Beyoncé’s new album, “Cowboy Carter,” has taken the music world by storm, breaking records across streaming platforms & earning high praise from the artist herself. However, amidst the album’s success, Beyoncé has made a deliberate statement against the growing presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in music production.
Everything you need to know:
✓ Beyoncé emphasizes the importance of authenticity in music creation
✓ “Cowboy Carter” addresses themes of artistic theft and appropriation
✓ AI music generators can swiftly produce tracks and mimic artists’ voices. AI is here to enhance, not to replace.
Beyoncé’s battle cry in “Cowboy Carter”
Beyoncé’s highly-anticipated album “Cowboy Carter” has taken the music world by storm, smashing streaming records while earning widespread acclaim from the iconic artist herself. However, amid the albumâs monumental success, Queen Bey has made a thoughtful statement opposing the growing presence of AI in music production.
In a rare interview shedding light on her creative process, Beyoncé expressed her belief in the importance of authenticity when making music:
“The joy of creating music is that there are no rules. The more I see the world evolving the more I felt a deeper connection to purity. With artificial intelligence and digital filters and programming, I wanted to go back to real instruments.”
Beyoncé
Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” exposes country music’s racist past
While partly a personal creative preference, Beyoncé’s rejection of AI extends beyond that. “Cowboy Carter” itself serves as commentary on the long-standing issue of cultural appropriation, where black musical pioneers have their art co-opted by white culture without proper credit.
The album’s title is a cheeky nod to the Carters, the renowned “first family” of country music who built their sound on the foundations laid by black artists – only to exclude them from the spotlight. With lyrics honoring those unsung black pioneers, Beyoncé aims to shed light on this truth.
How Beyoncé is fighting back against AI-enabled artistic theft
Her critique also highlights growing concerns over AI’s potential to enable a new form of artistic exploitation. AI music generators can rapidly produce new songs by training on popular artists’ full discographies to mimic their sound and vocals with eerie accuracy – often without consent or compensation.
Read more: Fairly trained CEO Ed Newton-Rex raises concerns about Suno AI in Billboard
By incorporating country legend Willie Nelson on a segment called “Smoke Hour,” Beyoncé envisions a music landscape where black artists can freely embrace all genres without fear that their artistry will be commandeered.
However, it’s important to remember that AI isn’t here to disrupt the entire music creation process. While the generate-me-a-song-in-seconds narrative is concerning, AI is ultimately meant to enhance music production with tools such as voice cloning for faster vocal recordings, music generators for song and beat prototyping, and AI mixing and mastering services to reduce time to market for songs on a budget. But Beyoncé ensures the human element remains front-and-center.
Ultimately, “Cowboy Carter” stands as Beyoncé’s rallying cry to preserve musical authenticity and protect the cultural heritage that is all too frequently appropriated. As AI capabilities grow, striking that balance between utilizing new tech tools while upholding core artistic integrity will be paramount. And if anyone can model that balance, it’s the Queen herself.
