Of all the things that’s made people wonder what music’s going to become in the near future, the biggest disruptor in the space has to be the rise of artificial intelligence. From cover art to actual music being uploaded to various streaming services, digital fakes and robot compositions have been a major talking point. While most people actively show worry or disdain for the technology, Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt has a different stance all together.
While speaking with Spain’s Metal Journal (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Bettencourt said he was excited to see what the future could hold. Especially when it comes to instrumentation.
“Everybody’s worried and everybody’s scared, and how it’s gonna change anything. I love it, man. You know why I love it? I’m, like, bring it on. Do more of it. Because what that does, the people who do that and use it and think they can emulate emotion, the bigger, to me, rock and roll is gonna get. Because rock and roll, if you notice — look at all the technology that’s happened since the 1930s, everything from telephones to television, to cell phones, to computers to synthesize everything else, what has changed in the guitar? Nothing. Zero. What has changed in a drum set? Nothing. What has changed in a bass guitar? Nothing. A microphone.”
For many, the simple use of A.I. just to make cover art is enough to draw backlash from fans. It’s unclear if people will ever be okay with use of the technology in rock and metal, but at this time it sounds like people are pretty reticent to allow it in their circles. Still, its real interesting to see if there’s a “legit” use of A.I.
To Bettencourt’s credit, he said it would be impossible for a computer to create rock music because it’s “broken” compared to other major genres.
“Rock and roll, to me, is always there because it’s broken. It’s not artificial. It’s not perfect. It’s all the imperfections, is what makes us shine. It’s the danger of it. A.I. can do all you want — to write lyrics, to write song, to do whatever, even record, to do whatever — but it’s always gonna sound sterilized, even when they try… Because even if they tried to sound like, let’s say, I don’t know, Led Zeppelin… Led Zeppelin didn’t even sound like Led Zeppelin every night. Sometimes they were great, sometimes they were sloppy, sometimes it was amazing, and that’s the danger, and that’s the thing of rock and roll that you will never be able to capture with A.I. I don’t give a fuck how much they’re gonna try.”
You can check out the rest of Bettencourt’s interview below.