AI is Not the Only Threat to Music

Until I spread my wings at seventeen and landed in CO Springs from my small town in Napa with the help of some mentors, my music diet was limited and narrow. Through my teens, I ingested mostly Christian Contemporary Music (CCM), adjacent rock bands like Relient K and Mutemath, and main stream singer/songwriters like John Mayer and Jack Johnson. Sprinkle in some Nirvana, Chili Peppers, Sublime, Modest Mouse, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Coldplay, and The Beatles. I grew up with mainstream music, albeit some of it was compelling, well constructed, and truly critically acclaimed, but most of it was extremely marketable and successful, speaking to a very wide audience. The production was tight, punchy and straightforward, and the music asked very little of me as a listener. Again, it feels appropriate to mention that some of that music was quite timeless. I’m thinking of albums like The Moon and Antarctica, Continuum, In Rainbows, Nevermind, and the entire Beatles catalog. 

There was an artist I linked up with who was just starting to “break” into the industry out of CO Springs. He was handsome and possessed quite a mystique. I looked up to him very much, though I was intimidated by his knowledge and musical literacy. His music taste was much more diverse than mine. One afternoon, he took me to a record store and purchased for me the self-titled Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Soon after, I discovered Neil Young and fell in love with Live at Massey Hall. And upon returning home to Napa, my best friend turned me onto Hip Hop and R&B. From there, as I made my way down the CA coast (I lived in Santa Barbara for a time and then LA/Long Beach), colleagues and friends shared their musical interests with me and I continued to grow my music taste. When I moved to San Francisco in 2020, a fellow barista really opened my eyes. He would blast The Sundays and Nick Cave and Bill Callahan in that small little shop (god that was a dreadful job!) and ever since, I have been on a journey of listening and discovering. 

There are records I can digest and understand in a way I simply could not several years ago. Some musicians my age grew up on Elliott Smith and Joni Mitchell and Lou Reed. Well I didn’t, so it took me a long time to appreciate iconic artists and comprehend their records. I look at music listening almost like reading comprehension. It’s a muscle one must build. And the fact is, the Twilight series doesn’t prepare a reader for Joan Didion or John Fante just like Maroon 5 (my dad’s favorite contemporary band growing up) doesn’t prepare a listener for Bob Dylan or Neil Young. 

I still have major blind spots in music just like everyone else, but they are getting incrementally smaller every day. I enjoy sinking my teeth into dense and interesting records today. I should do it more, but I do enjoy it very much. 

This morning, I rolled over and picked up my phone. I opened Instagram (bad Ashton!) and a reel populated in which a young woman was singing an original song. The reel had tens of thousands of reactions and had clearly achieved virality. As I listened, I became extremely annoyed, borderline furious. This is why we don’t start our day with social media. So, what bothered me? Well don’t worry, I’ll tell you. 

Three major artists were tagged in the post including Noah Kahan and Lizzie McAlpine. The song resembles these artists quite well actually. I would say it resembled them too well. The lyrics were sharp, witty, controlled, and specific. The woman’s voice was soft and whispery just like Phoebe Bridgers or Lizzie’s voice. And the melody, my god the melody. It was so familiar. It was as if the artist combined Olivia Rodrigo, Kahan, and Lizzie’s strongest melodic tendencies and distilled them all together perfectly. In case I haven’t spelled it out already, this particular post and song felt extremely derivative and contrived to me. But it landed perfectly on algorithmic feeds. 

Now, many things can be true at once. I’m sure the artist was singing from her own real lived experience, and the delivery felt authentic (and manufactured simultaneously). She was clearly talented. She was clearly sincere. AND! Her influences were so present in the song, it was as if she was an AI robot who generated the perfect synthesis of all three artists tagged in the post. Ironically, one of the top comment reads “This is what AI can’t do”. Well if it can’t now, it will be able to very soon here.  

That comment made me think… Why do people think AI is the only threat to art? Do they not see how algorithmic media is homogenizing and flattening music? The truth is, there are many talented young artists who grew up on the internet. Even if they haven’t articulated it to themselves yet, many of them just understand on some deep level what works on social media and yes, in some way, they are crafting songs and presenting themselves in a way that is designed to succeed in the algorithm. I’m sure there are some who just happen to fall into virality by accident, but I feel confident they are a minority here. Young artists understand what is trending and they are influenced by it. They are also incentivized to act accordingly. So the question I’m asking myself is this: If mimicking successful artists and trends on social media is okay, then why is AI such a perceived threat? The argument against AI in the arts is centered on authorship and originality. I would posit we are already losing the battle of prioritizing interesting, authentic, unique music through algorithmic media in a way that is much more tangible than what AI is currently capable of. 

I want to be clear: In no way am I encouraged by the marriage of Art and AI. I believe the two should have nothing to do with one another. I also believe that AI will in time make man-made art more valuable, which is an optimistic, and borderline controversial opinion of mine, I understand. But this piece is not about AI. It’s about a double standard we hold collectively. If it’s not okay to utilize AI in the creation of one’s art, then why is it okay to create art which is designed to succeed on social media? If your song is so specifically crafted and so reminiscent of mainstream singer-songwriter music, how are you better than an artist who uses ChatGPT to write lyrics? Both approaches deprioritize originality and degrade the musical eco system. 

