Beyoncé’s new album ‘Cowboy Carter’ is a statement against AI music

Image credits: Kevin Winter/Getty Images, Coachella/Getty Images

Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” has only been out for a few days, but it’s already clear that people will be talking about it for years to come. The song is breaking streaming records across his platforms, with the artist himself calling it his “best music.” [she’s] What has ever been made. ” However, midway through the press release for “Cowboy His Carter,” Beyoncé made an unexpected statement about the growing presence of AI in music.

“The joy of making music is that there are no rules,” Beyoncé said. “The more I watched the world evolve, the more I felt a connection to purity. I wanted to go back to real instruments, using artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming.”

Beyoncé rarely gives interviews and gives importance to each of her comments about the new album. These remarks are one of the few starting points to help fans understand each element of the album and how they fit together. So her position on AI is more than just a throwaway comment in a conversation with a reporter. That’s intentional.

The backlash against AI-generated art centers on how the technology works. A music generator that utilizes AI. Create a new track Emulate artist vocals in minutes, frighteningly convincing degree. In some cases, it is because the AI ​​is trained based on the work of the artist that the AI ​​may eventually replace the job.

Both large-scale language and diffusion models require sprawling databases of text, images, and audio to be able to create AI-generated works. Some of the most prominent AI companies, such as Open AI and Stability AI, use datasets containing copyrighted artwork without consent. Stability AI’s music model was trained on licensed stock music, but that’s not the case for Stable Diffusion, the company’s image generator. Ed Newton-Rex, Vice President of Audio, Stability AI To quit a job Regarding this, he says, “[doesn’t] We agree with the company’s opinion that training generative AI models with copyrighted works is “fair use.” ”

It’s no wonder that artists like Beyoncé have strong feelings about this technology. Too many AI models are trained on an artist’s work without their consent, making it even harder for up-and-coming musicians to support themselves, especially if they’re not well-known. . Entering an already ruthless industry. Beyoncé’s stance makes even more sense in the context of “Cowboy Carter” itself.

Although it doesn’t explicitly discuss AI, “Cowboy Carter” has already addressed unauthorized plagiarism and plagiarism of works of art. On the album itself, Beyoncé gives listeners a history lesson about how black musicians formed the basis of country music, which is too often assumed to represent white Southern culture.

Even the title “Cowboy Carter” is a nod to the appropriation of black music for white profit. The name “Carter” may be a reference to Beyoncé’s married name, but it’s also a nod to country music’s “first family,” the Carters. And the Carters incorporated the work of black musicians to develop the style we now know as country. Exclude black artists (just recently, a country radio station in Oklahoma rejected a listener’s request to play Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold’em” because she didn’t fit the definition of a country artist). Beyoncé’s seemingly random stance on AI reveals a similar truth. Once again, artists’ work is being stolen and distorted without their consent, leaving them unpaid or credited for their cultural contributions.

The album includes several appearances by 90-year-old country icon Willie Nelson on a radio show called “Smoke Hour,” but his first appearance predates “Texas Hold’em.” This track placement takes on added meaning in light of the Oklahoma radio incident, with Nelson taking a light jab: Where your mind likes to wander. If you don’t want to go, just go find a jukebox. ”

This is Beyoncé’s world. Jukeboxes and radio are back in style, black musicians can make whatever music they want, and no one’s art will be stolen.