The Future is Now!
Oh. My. Gosh. The future the bright! Bright! You might conclude exactly the opposite initially though, so bear with me.
The following video demonstrates Microsoft’s latest Apple-esque foray into software meant to liberate ones artistic insides. Basically it lets someone with no musical talent (like me) except for a passable singing voice (unlike me) magically have piano accompaniments generated based on whatever notes they sing:
You may notice two things after watching this. One, these people do not really have passable singing voices. Two, the accompaniment is slightly worse than the singing is. However, it’s the idea which is the cool thing, and the real coolness is in the future of this and its potential broader consequences.
While this automatic accompaniment might not really work right now, it’s bound to be about 173 times more effective in about five years, especially if they throw in a dash of Auto-Tune so the singers don’t sound like ass. There will also be a full set of accompanying instrumental lines instead of just piano, which will be generated from friends tapping out rhythms using five-buttoned guitars and fake drums. Naturally each crappy plastic instrument will be almost perfectly self-correcting, so that zero to minimal skill is required. Everyone will be able to automagically sound like their favorite pop-tart of the moment.
So why is this good? Sounds pretty horrible so far, right? Well, the goodness happens when everyone realizes how easy it is to make this stuff, that literally everyone is churning it out, and it all sounds the bloody same. At which point the heavens will open and flocks of unicorns and rainbows will sprout up everywhere, and everyone will realize that there is much more exciting, well-constructed, meaningful music to be heard then the standard top 40 detritus. Hallelujah!
Or perhaps we’ll just end up surrounded by the bad stuff to an even greater degree, due to it being played loudly, constantly and uniquely irritatingly by every kid in the neighborhood. Right in your ear.