmm (there are definite counter-considerations to this!)

• The choreographer creating some of the tracks has said, he will make available, at no charge, the backing tracks for live artists to use in their live sets.

• I've used a picture of a gramophone for this post, because I'm seeing AI music in the context of development of music - from played live only, through recorded music, digital music and onwards. When we first changed from dancing to a fiddle and guitar, to recorded music, was the same debate had then?

• Focusing in on that last point a little more, actually, electronic technology has been creeping into music production for decades. Some examples:

  • Remember the Cher hit "Believe"? Did it use electronic voice enhancement?

  • Sampling: for example, Madonna's second-most played track on my music licensing database (Tidal) is "Hung Up", which "samples" the synthesiser riff from Abba's "Gimme Gimme Gimme (A man after midnight)". Sampling is licensed, legal, and common.

  • And while we're at it: Synthesisers. I loved 80s music... Synthesiser City! Not a guitar string in sight.

  • In the 70s, we had electronic "clap machines" used in disco hits.

  • Does anyone remember Milli Vanilli? They may have had the look, but, if I recall... it wasn't their vocals on the tracks!

So, to summarise, there are some very valid concerns with AI music, but some of it is catchy and popular, and it's also part of musical progress.

What to do?

I've been thinking this through for quite a while, and the position I've come to is consistent with other elements of the club: I'm going to try to offer "something for everybody". Just as I don't teach all-pop or all-country, but I try to use a mix of dances and music, I plan to do the same with AI music. So there might be one AI track per class, but the other music played will be "made by humans".

I am sure this position won't please everyone; there are some strong feelings on both sides of the debate. But I hope you'll feel I've laid out the main arguments fairly, and come up with a compromise we can all live with.

Comments welcome!