Granderson: AI can perform a song, but can it make art?

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What’s most frustrating about the success of Breaking Rust, the AI program that recently reached the top of Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales Chart, isn’t just that an AI created the songs—it’s the names of the songs themselves.

“Walk My Way.”

“Living on Borrowed Time.”

I’ve been listening to Breaking Rust’s new EP, “Resilient,” and it feels like it comes from a lot of hard-won experience – like Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, who wrote all the songs, spent years honing his craft in nearly empty rooms. It’s a really raw sound, and while he sings so powerfully about struggle, it doesn’t feel like a story of triumph over hardship, but rather a deep expression of the pain itself.

It’s ironic that a virtual country singer achieved popularity by essentially parodying the genre. Just last year, there was debate about whether Beyoncé, a Texas native, was ‘country enough’ for a country album. Now, AI artists like Breaking Rust and Xania Monet are topping R&B charts, proving you don’t even need to be a real person to succeed in these musical styles.

Eric Church, whose recent album “Evangeline vs. the Machine” received a Grammy nomination, isn’t concerned about AI replacing live music. He believes people still crave the experience of seeing shows in person, and AI can’t replicate that. Church suggests the music industry treat AI-generated music as a distinct genre and create a separate award category for it.

He believes the current trend won’t last, though he admits it’s enjoyable. He explained that the biggest appeal of music is experiencing it live with other fans, something he doesn’t think AI can replicate. For him, being with people who share your love for an artist is the best part of being a fan, and that’s an experience AI can’t offer.

Church will finish his tour on Saturday at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood. Beyond promoting his new album, his foundation has been helping those affected by Hurricane Helene, using money raised from a benefit concert. The North Carolina artist also released a song to support his community. He feels strongly about transparency regarding AI in music, stating, “We should be letting people know when it’s AI… I don’t think most people realize it is.” He was discussing his album, Breaking Rust, when he made this point.

The main issue is that these technologies can convincingly trick people by making it seem like something was said or done when it wasn’t. As Church explained, it’s very deceptive. He’s even seen examples online of his own likeness being used – like having his face placed on someone else’s body – and his mother was fooled by one of these fakes. He immediately recognized it wasn’t him.

“That’s where it gets dangerous and that’s where it gets scary.”

I’ve been fascinated by these AI musicians like Breaking Rust, and honestly, if they are just a trend, it’s a surprisingly long one in the making! It all started way back in the 60s with artists experimenting with vocal effects, but I think Peter Frampton’s live album in 1975 really brought it into the mainstream. Then in the 80s, Roger Troutman of Zapp used that technology to create a totally unique, futuristic sound, and it was amazing. But the biggest shift, for me, came in the 90s when AutoTune went from being a subtle fix in the studio to becoming a signature sound – Cher’s “Believe” was a perfect example, and it took over the charts! It’s incredible to see how these technologies have evolved over the decades to bring us to where we are today.

For years, studio technology has allowed singers with limited ability to achieve success, sometimes at the expense of genuine skill and artistry.

Back before MTV launched in 1981, many people worried that music videos would make radio obsolete. That didn’t turn out to be true. Now, with the rise of AI-created videos, some fear they could replace actors and other performers. However, that shouldn’t necessarily mean the end of real talent.

Just like in many areas of life, when skill and experience aren’t appreciated, it becomes easier to mistake something low-quality for something valuable. Tools like Auto-Tune and artificial intelligence are letting people without natural musical ability create convincing but ultimately artificial results – it’s like being tricked by a fake online persona, but with audio.

When an artist like Church sings about heartbreak, people connect with the emotion because it feels real. But the band Breaking Rust currently has a hit song, “Walk My Way,” despite the fact that the singer hasn’t actually lived those experiences.

Look, I’ll admit, an AI can definitely create a song that gets stuck in your head. But it really makes you think – if there’s no actual artist behind the music, can you really call it art? It’s a weird question, and honestly, it’s bugging me as a movie and music fan.

YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow

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2025-11-15 00:31