Three Chords & Some Truth...
Art and Commerce (again)...
I have a handful of hobbies or interests outside of writing—movies, sports (I’m a sports junkie and a very competitive fantasy football manager!), and music; specifically performing and producing my own music, something I’ve written about here before. I’m not suggesting I’m good at this, it’s just pure passion. But as a result, I’ve spent an inordinate amount of free time tinkering with recording setups, digital audio workstations (DAWs), and most recently, even AI music programs.
Much like novelists and screenwriters, musicians are facing a watershed moment when it comes to AI. I would in fact argue that AI has made even more incredible leaps on the music side of the equation, and Howard Benson—Grammy winning rock producer—has plenty of thought-provoking things to say about that.
Howard also has plenty to say about the business of being a professional producer, which I think speaks to the truth of being a professional author as well. Howard feels that the prevalence of so many readily available and outstanding music tools has made it far too easy to fall down the rabbit hole of finding the “perfect guitar sound” or “perfect synth patch,” when all a producer’s real job is finding and creating great songs, which—professionally—means songs that people actually buy.
And often, a great song is emotion—powerful lyrics delivered in a powerful way—rather than a whether a certain compressor or flanger or reverb was used…which won’t matter to most listeners anyway.
Similarly, if a professional TV screenwriter’s job is to deliver “good scripts on time,” than a working professional author’s primary job is to deliver a marketable, engaging, entertaining read that keeps people turning the pages.
Look, I get that these are all gross simplifications and sweeping generalizations. But I know that just as often as I’ve over-indexed tweaking some small parameter in a music track I’m producing, I’ve fallen down that same rabbit hole in my writing craft, so focused on proving that I can WRITE well, I end of losing sight of the simple power of good story, well told.
I think this also reflects the disconnect between books that we (writers) believe are objectively poorly written and those same books selling a zillion copies—
Even average writing can give rise to a great story, but great writing alone generally won’t elevate a poor or boring one…
Again, it’s about emotion, about connection.
And as Howard notes, no matter what musicians tell you, they WANT to sell records. The same is true for writers. We do this because we want to tell stories and because we want sell books, and in order to keep doing that professionally nowadays, that means selling as many books as possible.
That means connecting with readers, finding and building an audience…
For music and books, that’s where art meets commerce…and that’s the reality.
If you’ve got the time, Howard’s interview is great—
As noted in Howard’s interview, he’s generally pretty positive about the advent of AI in music, in a way many might find surprising. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video below, but this is an AI generated, professional, “mini, mini movie” (about a minute and half long) by a Hollywood director—
Still only proof of concept? Sure, maybe. But fascinating. And improving every day.
Like I said at the top, I’ve recently been employing AI tools to write songs; I craft the lyrics and overall arrangement, then finesse…finesse…finesse…until I get something I like (pretty much what the director did with The Heist). I can then download the stems (the individual tracks/parts of the song) to my DAW and completely remix from scratch, or use the stems as a reference for recording additional parts I play live (guitar) and rebuilding the track.
The results are generally pretty damn impressive, and here’s some of my examples to show the staggering breadth of these tools.
A simple (but pretty catchy) alt-90’s tune—
A nu-metal rap/rock banger with a big melodic chorus. This one won’t be to everyone’s taste, but if you stick with it, you can hear the level of sonic complexity you can truly achieve—
As always, feel free to—