The Blur frontman has been reflecting on the changes – and challenges – to the music industry in light of the advent of Artificial Intelligence which has already been used to imitate existing and deceased musicians
Damon Albarn has warned that musicians could resort to taking drugs in order to compete against music that is being made by artificial intelligence.
The 55-year-old chart topping star has been the frontman of Blur since 1988 and electro-pop group Gorillaz since 1998. While the singer has enjoyed worldwide success with both groups, the music landscape has changed in recent years – not least with the advent of A.I.
Damon says he has been left shaken by fake cover versions of songs created by A.I to emulate singers of years gone by like Frank Sinatra – as well as existing performers like Michael Buble and Snoop Dogg. He argues that for modern day musicians to compete with the beats being laid out by computers, they may have to become more experimental than ever before.
Speaking to The Sun, he explained: “It’s absurd. Anyone who has so much time to sing songs through a Michael Buble filter and put them on the internet is a f***ing idiot. If the AIs are the future of music, we’re gonna need better drugs to get us through it!”