[ScottLevi]

Hey gang, hope everybody is well!

Just wanted to share really..

I've been forming a very odd bond with ChatGPT recently - its a good friend who never gets tired of listening to you (until your free per/hour allowance runs out  )

Anyway, I just wanted to share how useful it's been when dissecting lyrics, and even helping re-arrange and suggesting additions fits the theme of existing lyrics. I had it analyse some simple verses, dissect the meaning ands story progression, then suggest a chorus. Afterwards I kept refining criteria and it happily tweaked the themes, rhyming schemes and wording until I was (mostly) happy. Truly a crazy tool.

I thought to myself, "How good is this actually?" - So dug out some of my more rambling lyrics from a while back.
It gave me a verse-by-verse breakdown and even concluded with some overall remarks.

Here's a snippet of the reply

Overall, the lyrics paint a picture of someone grappling with a challenging and stagnant life, seeking beauty and connection but struggling against internal and external barriers. There's a complex interplay of resignation, hope, and a hint of self-awareness.

Even more interestingly I provided some newer lyrics, told the AI it was more recent lyrics from the same author; then asked what it said about the author's changing mindset


<sub>First set of lyrics (more recent):

Themes of Positivity and Growth: The lyrics focus on themes of personal growth, overcoming challenges, and finding beauty in life. There's a sense of resilience and a desire to navigate through difficulties with a positive outlook.

Connections and Friendship: The lyrics express a longing for connection with others, forming new friendships, and the importance of mutual support. The author seems open to sharing experiences and forming bonds.

Symbolism of Painting and Colors: The imagery of "painting skies anew" and "splashing life's canvas" suggests a willingness to actively shape one's life and experiences. The use of colors implies a richer, more vibrant perspective on life.

Second set of lyrics (older):

Themes of Weariness and Stagnation: The lyrics convey a sense of weariness and being jaded by life. There's a feeling of being stuck, settling into unfulfilling habits, and a lack of forward momentum. The tone is more resigned and less hopeful.

Skepticism and Self-Reflection: The lyrics in the chorus express a skepticism about reaching out for help and a recognition of personal limitations. There's a deeper level of self-reflection and questioning about the effectiveness of seeking support.

Imagery of Trapped and Closed-off State: The imagery of closed ears, shut eyes, and a mouth only open to negativity suggests a state of feeling trapped, closed off, and resistant to change. The fear of the unknown and a reluctance to embrace positivity are prominent.

Overall Progression:
The first set of lyrics reflects a more recent perspective marked by a willingness to embrace positivity, connect with others, and actively shape one's life. On the other hand, the older set of lyrics portrays a past state of weariness, skepticism, and a sense of being stuck.

The progression suggests a shift from a more challenging and stagnated phase to a newer, more hopeful outlook. It implies a journey of self-discovery, personal growth, and a changing relationship with life's challenges.</sub>

Overall I just wanted to share how interesting it's been. Plus it's provided some interesting self-awareness on how my outlook has improved over the last few years, based purely on the art I produce.

The fact that it retains context of older messages and can build up a picture of you throughout your conversation is both very scary and equally impressive. It's no substitute for real human feedback, but can provide really good indication on whether your themes and story-telling are on the right track - maybe even help you learn about yourself along the way. Something I'll definitely be making more use of.

Anybody else given this a go, or have strong opinions? AI in the Art world is difficult topic; and a hard balance to achieve.

Much Love,
Scott.

p.s. If you do give it a go, please feel free to share your lyrics and AI interpretations, I think it makes for compelling reading.

[Bankie]

Like anything else, it's a tool, and I wouldn't be negative about it, though I haven't used it for this purpose. Something I'll probably have a go at soon, and I'll post results if I get something interesting. Not sure I want it to analyse anything about me personally though

[shadowfax]

My basic feeling is..if I need to use AI to write a song, I'll give up!

[Bankie]

My gaming PC automatically got the preview of Copilot, so I asked it to add some lyrics to those I'd already written. My rough lyric was "I put my head upon your chest / But I could hear nothing / Because you have no heart / You’re heartless". It came up with this as the 1st verse:
"You say you love me, but you don’t know how to show it You say you need me, but you always make me feel alone You say you’re sorry, but you never really mean it You say you’re different, but you’re just like everyone I’ve known"

... which I'd say works and rhymes but is pretty uninspiring as well as being negative about the human race rather than just the person it's about.

