K-pop: The rise of the virtual AI girl bands

[Eric]

None of the music was played by actual musicians so why bother with real singers either I guess.

K-pop: The rise of the virtual girl bands

They may sing and dance like other musicians but they are made with artificial intelligence.

www.bbc.com

Since releasing their debut single I'm Real in 2021, K-pop girl group Eternity have racked up millions of views online.
They sing, dance and interact with their fans just like any other band.

In fact, there's mainly one big difference between them and any other pop group you might know - all 11 members are virtual characters.
Non-humans, hyper-real avatars made with artificial intelligence.

"The business we are making with Eternity is a new business. I think it's a new genre," says Park Jieun, the woman behind Eternity.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

I have to say out of all the pop music out there currently k-pop is probably the most formuliac. It's basically a mashup of all current popular genres. It's extremely lacking in originality. I'm not shocked in the slightest that AI could produce this.

The above sounds like a dig, but I'm just stating fact. I still like some of it, but it is what it is. The producers know exactly what they are doing and emulating.

 

[Eric]

I have to say out of all the pop music out there currently k-pop is probably the most formuliac. It's basically a mashup of all current popular genres. It's extremely lacking in originality. I'm not shocked in the slightest that AI could produce this.

The above sounds like a dig, but I'm just stating fact. I still like some of it, but it is what it is. The producers know exactly what they are doing and emulating.

It takes all of the human feel out of music and everything is so robotic. Even of those "musicians" that we see today in pop music I would ask if you unplugged everything and put them behind a piano or guitar could they actually play and sing a song with no other augmentation. Always had huge respect for MTV Unplugged that way, showed real artists actually performing their art.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

It takes all of the human feel out of music and everything is so robotic. Even of those "musicians" that we see today in pop music I would ask if you unplugged everything and put them behind a piano or guitar could they actually play and sing a song with no other augmentation. Always had huge respect for MTV Unplugged that way, showed real artists actually performing their art.

One of the reasons I respect Deadmau5 is because from pretty much the beginning he said he doesn't know what all the hype is with all these electronic producers, including himself, doing live shows because they are getting paid a ton of money to "hit the space bar".

He doesn't look at himself as a musician and on the live performance front he's put a lot of focus into making the visuals organic and something he can control on the fly. For most electronic and DJ shows it wouldn't even matter if they weren't on stage or even at the show. The sound and visuals would be the exact same without them.