There is a computerised melody- making software , developed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, called ALYSIA, that is unusual in taking lyrics as its starting point and adding an automated tune. The system matches the metre of the melody with that of the lyrics. The originators hope to create a system capable of composing all aspects of a song on its own. They want to design a program able to generate the music, the lyrics, and ideally even the production and the singing by itself. At the moment the idea is to produce pop songs. (Gian Volpicelli, New Scientist)
Strange that. I really thought that was how modern pop was already produced. The days are long gone when Elvis and the Beatles made young teenagers openly weep as they reached their hearts and minds. Pop music today is so relentlessly samey it is surprising it is surviving. It has been explained to me that the music is now less important than the words, if you can make them out. But a more important point is that melodies without accompaniments are pretty useless; the skill comes from an intimate knowledge of music theory and making music out of a tune.
I declare a personal interest: my wife and I compose piano and chamber music. I believe that if you are setting out to interpret emotions, feelings or even beatiful views in music, the melody comes from the human heart and imagination, not from a machine. In any case, it has been my wife’s task to turn my melodies into music, and this task takes both excellent judgment and a huge amount of learning and knowledge of composition. Composing could be reduced to automation, but human feeling and judgment should continue to trump computers.
Why is there this urge to automate everything? Because it is now possible to, and that seems to be the only reason. Will it make things, including music, better? What is “better”?
I’ve been composing music from a young age (about 6) , and I’m pleased to say my compositions contributed to an A grade at Music GCSE (for non-Brits that’s a national exam taken at 16). But my compositions have always been instrumental, so this ALYSIA, interesting though it is, will be completely useless to me. I prefer to communicate meaning through the tone and harmony of my songs, rather than explicitly through lyrics.
I certainly agree that there’s far too much automation in pop music. As with many things, large corporations, or in this case the record companies, are to blame. They see a successful musician, and then they look for other musicians to replicate the original formula as closely as possible. The result is music that is unimaginative, derivative, and never quite as good as the musician they were trying to emulate. Conversely, original music is seen as a risky investment, so big record companies are less likely to publish it. Hence the increasing use of automation, to give more music a similar feel.
I should clarify that I’ve got nothing against the use of electronic sounds in music- much of my favourite music is electronic. What I mean by automation is things like overly auto-tuned singing and over-editing of music, which results in an excessively ‘clean’ sound. Music should not be as modelling currently is, where no blemishes or faults are allowed. Rather, music should express the musician’s individuality, warts and all.
Your final question, what is better, is an interesting one. For cultural relativists, there’s no such thing as civilised or uncivilised music, only different tastes. I’m afraid I must disagree. For me, what constitutes better music can be defined by a few criteria: a song’s originality, how successfully it fulfils its purpose, whether it stands the test of time (I’m certain most modern pop music won’t), how much talent is required to perform it, whether it commands an emotional response from the listener, and whether it appeals to a wide variety of people. Of course, what is better and what is more enjoyable are too completely different things. Cucumber may be better for you than chocolate, but I certainly enjoy the latter a great deal more! But for music to live up to the standards of the past, it must at least attempt to follow these criteria. Pretending that all music is of equal value is a farce.