For a long time, music followed a predictable map. Verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, out. It was a comfortable pattern that everyone knew how to follow.
Then you get bands like Angine de Poitrine who turn up and completely wreck the floor plan. It’s refreshing, especially now we’re living in an age where everything is being “regenerated” by AI based on the same old tired patterns.
In fact, I reckon we’ve already reached the tipping point. People say it’s only a matter of time before we get fed up with obviously generated AI material, but I think that ship has already sailed.
Whether it’s a magazine advert, a YouTube video, or some bland copywriting, anything clearly spat out by a machine is starting to look incredibly dated. It’s become white noise.
Don’t get me wrong (I know, I know, here comes the “but”), AI has its place. If you need to crunch numbers or scan medical data for patterns without getting tired, a machine is brilliant. It’s perfect for the mundane, repetitive work that would bore a human to tears.
But when it comes to creativity? AI is just a tool for people who lack the actual ability to create.
That might sound harsh, but let’s be honest about what’s happening. Using AI to “create” is a bit like masturbation. It’s a short-lived buzz, but it’s ultimately meaningless.
It’s nothing like the intense, shared experience of making love. Sorry if that’s a bit crude for a Wednesday morning, but it’s the truth. Creating something without the struggle (starting with absolutely nothing and ending with something uniquely yours) is soulless. It bypasses the entire neurological journey that makes the end result rewarding.
Why Complexity Matters Now
This is why I’m a bit obsessed with Angine de Poitrine lately. In a world of generic, AI-filtered rubbish, they represent a proper movement of resistance.
They use microtonal scales and mess about with 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures in ways that don’t fit a tidy algorithm. Between the “dotty triangle” presence and the alien roots, the whole package just exudes out-of-the-box thinking. They started, by their own admission, as a bit of a satirical inside joke about rock music.
They aren’t tired or generic. They are fascinating and inspiring because they’ve actually bothered to do the work.
If we keep relying on machines to do our thinking for us, we’re going to end up in a very beige world. Give me the weird, the difficult, and the human every single time.
We should embrace the odd time signatures, the unexpected triangles, the dots, and the bizarre outfits. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but that jarring sensation in your brain is actually nourishment for your soul. It provides a level of depth and connection that repetitive, predictable patterns simply cannot reach.
Anyway, enough of my rambling. Go listen to something that wasn’t designed by a prompt. Sweet, huh!
Elliott Richmond is a WordPress developer and educator based in Cheltenham. More writing and projects at elliottrichmond.co.uk.
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