How AI music is upending ‘World Music’

Announcement for a new K-Pop boy band earlier this year on TikTok — entirely AI: the music, the performers, the instruments, the lyrics, the photos and videos, all made up. Sample. My curiosity has had me listening to music from countries all over the world for over 60 years. Whenever I’m ready to join those lamenting the sad decline in ‘popular’ music from its heydays, I discover the music of another country, rarely heard in North America, and my enthusiasm is reinvigorated. Ever parochial, western publishers and streamers refer to this music generically as ‘World Music’, a catch-all for anything they can’t fit into their western-oriented genre categories. I’ve written a lot about AI, and specifically about its use in music creation, on this blog. My approach to AI music is almost the opposite of that of many hand-wringing musicians: I believe it is an enjoyable and very educational learning tool for amateur musicians (like me). I believe it can prompt lots of interesting ideas for…