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.
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.
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.
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.”
Continuing my countdown of the songs on Ben Folds’ new album, What Matters Most…
#4 – ‘Fragile’
Folds has been married five times (his current marriage, knock on wood, is the only one not to end in divorce) and his song catalog is well-stocked with evidence of his relationship difficulties.
He’s written a few straight-up love songs (‘The Luckiest‘ is probably my favorite) but he’s had more success writing about the tough times. And he’s never shy about digging into the uncomfortable dynamics that rarely make it into songs.
Meet Me In Montauk 