Adam’s World Weekly 4/6

The other day I was going through songs, and videos for consideration for my weekly NYC column when I came across something I’m sure will be happening more, but I wish would happen less.

I was listening to a song that sounded solid, but when I watched the video there was something about it that seemed too shiny, and very inhuman. I checked the credits, and lo and behold there was the name of the AI program that was used to create the clip.

My general feeling when I see something like this is if the song is good enough, I can just post the song, and not the video, but to also look for a replacement for it, because I really don’t like featuring artists who use generative AI.

I wound up finding more songs than I had space for, so the artist who used AI for their video wound up not making the cut.

I realize some musicians are going to use AI as a shortcut rather than hire someone, or attempt to harness their own creativity to make something that may not look as “perfect,” but would actually be far more authentic. While I can’t prevent artists from using AI, I can choose not to feature them. There are SO MANY fantastic artists out there, we can toss out the generative AI folks, and not really miss a thing.

Incidentally, if it’s any indicator on how the public feels about generative AI, the artist’s song on YouTube, with just the single artwork, had more plays than the AI created music video. The caveat being that the song has been out longer than the video, but it does seem hopeful to me that people would rather play the song than watch the theft-produced clip.

I’m also hopeful in my attempt to have a slice of normalcy for myself this week.

I booked my first interview since my father’s passing, and it will be nice to spend a few hours focused on writing. I also picked up a few albums while hanging out with a friend over the weekend, and one of them has the potential to be the subject of a One Hit Wondering column, so research could be in my near future, as well.

As for the present, this week’s update is led off by my interview with Kimiko Glenn. Well known as an actress, and voice actress, she recently launched her music career, and she told me all about that side of her life.

In addition to that feature, I also have fresh editions of Pop Shots, and my NYC Scene Report, and for anyone who wants to learn more about my parents, the obituary I wrote for them went up on the funeral home’s website, and you can check it out there.

Read the full interview here

Read the full column here

Read the full column here

As always, thanks for reading, and have a fantastic week.

– Adam Bernard