Hardly anything is real anymore! And that includes most people. They walk around staring at their phones with earbuds in, ignoring the reality all around them and instead choosing to live in their screen’s virtual reality. Regardless of what their senses tell them, if their screen says it’s real, then it’s real. If their screen says it’s true, then it’s true.

On top of all the propaganda made by humans, the internet is also overflowing with AI misinformation and deepfake videos of people who are not themselves saying things they never said. And now, music streaming services are full of AI-generated songs by artists who didn’t write them, because the artists don’t even exist. Yet every day more and more humans choose virtual over real, screens over trees, and AI over elders.

If you’re like me, and you’re also horrified by this brave new AI world, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with grief for the loss of our old world where humanity mattered. But focusing on the past and everything we’ve lost makes us feel bad. And focusing on the future and how robots are gonna steal our humanity (and our jobs!), makes us feel worse. So what do we do? We continue to bring awareness to this problem, while simultaneously creating solutions in the form of a parallel system. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work right here in the present. How? We make music real again.

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That’s no easy task, though, because all new music cannot and should not be trusted. It’s similar to how the singing on recordings could no longer be trusted after the release of auto-tune in 1997. If you hear a recording from before ‘97 and the singer sounds good, then you know they’re actually a good singer. Unless it’s a Milli Vanilli lip-syncing type thing, but still, there were good singers on those recordings, it just wasn’t Milli Vanilli.

And obviously not every singer used auto-tune on their recordings after ‘97. However, I personally know studio engineers who secretly tuned vocals overnight, so when the singer arrived back in the studio the next morning, they wouldn’t even know their vocals had been tuned. They’d just be thinking: Wow, I nailed that! So if the singers don’t always know they’ve been tuned, how can we?

Now in the 2020s, we’re dealing with the songwriting version of this. If you hear a good song from before the ‘20s, then you know it was written by good (human) songwriters. Even if it was written by ghost writers, they’re good (human) songwriters. But now we can no longer trust the songwriting behind recordings.

And that goes for new albums by old-school Gen X bands, too. They could just as easily have gotten AI to write the songs, and then learned how to play them afterwards. Or perhaps the songwriter in the band was under immense pressure to write new songs that would become modern classics, so at home in secrecy they got AI to write the songs and the lyrics. The rest of the band wouldn’t even know they were AI-generated songs, so how can we possibly know?

By now you might be thinking: Why does it matter? If the song is good and I enjoy it, what’s wrong with it being AI-generated? Everything is wrong with that, because every time we choose AI over humans, we take another step into transhumanism. This is about a lot more than music! Even small choices make a difference, like choosing a check-out in the grocery store with a human clerk instead of self-checkout, and looking them in the eyes, smiling, and saying: Hello friend, how are you? Human connection is the only way to maintain our humanity.

Music is one of the most powerful ways for humans to connect. Every time we listen to an AI-generated song, instead of connecting with humans, we’re being connected to the machine. And yes, doing the research to ensure we’re listening to real music requires time and effort, but it’s worth it, just like it’s worth researching what we eat in order to ensure that it’s real food and not full of chemicals.

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So how on earth can we make music real again? Well I’m glad you asked, because I’ve had an idea! The only way to save music is to re-establish the trust that has been lost. And the only way to do that is to verify and certify songs that are human-made, in the same way old-school farmers get their food verified and certified as organic. That process is so expensive, though, that many organic farmers can’t afford it and so their food can’t be certified. Therefore, I suggest we use fan verification instead. As opposed to losing artists money, this would actually create a new income source for them. Here’s how I envision the process unfolding.

Seeing is believing, so in order to know that a song was made by humans, we need to see them writing it from start to finish. I’ve actually done this twice before in my online apprenticeship courses. Every minute of the songwriting process was filmed. This is not an edited behind-the-scenes documentary, it’s the entire warts-and-all songwriting process, from blank screen to finished song. This video footage is proof that I wrote those songs.

But with AI’s deepfake capabilities, video evidence can no longer be trusted either. In order for fans to know that a song is human-made, the artist needs to write it live in front of them. This would be nothing like a concert, though, it would be more like a weekend workshop. The event would be filmed, and the fans would sign a document verifying that it was real and not deepfaked. The artist could even do this as a songwriting tour, which would establish eyewitnesses in many different cities.

The creative process is magic, so having fans sharing in this would be the most thrilling gift artists have ever offered their fans. And as this would be such a momentous opportunity for the fans, the cost of a ticket could be a significant sum. Think about it. How much would you pay to watch your favourite artist writing their new album live, right in front of you. It’s a priceless offer!

And to write a full album, an artist would obviously need many of these live songwriting sessions. This will not only form intimate artist-fan relationships like never before, but it will also create a new and lucrative income stream. Fans who buy tickets to songwriting sessions will inevitably be superfans, and therefore willing to pay handsomely for the privilege of witnessing the magic unfold live.

Usually when writing an album artists hide themselves away for months, while their income dwindles as a result of not performing live. However, with these live songwriting sessions, artists would get paid not only for performing, but for writing too. And most importantly, they’d end up with an album full of songs that have each been verified and certified as human-made.

The final part of the process would involve rehearsing and recording the songs. Then the album would be released in tandem with the video footage of all the live songwriting sessions, as well as the fan-certified documents. Next, the artist would shift into performing mode and take to the stage, where they would be greeted by trusting fans who are confident in the knowledge that the songs are human-made.

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Now let’s address the elephant in the room. If you’re a songwriter, the idea of having to write in front of an audience is probably filling you with dread. I get it, I’ve done this twice before on live webinars. Know this, though, the fear disappears as soon as you get in the flow, and then the energy and excitement is utterly exhilarating! If you want to feel truly alive, write a song live. Yes it takes courage, but all the best things in life do.

And remember, writing music is simply expressing ourselves. That’s not scary. We do it all the time in conversations. If you talk to someone in your first language, you feel comfortable expressing yourself. But, if you try communicating in a language you’re not fluent in, then it’s an anxious and frustrating process. That’s where music theory comes to our rescue. If we understand the language of music, then writing songs is simply a case of expressing ourselves using that language.

So if you want to learn the language of music, then I offer you my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. You can read it in about half an hour, then you’ll have a solid foundation. Even if you’re not interested in writing your own songs, this book will help you appreciate music in a far more meaningful way.

And if you’re looking to become fluent in the language of music, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. That’s where you’ll watch the videos of me writing two whole songs from start to finish, while also teaching every step of the process, so you can learn and use my method in your own original way.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last. Donate to help keep the Songwriter’s Ark afloat.

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Photo by Mart Production

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Nano Erdozain

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

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