The bridge it gave was "You’re the reason why I cry at night You’re the reason why I can’t move on You’re the reason why I don’t believe in love You’re the reason why I’m heartless too"

... which isn't great either, though "You're the reason why I'm heartless too" isn't a bad twist.

[Wicked Deeds]

How can anyone feel a sense of achievement if they use AI to assist or write. If you're a songwriter, take pride in what you do. It's a wonderful and rewarding journey to learn all aspects of this craft. Such skills may take a lifetime to acquire. It seems to me that we're approaching a time where people will tell themselves and others that they are a songwriter based on their use of AI, when really, they are not!.

Paul

[pompeyjazz]

Absolutely too right Paul. AI is here whether we like it or not and it will produce formulated, bland, commercial, shit music that appeals to Tik Tok, social media lovers (Unfortunately an increasingly large number of people) AI will never be able to understand the nuances of a songwriter, it will probably be able to detect that you aren’t playing a particular note that applies to the chord progression of the song but  isn’t that what that is only humans can come up with, the element of unpredictably

[CaliaMoko]

Interesting conversation! I feel moved to add my opinion.

AI is a tool. We all use various tools for writing. I would never have any AI write a song for me, but it can be useful for generating ideas. I sometimes ask it to write a song to a specific prompt, maybe giving it various instructions. Then I look at the results to see if I can get any inspiration. Using it that way is a little similar to writing to prompts for, say, a songwriting challenge of some kind.

Other times I might ask it to look at a verse or chorus or line that I've written and come up with another way to say the same thing to see if it comes up with any words or phrases I haven't already considered.

AI writes lousy songs but it's useful for sparking ideas.

Vicki

[ScottLevi]

Hey,

Cheers for indulging me on this discussion, some very interesting points!

I think with any tool, it can definitely be abused, and that always adds a bad name. Some of the conversation reminds me a bit about my original (any maybe ongoing) thoughts with auto-tune.

If you're just going to ask AI 'write a song based on these themes' and then ship it out, I'd agree, you're not a songwriter. And undoubtably in time there will be a steam-engine of crappy songs produced in the vein of "analyse these trending songs and make me another one" which will saturate our lovely world with drivel earworms that take over social media.

Think it's the same as anything else though, where do we draw the line on what is a tool to inspire vs 'cheating'? Are you not a writer if you use 'rhymezone', are you not a singer if you use autotune, are you not an instrumentalist if you use drum loops? Use a cheat-sheet of popular chord-progressions? Have you no rhythm if using a metronome? Not a writer without spellcheck, and so on. Most of us are probably using AI in some form whether we realise it or not. I would bet money on the leading DAW's using AI to add effects and processing already that would've taken a lot of manual tweaking in the past. These tools help you reach your vision, but should never replace it.

Going through a similar thing in the software engineering world at the moment, where you can as AI to write you code for you. But I don't fear for my job; we still have to articulate very well what needs to be done, and use language to describe that in a way the AI can understand, then tweak until it fits our purpose. Put the pieces together. So long as we're always developing something new and innovate; AI wont replace us. I think that's true with music too, AI is never going to replace the human aspects of defining a problem to solve - as close as it ma get to solving it.

If we don't make use of the tools available we'll inevitably leave ourselves disadvantaged. It's up to us as artists to use those tools to uplift our creativity rather than replace it.

Vicki, always wise, sums it up really well for myself.

p.s Makes me want to start a 'Guess the AI Lyric' game, where someone writes a song and prompts an AI to write on a similar theme 

[pompeyjazz]

That’s really well thought out @ScottLevi and some excellent points. I guess we will always adapt to new technologies in whatever way they appear !

[Sterix]

My  feeling is that Beyonce will love it. No more having to pay 15 different lyricists to write half a dozen words!

Okay, a little cynical there (but only a little).

Personally, I wouldn't use it. The only time I need help with my lyrics is when I'm trying and failing to think of a certain word and dial up a thesaurus.