John Rich: Here's How AI Will Change Country Music
Artificial intelligence caught on like wildfire in 2023, with news stories ranging anywhere from the public using the new ChatGPT software for fun to con artists scamming money via distressing phone calls to parents of “kidnapped” children.
In the coming years, this emerging technology will continue to disrupt the world by transforming nearly every industry, including the music business.
Famous country singer-songwriter John Rich told Fox News last week that AI cannot replace the country music greats, though it could theoretically weed out the lesser artists within the genre.
“Could AI do any worse than some of the country singers that are out there right now? I’m not sure that’s even possible,” Rich said.
“Listen, you can’t replicate the great songwriters. You just can’t. I mean, you’re talking about Albert Einstein honky-tonk songwriters.
“I’d like to see AI write ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today,’” Rich added, referring to the late George Jones’ 1980 classic.
He continued criticizing the state of mainstream country music.
“It ain’t gonna happen,” Rich said. “Now, they might be able to take some redundant-sounding song and turn it into another redundant-sounding song, but that’s the state of country music as it is today anyways.”
The country star ended the interview by reiterating his lack of worry concerning AI’s influence on the quality of music in the future.
“I don’t see it as a huge threat,” Rich said. “I think if you want to make sure that your songs stick out, why don’t you write ’em and sing ’em like nobody else can, including AI.”
Other country musicians discussed their thoughts on the topic this month, also in conversations with Fox News.
“It’s a little scary that it’s kind of out there in the Wild West,” Tracy Lawrence said. “I’d like to see some more regulations on it. I’m afraid it’s going to get out of hand real quick.”
“I hope that we put some buffers in place,” he added. “Songwriters should be able to write their songs from their mind. They don’t need AI helping them write songs. There’s a lot of things we can use it for that probably, we really shouldn’t, so we’ll see how it turns out.”
Nate Smith said the “world’s always going to change. Anything’s going to happen. Nothing’s worth freaking out over, I think is the main thing … Real country writers, I think, are going to be around forever.”
“I would struggle to think something that couldn’t feel could really write a song, to make somebody else feel,” Riley Green added.
Tyler Hubbard said that as long as AI “doesn’t learn how to write songs and perform on stage, I’ll be OK. But you never know.”
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