Readers of a certain age probably won’t forget the iconic art that adorned the album covers of some of the biggest music releases of a bygone era. While the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers,” Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon,” The Clash’s “London Calling” and Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” would still be considered wonder albums regardless of their respective covers, it’s only about to separate music from art.
Serious ideas and attention have been and continue to be put into an art similar to music.
However, in the age of music streaming, images are minimized. YouTube Music has further reshaped the concept of accompanying art with music this month by introducing traditional photographs that employ generative artificial intelligence for playlists.
Instead of allowing users to upload their own artwork, the music streaming service gives them the ability to create original AI-generated artwork. Users choose a category from features such as animals, food and drink, colors, nature, or travel, while activating various features in addition to “style. “The AI then comes up with five other features, from which users can use one of the photographs to make up the playlist.
Previously, YouTube Music created a symbol by merging art from the first 4 songs into a user’s playlist.
The new feature is available to YouTube Music users in the US. It is open to the U. S. , but the Google-owned company plans to expand it to other regions and languages.
“The guided experience allows users to effortlessly explore a diversity of themes and visual features to create unique cover art that expresses the uniqueness of their private playlists. You’re struggling to find the best representation for your R-inspired morning
It’s doubtful that the AI can capture the same point of “inspired” art that was hired to create the album covers.
“The connection between art and popular music was closed in the 1960s and 1970s, when paintings by avant-garde artists, from R. Crump for Big Brother’s “Cheap Thrills” to Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly, who has produced several Grateful Dead LPs — to H. R. Giger for ELP’s “Brian Salad Surgery”; and famous photographers, such as Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, Elliott Erwitt, Irving Penn, Lee Friedlander, Richard Avedon and William Eggleston, made album covers as memorable as the songs they offered,” said Pund’s Charles King, an industry analyst at Generation.
King added that while he has no problem with YouTube customers adding AI-generated art to their playlists, he cautioned that it’s little more than looking to “beautify” cheap advertising products.
“Given that there are tens of thousands of talented artists looking for work, why doesn’t YouTube rent them out to create memorable art playlists and bring them to customers?””Probably because it’s a modest amount of cash and risk. AI, on the other hand, is affordable and risk-free. Plus, it’s completely soulless and forgettable. “
AI-generated art can’t be fostered through the actual music in the playlist. However, in the era of “mixed tapes” on cassettes, artwork was also not taken into account.
“User-created collection-related artwork has come a long way since other people added original art to combo ribbon labels,” said Bruce Barber, resident fellow and executive director of 88. 7 WNHU at the University of New Haven.
The biggest issue, according to Barber, is whether the AI that generates the art will resonate with users in the same way as now-famous album covers, and what today’s music artists would possibly think.
“Musicians and record labels have been involved in maintaining control of their art, and that’s going to scare both sides,” Barber added.
Even the most productive AI-generated art probably lacks that special little detail. Can AI create something as undeniable yet as iconic as Andy Warhol’s portrayal for The Velvet Underground and Nico’s Deyet album?
Probably not.
“Ultimately, YouTube’s foray into AI-created photographs will most likely produce the kind of art you see in reasonable hotels: bland, unforgettable, and easily disposable,” King argued. “Will YouTube consumers need to combine disposable, shitty photographs with their favorite music?I hope not. “