IN TUNE WITH AI

More Singaporean creators are using generative artificial intelligence to make music

- Eddino Abdul Hadi

In local rapper Yung Raja's music video for his song FORREAL, he is seen flying through the air like Superman and confronting an alien while wearing a spacesuit.

But, contrary to the title, none of those scenes are real.

The 1min 42sec music video, which features other fantastical segments, was made with generative artificial intelligence (AI) via text prompts and visual references, as opposed to CGI (computer-generated imagery).

The use of AI in creating music reached a turning point earlier in July when indie rock band The Velvet Sundown whose members are pure AI creations went viral and racked up more than one million monthly listeners on streaming giant Spotify.

According to an AFP report, no major streaming service, except for Deezer, clearly labels tracks that come entirely from AI. The producers of these songs tend to be unreachable.

The Velvet Sundown's Spotify profile states the group are an "ongoing artistic provocation", a "synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, and voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence".

Closer to home, the use of AI presents both opportunities and challenges for local musicians, songwriters and composers.

Released in April, Raja's music video was an "experimental" collaboration with Malaysian AI creative studio, Vision Machina.

The rapper had previously used gen AI to come up with album art, but did not use it because it did not look good enough.

But when Vision Machina presented a demo video of him rapping — made with gen AI — Raja was struck by how lifelike it was. He agreed to let the company make a full music video for FORREAL, which it fully funded.

"I've always stood for innovation, for pushing the creative envelope in ways that people are not used to or have not seen," the 29-year-old tells The Straits Times.