Rock Music and Artificial Intelligence: “The Doors release new album in 2024!”

No matter how far from the truth this news is, the excitement and enthusiasm we can’t help but feel immediately brings to mind the questions “did they have unreleased tracks, will we hear something we haven’t really heard?”.

We have all waited with excitement for the new albums of our favorite bands, perhaps dreaming about new styles, solos, album topics, even the number of tracks on the album. Even though the 80’s and 90’s were musically productive and colorful times, as young people of those years, we used to follow even foreign music magazines a few months behind, let alone listening to an album as soon as it was released, and we were dependent on the 1-2 pages of metal news in the magazines published in our country. As a handful of metalheads, we used to share cassettes, CDs, magazines, whatever we had. In those times when we were trying to establish our musical taste and rocker stance by copying cassettes and CDs, I remember that if I had the original album, I had rituals even when opening the package. After the album started playing, it was a different world…

We always talked about more than what we listened to, we all had something to say about the album and when the common topic was rock, it was never enough to just talk about the songs. The news about the concerts that followed, “they definitely don’t play that song”, “the other song has an 8 minute guitar solo”, “he got arrested for starting a fight before the concert”, “after the concert he went alone to a bar full of fans and drank until the morning” and similar legends would add excitement to our excitement and multiply our pleasure.

More than just music, rock becomes a person’s attitude over time with its artist, its story, its stance, its concerts and its shareability. It is like the blood flowing in your veins, waiting for the next album, getting ready for the concert, listening to the album, listening to it again, listening to it with friends, listening to it alone, listening to it in a bar, listening to it from a band that covers it very well, listening to it by saying “don’t let them play it either”. To feel every moment and note of rock music in your bones…

Music is only a small part of the story, but it is impossible to approach the whole without access to music. Reaching music, listening to it, sharing what you listen to, listening to what is shared, reading a lot and then catching the spirit through concerts is simply the whole point.  Records, record bags, cassettes, cassette tapes, recording albums on cassettes, cd’s, pirated cd’s, copy cd’s, mp3’s, online sharing sites, and now we have reached the point of streaming platforms… Maybe listening to and accessing music has become easier with the developing technology, but could it be that reaching millions of people with the same musical taste and style through social networks, and even the start of online live concerts, has already put a handful of metalheads out of business? The replacement of cold beer and sweaty concerts with online broadcasts and the replacement of friends who recommend albums and songs with artificial intelligence may seem contrary to the spirit of rock, but it can also be considered an evolution. The huge gap that has developed in a short period of time between not being able to access music and being able to access even what you don’t want to access, the fast-consuming albums of famous bands, the chance for local bands that we will never even hear of to announce their albums and songs, the fact that people can be directed according to their music styles… Is this point where technology has brought us and music to a point where easily accessible music will result in the destruction of the attitude and stance in rock? Can streaming platforms and artificial intelligence kill rock and roll? These platforms, which can offer you unlimited recommendations and lists from the few tracks you listen to, have started to boast of reducing the number of people they employ by using artificial intelligence more actively, while aiming to offer quality music.  While the essence of rock music has been wounded by the virtual world, this technology has started to be in our lives from lyrics to music, from music to music videos. And this artificial evolution used its biggest trump card to wound our souls when McCartney performed “I’ve Got a Feeling” at the Glastonbury Festival, virtually “duetting” with Lennon, who was murdered in 1980. By releasing the single Face it Alone in 2022, Queen completed Freddie Mercury’s song, which he could not complete before his death in 1991, with the support of artificial intelligence and presented it as a technological achievement. So is this a technological achievement, making an unfinished product financially saleable, or is this a revolution in rock music? Should we be happy to hear a new Queen album without Freddie, in his voice? Should it satisfy?

“I think Metallica’s last album was made with artificial intelligence,” said a friend of mine who didn’t like the album…Maybe what he meant was that the sound obtained in million-dollar studios far from the garage spirit is not always enough to reflect the soul. Was Petrucci really playing at that amazing concert? Disturbed, Gojira… Tomorrow maybe we will wake up to a new album by The Doors or The Beatles. What was the last thing Cobain, Bennington thought before they died? Is rock and roll dead?