What does the rise of AI-generated music mean for music journalism? I can only tell you how I feel about it.
I suppose it’s important to reflect on the purpose of a music review site in 2026. From day one, Bonnie encouraged me to only review music I love. In doing so, we’d avoid writing negative reviews that uphold historic distasteful attitudes towards other creatives within a scene. I totally reject the idea that any music is either good or not good; it’s entirely subjective, and pushing my opinion and trying to pass it as fact is not only ludicrous but frankly arrogant and self-important. Bonnie’s dream for this site was to develop a space where credit is given to those who have worked to create something great and to celebrate it.
We want to provide proof to creative people that what they have made is valuable and encourage them to continue. In a world where the main feedback in artistic endeavours comes from financial return, we offer something different. Defiant of the norm and genuinely helpful for the artist.
So, on that, I’d say it’s pretty clear that if you simply typed a prompt into an AI music generator, you haven’t done the work. You haven’t suffered for your art, developed and perfected skills and techniques, or expressed your human emotions in any way. What has been produced is therefore definitely not art.
More importantly, I’m truly concerned about the temptation for genuine artists to secretly turn to AI to help create something. To help them write that 2nd verse of a song they know is great but desperately need a little push to complete it, or even just to provide prompts for what they might consider writing about, or suggest chord structures, etc., after all, they would still write the finished article themselves, right? I think back to periods in my life before AI existed, when I was experiencing writer’s block. I can’t begin to explain the excruciating pain that causes for an artist. A heavy blanket of doubt suffocates the artist, and in that desperation, many simply quit. I’m heartbroken to know that some of my favourite artists from the towns I lived in “grew out of it”. I tried so many things to spark inspiration for writing songs in those years.
I sought advice from bloggers and vloggers by constantly searching how to write a song. I would try to tell myself that it would pass and that someday I’d write something meaningful again. But the truth is, I didn’t believe it. There was no proof that I’d ever written anything good. Had I been fooled by my ego into believing that I was ever any good at writing songs? Luckily, something in me wouldn’t let me stop trying. I think I realised that I just love doing it. I love playing instruments, singing, making noise, putting words together and turning them into phrases that evolved into songs and poems. So, I kept at it. But I imagine that if the temptation of AI-generated lyrics or music existed in those days, it would be extremely difficult for anyone not to succumb.
Writing songs is a noble and generous art to engage in. Expressing raw emotion in a song and then releasing it into the world is a kindness that allows others to feel their own emotions and understand their current place in the world or within themselves. This is the purpose of art. Just as I cried in agony while listening to Radiohead or danced with glee to The Libertines and The Strokes or felt palpable anger towards my teenage ex-girlfriend while listening Arab Strap, or smirked at the wit of Tenacious D. Our future generations have the right to experience their emotions as articulated by a genuine master of artistically expressing humanness. I deserve that too, and you do.
Remember too, that some emotions can’t be named. There are no words to accurately explain how I felt when my mum died, but somehow, music managed pretty well. And so, if we can’t write it in words, how can we even begin to hope to prompt an AI to generate that emotion for us? Human musicians create brand new colours every day and allow you to borrow them for your own sketches.
There is no resolution at this time; no solution I can put forward to tie up this article. AI will continue to evolve, taking influence from us and returning something bereft of soul for the sole purpose of generating wealth.
A final thought on the fear that sparked this article: I have a genuine worry that someone will send me a song or an album to review that was generated by AI, and I’ll be duped into reviewing it. I’ve been sent songs by friends in the past and thought they were cool until I did some digging and realised a bot had made it. There is no way for us to know for sure, but we can speculate by checking the artwork and whether they’ve just released 5 albums in a week etc. It just adds unnecessary work for music journalists, and frankly, I think we’d all just rather listen to something real.
