music fan. But now we have an entirely AI-written and sung song hit the top of the Country music charts. And I have a few thoughts.
It struck me how similar it was to many of the punk rock songs that I listened to as a high school student. No, they are nothing alike, musically. But there are some important similarities just the same.
Today’s pop music is totally insipid and bland compared to what we had. It’s quite formulaic. In virtually all the popular music 40 years ago, there was usually a theme of rebellion. Even Cindy Lauper celebrated the fact that she was going against what her parents wanted.
I come home in the morning light
My mother says, “When you gonna live your life right?”
Oh, mamma, dear, we’re not the fortunate ones
And girls—they wanna have fun
Oh, girls just wanna have fun
The phone rings in the middle of the night
My father yells, “What you gonna do with your life?”
Oh, daddy, dear, you know you’re still number one
But girls—they wanna have fun
Oh, girls just wanna have fun
It was a minor scandal when a rock band made up of some students played Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” at my high school prom. They did a great job, too…
Yes, the Punkers were criticized for knowing only four chords and repeating them over and over and over. But they were very much counter-culture. Anti-culture, actually.
Knowing only four chords was itself an act of rebellion for them. And many of the tunes were quite catchy. It’s a sad thing that many of the old Punkers have now sold out and become the mainstream shills that they used to mock (See: Billy Idol in his Super Bowl ad–how cheesy!). You don’t hear The Clash sing “Rock the Casbah” anymore because it poked fun at Middle East Muslims. We can’t have that today, can we…
Today’s pop music seems to be inspired by Dolores Umbridge…
And then we have the hard rock crowd, which I was never a part of. Dee Snyder would belt out “We’re not going to take it.” KISS would brag about things that would land you in jail now (see: “Christine, Sixteen”). It was not all good or laudable. You simply don’t get that kind of rebellion in modern popular music now. It was at times ugly and raw, but it was not pablum!
So what I noticed with this country song written by AI, was that same bright thread of rebellion. And I find it very interesting that this anti-conformity rebellion thread is what was picked up by AI. Because THAT is the role country music has taken on in recent years, unseating other genres.