Can AI be Good For Song Writers?

Neil Tennant’s Interesting Points on AI Song Writing

So, AI is gradually making big waves in all sorts of industries, with many excited and probably just as many worried! Today I read an interesting article in The Guardian which shared Neil Tennant’s thoughts from a songwriting perspective.

The comments were made by Neil in an interview the Pet Shop Boys took part in for the current issue of The Radio Times. He suggests that AI could be used when musicians are suffering from writer’s block. It comes as many within the industry worry about the negative impacts AI could have, such as taking their jobs as songwriters completely!

Of course, AI being used to help face writer’s block is something that could help writers of all kinds from bloggers to bid workers to book authors. Basically, AI could be a useful tool when our own minds are not producing the goods!

The Sound Stage, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neil is not necessary saying that a song could be completed solely from AI (although we know that is easily within the realms of possibility) but that it could help to finish a song that has come to a standstill due to something such as writer’s block.

You may have heard about the AI-generated song that went viral that was (not) by Drake and The Weekend. Well, Neil explains that the daughter of the PSB’s manager asked a bot to come up with a PSB-style song, and he was amazed at the results. He explains how a song the Pet Shop Bous wrote was never finished because after the chorus he couldn’t think up the verses. Neil then suggests that AI could help fill in these blanks, even if he did still rewrite the results, it could be useful as a tool to help progress after being stuck for some time.

It’s very interesting to hear this positive spin from an industry veteran, I always find the Pet Shop Boys have plenty of fascinating viewpoints so I’m not really surprised. And they have certainly never had an issue embracing current trends and evolutions whilst still remaining the unique Pet Shop Boys! As for AI’s impact on song writing time will tell, but this will definitely be something that gets more and more talked about!


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