AYESHA RASCO, HOST:
When Pop Culture Happy Hour host Stephen Thompson watched the Academy Awards in March, he made a particularly scathing comment about Diane Warren’s song, which was nominated.
(SOUND OF SONG, “APPLAUSE”)
SOPHIA CARSON: (singing) Acknowledge who you are. Sometimes…
STEVEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: This song would never have been nominated if Diane Warren hadn’t written it. She is loved in Hollywood. Most of her time she writes songs for films. The Oscars love her for a reason. But this song is so ordinary. It could have been written by ChatGPT. If you’re watching the Oscars, schedule your snack break for the time they do it.
(SOUND OF SONG, “APPLAUSE”)
CARSON: (singing) Give yourself a round of applause. You deserve it.
RASKO: It’s definitely a hot, hot point of view.
THOMPSON: I’m a scoundrel.
RASCO: (Laughter) But it got us thinking, what would a song written by ChatGPT sound like? We invited Steven to play around with the AI tool and see what happens. So, welcome to the program, Steven.
Thompson: It’s nice to be here with such a cruel purpose.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCO: And you actually asked ChatGPT, which is an artificial intelligence program that can do all this, to write a song. And what did you get out of it?
Thompson: Well, I just typed the words, wrote a Diane Warren song, and got a song that’s very similar to a Diane Warren song, but a little more like a ballad. Sample lyric – I’m looking out the window thinking about how we used to be. I remember how we laughed and loved. Every moment was so sweet.
I think Diane Warren would have come up with something more subtle. Once you hit the chorus, because love doesn’t come easy and it certainly doesn’t last forever. But I will hold on until we find a way together. Now, if you add some mustard to it, you can turn into a powerful ballad quite easily.
RASKO: Good.
(SOUND OF MUSIC)
THOMPSON: (singing) Love doesn’t come easy.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: (singing) And it certainly won’t last forever. But I’ll hold on – oh, I’ve lost my key altogether.
RASCO: (singing) Hold on…
THOMPSON: (singing) Until we find a way together…
RASKO: Good.
Thompson: It’s important to note here that I didn’t put any real talent into it.
RASCO: (Laughter).
Thompson: It’s amazing how tolerable some of these lyrics are, I think, especially when you instruct them to write them in the style of a particular artist.
RASCO: When you look at, for example, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar or Beyonce, you see something that they bring. This is their experience. It is they who are on the threshold of what is hot, new and fresh. And they can also, for example, do new things that I think are hard for AI to replicate.
Thompson: This is what is called the uncanny valley.
RASKO: It’s supernatural, yes.
Thompson: Uncanny Valley – the difference between reality and reality…
RASCO: (Laughter) Yes.
THOMPSON: …The ability of the virtual world to recreate reality.
RASCO: Yes.
THOMPSON: That’s what’s still missing.
RASCO: I don’t think AI can actually recreate a song like “H To The Izzo”.
THOMPSON: Right.
RASKO: Right? Because when Jay-Z said he had crack in the palm of his hand and he was looking at the long arm of the law, right?
THOMPSON: (Laughter).
RASCO: The AI has never lived such a life.
THOMPSON: Right? Yes
RASCO: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: What? All they need is what he has done in the past.
RASCO: Yes.
Thompson: And you also touch on the difference between an artist using a lot of formulas…
RASCO: Yes.
THOMPSON: …and an artist who is constantly trying to say something new…
RASKO: I’m trying to say something new. Yes
THOMPSON: … in a new way. And you mentioned Beyoncé. You look at Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” songs, and there are about 100 of them.
RASCO: Yes.
THOMPSON: So you don’t have to have a computer synthesizer…
RASCO: No.
THOMPSON: …A hundred different artists work together to make that sound.
RASCO: You did Diane Warren. You also asked them about writing a song for Beyoncé. How did it sound?
THOMPSON: Imagine, you know the song that Beyoncé wrote for the film “King Richard”?
RASCO: Yes.
Thompson: It’s called “Be Alive”. And it’s much more kind of a little closer to, I would say, a general upsurge.
(SOUND FROM THE SONG “BE ALIVE”)
BEYONCE: (singing) The road was never paved with gold – no.
THOMPSON: When I typed in to write a Beyoncé-style defiance song, I succeeded – well, I’ll go straight to the chorus.
(SOUND OF MUSIC)
Thompson: I’m a rebel, a fighter, a force to be reckoned with. I am Beyoncé and I will not back down.
RASCO: Mmm-mmm.
THOMPSON: Mmm-mmm.
RASCO: Mmm-mmm.
THOMPSON: I’ll keep moving forward, keep going higher. I can’t be stopped and I won’t shut up. First, it doesn’t rhyme.
RASCO: Doesn’t rhyme (laughter).
Thompson: Secondly, Beyoncé sometimes refers to herself in the third person.
RASCO: But not really.
THOMPSON: But not really.
RASCO: Not really.
Thompson: ChatGPT is most applicable to this exercise with artists who work within very, very clear formulas. And I think that’s why I often keep coming back to these criticisms when the music seems really generic. I think it’s fair to say that this technology will be used for a lot of depressing purposes and it could replace some of those songwriters. I think we can agree that Beyoncé has nothing to worry about. Diane Warren – we’ll see.
RASCO: This is Pop Culture Happy Hour host Stephen Thompson. Thanks a lot Steven.
THOMPSON: Thank you, Aisha.
RASCO: Do you think they could play Lin-Manuel?
THOMPSON: I mean, we can try.
(SOUND OF MUSIC)
THOMPSON: He ran free, but the fight didn’t take place. He opposed slavery and won hearts one after another.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCO: This is bad. This is disrespect.
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