I began by describing my own relationship with music and how that’s evolved over the years. I did so to build some trust with you, dear reader. At the heart of my thesis lies a distinction which either collapses the validity of this piece or strengthens it. What is the difference between influence and plagiarism? It is certainly a spectrum! It’s a tight rope! Influence, sub genre, and trend are nothing new in music. In the 90’s in Seattle, you’d best believe there were a hundred bands who all sounded something like Nirvana. In the late 2000’s, Warped Tour showcased a plethora of bands who all spoke the same musical language. I’m sure there was no shortage of artists you’ve never heard of from the Laurel Canyon scene in the 70’s. You can hear Elliott Smith’s influence in so many of modern music’s best singer-songwriter acts. This is what I would call influence, trend, and scene-driven musical aesthetic. I think that’s healthy and normal and nothing new. With each generation comes new aesthetic trends across fashion, interior design, language, psychology, cars, music, etc. 

The difference now is the algorithm. What I’m seeing on my feeds is something hyper specific which gets rewarded over and over again, while increasingly limiting the possibility of online success outside of these narrow aesthetics. Another reason I began this piece with my own musical consumption history is to demonstrate that by now, there are things my ears pick up on that the average listener cannot. The reel I referenced above is so clearly melodically and lyrically derivative, but I’m not sure the average listener understands that. I’m picking up on specific details which together lead to algorithmic success. I can do that because I’ve listened to a ton of fucking music over the years. I understand the sonic landscape this young artist is occupying. 

I think before or even as we start panicking about AI in art, we need to reevaluate our relationship with art and social media, which would require more musical literacy and a stronger vocabulary for what it is that artists are now incentivized to make. 

The other night, I laid in bed and listened to Good Morning Spider by Sparklehorse several times over. That record contains so much texture, such an interesting stereo field (panning choices), and best of all, incredible songs delivered in a way that prioritizies emotional honesty over perfection. I thought to myself, “This record could never be made today, especially not backed by a major label!” It was released on Capitol Records. The album is gritty, dense, complex, infinitely interesting, devastating, and genuinely well-crafted. Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous would not survive today as a middle class, niche artist signed to a major label. Good Morning Spider is a perfect example of an artist who was building these unique sonic worlds and living inside of them. The record doesn’t beg for listeners, rather listeners come to that record when they’re ready and reap the rewards! If you’re familiar with Linkous’ work, I want you to try and imagine him on TikTok today following trends and trying to build a following. You can’t. Because there is no fucking chance. Artists like him are a perfect example to me of what once was and what we should all be concerned about protecting. There was no such thing as algorithmic pandering back then. (Of course there were industry dynamics and label execs and MTV opportunities, but artists were not required to participate in that world as much and labels could afford to sign more obscure artists). There was no such thing as running your new song by (potentially) millions of people online for immediate feedback. Mark was influenced by his favorite artists just like the rest of us are, but he was clearly so committed to following his own instincts and creating a body of work that contains risk, grit, complexity, nuance, and most of all, his own heart. I should add here that there are legitimately great, interesting, and unique middle class songwriters surviving today. Artists like Adrianne Lenker, Alex G, Courtney Barnett, and Andy Shauf come to mind. But all four of these examples came up just as social media was beginning to leak into modern life. What it means to grow a listener base slowly but surely, while discovering and honing one's sound over the course of several EP's or LP's backed by some kind of label representation has changed dramatically even in the last ten years. I think many respectable, semi-niche middle class artists today just dodged the "you have to have 100k followers on TikTok to attract labels" era that we mostly live in today. To say that Jose Gonzalez or Damien Jurado or Anais Mitchell would be able to compete in today's world if they were just starting out in 2026 feels a little outlandish to me.

Today, in terms of the singer songwriter world, the algorithm seems to prioritize soft, whiny/whispery (depending on who you ask), and restrained vocal approaches, as well as hyper specific lyricism which hinges on irony, non chalant-ness, and wit. It also caters to virtuosity. "Hey here's this super normal looking girl who has mastered alternate tunings, fast playing, and complex finger picking!" It does not generally amplify spacious music that takes it's time, or artists who step outside the bounds of what I laid out above. When I pitch my record to blogs and playlist curators, I get this feedback over and over again: "This is clearly really well crafted and genuinely good, but it falls outside the bounds of the Indie/Folk container we've built over here.. best of luck!" While I am speaking mostly of streaming platforms (AKA Spotify Playlisters), I do think this supports my claim that there are very specific things that work today and it's hard to get through without those attributes.

Yes, I am grieving what once was. I am sad that I missed the era of A&R discovery, artist development, advances for studio time, and making cohesive records that folks buy on vinyl. But I am also making an economic and cultural critique which I believe is valid and defensible: Algorithmic media incentivizes safe, strategic, hyper specific, derivative, and contrived songwriting and performance which over time will continue to water down and homogenize music. When we take authenticity, risk, curiosity, and an artist's own intuitions out of the equation, we are left with thousands of online creators mimicking today's pop artists, rather than playing with sound, building their own sonic identities, and making unique art.

In closing, the young artist whose reel sparked this piece is simply surviving in the modern musical eco system. She is using the tools she has and doing it well. And she isn’t wrong for doing that. I am criticizing the eco system itself. While commercial success and genuinely well crafted music have always been at odds (of course there are exceptions to this rule), I believe that social media is playing an unprecedented role in diluting artistic diversity. This isn’t about shaming young artists who are using tools to their advantage, it’s about being honest about the downsides of hyper specific homogeneity via algorithms. But I will close with this rather strong statement: I would rather wait tables the rest of my life and make music from an earnest and reverent place than go viral by sounding just like fucking Noah Kahan. 

AI is not the only threat to music.