Are We at the Stage Where Robots Can Write Perfect Pop Songs?
If not, we’re damn close. From The Atlantic:
Grab some blank sheet music. Choose a key (a major key, preferably). Set your tempo at something moderate, 4/4 time. Write a melody, a chorus, and a bridge, with each line getting eight bars. Add lyrics about a relatable topic—love? loss?loneliness?—and, voilà, you’ve written a pop song.
Okay, okay, a 32-bar form and karaoke-friendly lyrics do not a hit song make. But most do follow the same basic guidelines—major key, moderate tempo, broad topic—before they’re produced and packaged to become the latest earworms.
Which begs the question: If pop songs can so easily be written and then distributed into an unbreakable cycle of hits, can’t they also be reverse engineered and reproduced? Can’t a songwriter feed a topic into a machine and have that machine regurgitate a melody and lyrics, forming a pop song that’s packaged and ready to go?
Continue reading. (Via Bobby)
