AI & protest songs: a comparison

I have noted elsewhere that David Rovics decided to experiment with AI before coming to a conclusions about whether or not musicians could use it as a tool, rather than get swamped by AI slop.

He created an imaginary band called Ai Tsuno, which has released several albums. They all feature his lyrics and the music is created by his prompts (twenty or thirty or more, he says). You can hear about this process from the man himself on a Miaaw podcast: an episode called Of Babies, Bathwater, and AI.

I very recently came across a song that he has recorded both as himself, and as Ai Tsuno. More accurately, not as himself, but as The Ministry of Culture, which consists of David Rovics, Kamala Emanuel, and an acoustic guitar or two. My point stands though. We have the “original song”, sung acoustically, and the AI-boosted song, sounding something like an entry for Eurovision.

The Ministry of Culture will release it imminently on an album called Insurrection Act. Ai Tsuno have already released it on an album called Class War Zone.

And here comes the Ai Tsuno version, with the imaginary vocalists and the mighty backing band.

Put together like this these might perhaps make David Rovics intentions clearer.

This strategy certainly allows him to overcome the (natural) limitations of his singing voice, allowing him to create the vocalists he needs for the vision he has for the song; while allowing him (perhaps) to reach audiences that would otherwise remain out of his reach.

Or not.