[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.