Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan says AI will “change music forever”
Billy Corgan has said he believes AI will “change music forever”.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman spoke out about the increasing rise of AI-led songwriting and how young artists will be able to use it to “game the system”, in a new interview with US radio DJ Zach Sang.
Corgan said: “AI will change music forever. Because once young artists figure out that they can use AI to game the system and write them a better song, they’re not going to spend 10,000 hours in a basement like I did.
“Ultimately, art is about discernment. Somebody was telling me the other day how a famous rap artist would work, they would bring in all these different people and they would pick the beat they were most attracted to.
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“Now, let’s change it to AI. ‘Hey, AI. Give me 50 beats from the 50 best rap songs of all time. Mmm, I like number 37.’ That inspires me. Are they ripping it off? Not really. Because I did the same thing. I just did it analog. I listened to 10,000 songs – so what’s the difference? So it will really be about those who can discern, even if it’s AI presenting them with choices.”
He also said AI will make it harder for organic artists to compete.
Corgan added: “The problem with it is, if you’re an organic artist like I am, it’s going to be really hard to compete with a whole bunch of people who don’t know how to write songs but have good discernment, can’t sing but have Auto-Tune. You think there’s a lot of bad music coming out now, just wait.
His comments come just after days after Sting warned of an incoming “battle” between humans and Artificial Intelligence with regards to songwriting.
“The building blocks of music belong to us, to human beings,” he said. “That’s going to be a battle we all have to fight in the next couple of years: Defending our human capital against AI.”
The former frontman of The Police also said he believes it can never replicate songs written by humans.
Last month, a UK band went viral after using AI to imagine what Oasis might sound like if they were to reform and release a new album in 2023.
Meanwhile, Corgan recently openly praised Radiohead hailing them as one of the first bands to harness a new way of making music in the 1990s.
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Damian Jones
NME
