Originally published at: Elvis sings "Baby Got Back" in bizarre AI song | Boing Boing
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I was doubtful at first, but…
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This kind of thing is the early phase of what I suspect will become the killer app for “AI”: new content by old artists, perhaps in highly unexpected contexts. Wanna see a version of Star Wars with Christopher Walken as Han Solo? Just ask your content bot. Etc, etc.
(If people thought sampling had odd intellectual property corners to navigate, they’re in for something else entirely with this.)
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Doesn’t sound like exactly like Elvis, but dang, that’s really well done.
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In short: familiarity.
I think its the same reason there are so many reboots, decades-later sequels, and -naissance returns of “washed up” actors.
I think the impulse is generally understandable, even if it’s sometimes contemptible, or leads to cruddy content. If someone found a long lost John Candy movie, I’d watch it in a heartbeat. So, when the technology is there, why wouldn’t I want someone to generate one with an AI trained on the hours and hours and hours of his available performances?
That said, what I think will be fascinating is whether this technology will be a mass-market thing (Planes, Trains, and Automobiles… and Boats!) that everyone shares in, or something you do on your personal device for your own amusement (Clark Gable as Clark Griswold in European Vacation anyone?)
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You can go back and listen to their catalog? I do this with artist I love all the time. I have no interest in a “new” Joy Division song without Ian Curtis. He’s dead, it sucks, but he can’t be replaced.
Which we hear not end of belly-aching about online…
It already is. Go check Youtube for a million and one movie trailers in the style of Wes Anderson…
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I love Joy Division, too. And I get what you’re saying. But I think this goes back to what I was saying about John Candy; if Peter Hook found an old demo laying around in his cupboard and decided to release it, I would gobble it up. I own (as far as I know) everything Joy Division has ever released, and happily listen to it over and over. But I’d still love to hear something I hadn’t heard before. So, if the technology can get to the point where a convincing simulacra could be created, I would also be all for it. Would it have an asterisk next to it in my brain? Probably. But still if it were indistinguishably close to real, I’d still consume.
Indeed, but as we all know well, “online” is not real life. Clearly familiarity must be desirable, otherwise savvy businesses wouldn’t constantly create it. (Presuming --perhaps inaccurately-- that the cause/effect of supply and demand is driven by demand.)
LOL. That is precisely not what I’m talking about. There is almost nothing convincing about those. Maybe a few shots occasionally. But this Elvis thing (to my ears anyway) sounds basically like the real artist. And I’m willing to bet the video equivalent of that level of convincing is Coming Soon™
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As far as I know, any demos have already been released (on the box set). Besides, I’d argue that’s not really the same thing…
But if it doesn’t exist, it doesn’t exist.
Do we? Ask that of a 16 year old. It’s real enough, as people are living more of their lives online than ever before.
That’s not just a corporate trait, it’s part of humanity. The only thing this will do will be to help corporations make money off dead people. Sharing a familiar song is not the same thing as corporations commodifying our embrace of familiarity.
Not really, no. Not to my ears anyway. Mimicking the sound isn’t the same thing as realistic replicating the artist. This, to me, doesn’t sound like Elvis, nor feel like it. It feels like what it is - which is a simulacra that tries to mimic reality, but fails in some fundamental way.
I’d rather see an Elvis impersonator, honestly. Especially if it’s one who fights a mummy…
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Thanks for a lively debate. At this point I think I can only meaningfully add:
- I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree (although I probably agree with you more than I may be letting on), and
- I’m pretty sure this is coming, so you may want to steel yourself for its arrival in the next few years
Oh, and…
Haha, indeed, as I well know. (I have a 17 year old and a 19 year old).
Oh, my, god, Becky, look at his hips.
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… it’s “Don’t Be Cruel” with a joke lead vocal track
The Elvis version is pretty good but I prefer Coulton’s
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