Hacker News Reader

That's wild. Thanks for the links. Infinite AI Muzak I guess? I suppose it was inevitable.

Seems to be genuinely popular. I can see why, but when there's so much 'real music' out there, why not just listen to that and enrich yourself instead of bathing in fake nonsense? If you want jazz, just put on a jazz album — hell, even Kind of Blue will do.

I'm not sure all (or any) of it actually is AI though. I assume that's coming very soon, but I suspect this stuff is cynically and methodically hand-composed.

By the way: I have nothing against generative composition! Brian Eno has been doing this stuff longer than anyone else, and it's very cool. I'm sure you could make some 'generative jazz' that's actually distinctive and artistic, but this isn't it.

Not longer than Steve Reich, John Cage, Philip Glass, or Ann Southam.

Nor for that matter Mozart, who wrote simple algorithmic compositions powered by dice. These were common musical games in his day.

You’re probably right, but I meant generative in the sense of building a machine that does the entire process.

ah, like Al-Jazari's water-powered musical automata in 1206, or Athanasius Kircher's marble machine in the 17th century. or (for more modern examples) Raymond Scott's Electronium in 1959, and the Rhythmicon in 1931.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com