[krapp]

Most people don't really care about deeply interwoven aspects of the human condition or semantic meaning when they listen to music, because most popular music is shallow and derivative as it is, a catchy beat and a hook and little else. When you think about the possibilities for automating creative output, you have to consider that the lowest common denominator brings the most potential profit.

[ryanf]

I think you're missing that even shallow popular music is fundamentally about the interplay between familiarity and unfamiliarity in a way that's informed by the broader world. Sometimes it's about knowing who the performer is and how a song fits into their life and persona, or maybe it's about the way the melody and style conform to or defy current idioms, but it's definitely not about anything simple enough to be replicated in an unguided way by an AI. Like an AI could spit out a perfect 2000-era Britney Spears song tomorrow and it wouldn't be a hit regardless of its technical merits, because that's not what anyone is actually looking for in 2020.