Music 2025: Humans and Machines

We might ask: Is the genuine and subtle beauty of art more important, or is it more important to 'democratize' the ability to create art for everyone?

G-DRAGON's world tour in Vietnam caused a sensation, attracting approximately 100,000 people, including many international fans. (Photo: Galaxy Corporation)

With album covers styled after René Magritte's paintings and a dreamy, ethereal indie rock sound reminiscent of the 1960s, The Velvet Sundown garnered millions of listens on Spotify before it was revealed that it was entirely a product of artificial intelligence.

The true beauty of music

Most of the people behind AI artists say that because they can't compose music themselves, the emergence of music-making apps like Suno or Udio allows them to express their stories in ways they never could before. Previously, the power of artistic expression was reserved only for those with talent.

Artists, of course, don't like AI. Earlier this year, over 1,000 musicians, including Paul McCartney, Hans Zimmer, Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Annie Lennox, Pet Shop Boys, and others, released an album with 13 songs, each with a single-word title that, when put together, spells out: The British government cannot legalize music theft for AI companies to profit from.

One of the most memorable musical moments the author experienced in 2025 was at a concert in Hanoi during G-DRAGON's Übermensch tour. Several times during the show, the stage went silent, nothing happened, and the audience joked, "Maybe he's too tired to sing. He's getting old."

It's not G-DRAGON's perfect stage presence in his dazzling outfits that makes us remember the show, but rather his absences, or even the imperfections in the performance, that make us miss it more. These imperfections don't make us angry; they make us enjoy it. Imperfections are very human.

G-Dragon bowed deeply to the audience in the heavy rain after the end of the concert - Video : Chi Long Vietnam Fanpage

G-DRAGON took 7 years to return to music. Fans constantly share stories about the 7 years G-DRAGON faced with depression, hardship, rumors, and the gradual disbandment of Big Bang.

Weakness is also the source of beauty.

Although it's not a direct comparison, let's look at AI artists. The Velvet Sundown released three albums in one year, with consistent quality. Xania Monet also released two albums and a single. AI artists don't get depressed.

What about people? Taylor Swift, often called a "machine" because of her robotic work rate, released Life of a Showgirl and received a lot of criticism: it lacked passion, originality, catchy music, and heartfelt expression.

But perhaps if every album of hers were as good as 1989, with every song being of consistently high quality, that would be truly boring. Taylor Swift has plenty of bad songs too, so what? As the saying goes, "even Homer can be wrong."

Taylor Swift, who is often called a "machine" because of her work rate.

In 2025, we will still see much genuine beauty in music and human stories.

Swag, a low-key album by Justin Bieber, an album that stripped away the glamour of a former pop prince, an album that, despite its good and bad songs, reflects the bumpy road a teenager takes to become a grown man. Mayhem, an album that nobody had high expectations for.

What more surprises could Lady Gaga possibly have in store? In the end, it all turned into an "exhibition" of bizarre ideas.

Golden - K-pop Demon Hunters OST

One musical phenomenon of the past year was the K-pop soundtrack album Demon Hunters. The K-pop-inspired animated band swept the music charts. Three female idols are stars by day, fighting evil by night; and one of them has half-human, half-demon blood.

The story, with its motif of an imperfect demigod, is a very human story: humans always have weaknesses, but at the same time, weaknesses are the source of beauty.

Is this what we want?

Nick Hustlers is an AI rapper. His music has even been used by Justin Bieber on Instagram. An article in The New Yorker about AI singers/songwriters revealed the identity of the person behind Hustlers.

It's… a real person. He's an office worker who loves music and rap, but is "too old to start a rap career." AI gives him a different life, one not limited by age, talent, or luck.

Xania Monet

Similarly, behind Xania Monet is a young poet from Mississippi. Although she doesn't know how to compose music, she says that the entire story in Monet's viral songs is real, based on her own poems, but refined and adapted into music by AI. Monet is an extension of herself. Although AI, Monet's foundation remains human.

Despite facing much opposition from artists, AI-powered music production apps are still widely used. These are ordinary people, without extraordinary talent, but who still want to tell their stories, who want to glimpse into a creative world often associated with divine inspiration, reserved only for a select few?

Despite the gray areas in the AI ​​debate, isn't that desire also beautiful and genuine? And it's been a long time since the world has faced such a crucial new philosophical question: choose genuine art or equalize creative rights for everyone?

Perhaps the only way to answer is to ask a different question, like the title of the album that questions AI policies, created by over 1,000 famous artists: Is This What We Want?

2025 was the year of AI: from the AI-generated song "Walk My Walk" topping a Billboard country music chart, to the multi-million dollar recording deal for AI "singer" Xania Monet. On Spotify, Monet had nearly 1.5 million monthly listens.

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HIEN TRANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/am-nhac-2025-nguoi-va-may-20251207101020661.htm