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Song of the Day #5,463: ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’ – Jeff Buckley (AI)

One of the most popular uses of AI in the music space is the resurrection of dead artists. This technology allows us to hear (or at least pretend to hear) new material from singers who were sadly silenced. This is particularly poignant when applied to those who died young.

Jeff Buckley was just 30 when he drowned in 1997 having released only one studio album (1994’s wonderful Grace). Several posthumous releases have attempted to capitalize on his popularity, which is just a pre-AI form of exploitation. I’d argue that the AI efforts are less cynical because they aren’t rooted in capitalism.

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Song of the Day #5,462: ‘Vienna’ – Paul McCartney (AI)

They never told us in the Terminator and Matrix movies that, before the machines destroyed humanity, they performed classic songs in the voices of different artists. That seems to be the trajectory we’re on, anyway.

This week I will feature five songs reimagined by AI to feature new singers. I’d love to hear my readers’ thoughts on the artistic and ethical implications of this practice.

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Song of the Day #5,461: ‘Cruise’ – Florida Georgia Line feat. Nelly

The week of June 15, 2013, is putting Throwback Weekends to the test. Not only has the #1 song already appeared on the blog, but so have numbers two through four. No worries, though… it’s called the Hot 100, after all.

Topping the charts that week was ‘Can’t Hold Us‘ by Macklemore — Ryan Lewis, still hanging on from three weeks ago. In second place was Justin Timberlake’s ‘Mirrors,’ which I wrote about nine years ago. At #3 was Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky,’ which I featured on the blog a decade ago in a post that makes me sounds like an old man shouting at a cloud. Finally, the fourth spot is occupied by Pink and Nate Ruess, whose ‘Just Give Me a Reason‘ featured on a recent edition of Throwback Weekends.

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Song of the Day #5,460: ’21 Questions’ – 50 Cent feat. Nate Dogg

Throwing back to the week of June 14, 2003, we find 50 Cent atop the Billboard Hot 100 with ’21 Questions,’ a track featuring singer/raper Nate Dogg. This song spent four weeks atop the chart on its way to 23 total weeks on the Hot 100.

This was 50 Cent’s second straight single from debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ to reach #1. The first was ‘In Da Club,’ which showed up on a Throwback Weekend six weeks ago.

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Song of the Day #5,459: ‘Kristine from the 7th Grade’ – Ben Folds

Concluding my countdown of the songs on Ben Folds’ new album, What Matters Most…

#2 – ‘Winslow Gardens’

The album’s first single impressed me right out of the gate and has only grown on me since. This is the song most directly tied to the pandemic. Winslow Gardens is an apartment complex in Sydney, Australia, where Ben ended up settling down after being stranded in the city on tour.

The song uses the details of Folds’ experience to muse on the way unexpected events change our lives all the time. “Oh, just when plans are made,” he sings, “you find you’ve started all over again.”

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