You Might Like This Too... #7

Hi friends

Quick spiel for any one stopping by for the first time: I have a voracious appetite for stories and make some musings as a creative at heart who also gets stuff done in large organisations. Highbrow or lowbrow, I don’t care what state of refinement the art is in, if it helps me to “understand something about the odd experience of being alive” (Sam Green, 32 Sounds), sign me up! If there's content here that struck a chord for you, please share your thoughts, there's honestly nothing better than geeking out together!

What has been feeding me

Judas! No Synthesisers! No AI!

A friend recently shared a disclaimer they heard at the start of a podcast: “This show features real and original vocal performances. No synthetic or AI technology was used in this production.” I recently saw other interesting thoughts by Josh Mann around the integrity of production with the possibility of AI tools, and two things immediately leapt into my mind when I heard this podcast disclaimer - 1. Bob Dylan being called Judas for going electric, and 2. Queen proudly proclaiming on their albums “no synths!”

I've fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole about the creative precipice we are on with AI tools, and the analogous era of burgeoning disco/electronic/hip hop music over the late 70s and early 80s. I think it would be easy to say “well these AI tools deal in data, they’re dangerous, there will be no original content again, they’re in the hands of thug corporations - this has got nothing to do with some click beat on a disco track.” But, for me, the story of Nile Rodgers’ music completely captures everything about the creative precipice we are on as AI changes the toolkit available to creatives.

1. Prior to 1977, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards record for label ‘Buddah’ (sic) as their band CHIC. Buddah doesn’t meet their end of the deal. Atlantic then also has the record pressed and beats Buddah by a day to release it. Both labels earn royalties, with only Atlantic passing on the money to the artists - however no one sues to keep the peace around broken contracts.
2. Disco culture emerges with “a rainbow coalition from every cultural background and neighbourhood.” As Nile Rodgers explained his experience of this new way of living, “the underground, now ethnic and more empowered than ever before, was becoming mainstream.” And physically, this resulted in “a whole slew of touchy-feely dance moves [being] introduced into the mainstream clubs - a consequence of gay sex coming out of the closet and onto the dance floor.”
3. 4 June 1979, CHIC’s single ‘Good Times’ is released. It was a groundbreaking song of perfection, and it sold like gangbusters. Listen to that bass line, totally iconic.
4. 12 July 1979, Disco Demolition Night puts the final nail in Disco’s coffin. Nile Rodgers charactersises the moment where “one group would continue to befoul the throne under the dark rule of Disco (the music of blacks, gays, women, and Latinos), and the other would try to return it to its rightful rulers (the white guys).” CHIC was never to have another hit record again.
5. In 1979, the Sugarhill Gang recorded ‘Rapper’s Delight’ using a sample of CHIC’s ‘Good Times’, but this was before sampling was a thing, and there was no credit given to CHIC. The Sugarhill Gang is under a label that also leads to the same man behind the Buddah label - Morris Levy. This guy is an industry thug. Nile Rodgers describes him as “probably the most terrifying, powerful person in the record business.” They decide to sue this terrifying man in order to be compensated for the music they originally created.
6. In 1980, Queen released their first album using synthesisers after triumphantly declaring ’No Synthesisers’ on their records for years. The hit song ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ is unmistakably a funky jam - with a bass line that sounds very, deeply, wholly inspired by Good Times. Nile Rodgers explains "[Queen bass player] John Deacon was in the studio when we wrote 'Good Times.' People don’t realize that musicians never have a problem with other musicians. Unfortunately it’s the fans who go, 'Oh no, I’m only into punk rock, I’m only into…'"

It is all there! Figuring out of where original content begins and inspiration turns to uncredited sampling, warring groups based on maintaining or changing power structures, the attempt to gatekeep what content deserves access to the mainstream, the economic realities and market barriers that make original content so cost prohibitive (i.e. paying for session musicians) versus derivative content (i.e. sampling), and the thug corporations holding the actual cash which only sometimes makes it to the artists.

Deep fakes, weapons and political tampering are terrifying prospects, I am in no denial about the gruesome applications of AI. However, specifically for AI as a tool for creative expression, I am finding comfort in the fact that this kind of painful change has happened before. In 1979, the ‘Disco Sucks’ movement tried to stamp out a new part of the mainstream which was celebrating women of colour’s pleasure (I’m not making this up - I learnt this at ‘Disco Conversion Therapy’ where we listened to 2 minutes of disco samples that exclusively featured vocals of women just having a really good time - think Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby’). Despite the best efforts by ‘Disco Sucks’ to eradicate the music and sentiment, the music evolved further and further into genres like hiphop, and female expression was not silenced. In 2020 Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion debuted their track at number one (which you will have to google if you don’t know what it is - because this is LinkedIn y’all) and it definitely celebrates female pleasure. I guess I’m just reminded that there’s always pain, suffering and stupidity with change, but the good stuff does make its way through! Take it away Nile Rodgers… “Obviously disco didn’t die, it just grew up and changed its name and address.”

As to what working with these tools looks like, this thought from Nile Rodgers resonated for me: “I kept thinking to myself, ‘Damn, what would the world look like if in order to run for public office or to be a world leader it was mandatory that you had to be able to play an instrument, at least sing or play an instrument?’ And then in order to have any kind of relevant public policy meeting, you had to jam first.” The skill of listening, harmonisation, communing, finding connection, collaboration and making a contribution will never be replaced by any tool, instrument or technology - in my view, it all starts with our hearts, how we see ourselves in the world, and how we then sit in relationships with others.

In putting this together, I took quotes and inspiration from these fabulous places:

• Redbull Music Academy
• Le Freak, an Upside Down Story of Family, Disco and Destiny by Nile Rodgers
• Nile Rodgers & CHIC: Tiny Desk Concert
• Nile Rodgers: The Producers playlist

Deeper Hidden Meaning

As you can tell, I’m on a Nile Rodgers deep dive at the moment. His music is beyond and I am realising how much I was unknowingly enjoying his work with other artists like Beyoncé and Daft Punk (who have this amazing backstory of how they got together). So far, I have particularly loved this little nugget about his songwriting with creative partner Bernard Edwards: DHM or Deep Hidden Meaning.

“Our golden rule was that all our songs had to have this ingredient. In short it meant understanding the song’s DNA and seeing it from many angles. Art is subjective, but if we knew what we were talking about, then we could relay it to others in various disguises while maintaining its essential truth.”

It’s such a great little heuristic to apply to message crafting - is there a DHM here, or are we just making noise?

Interrogating the Handwringing

Jane Caro wrote The Fall of Madmen in the Griffith Review about the decline of the Australian advertising industry over the 80s and 90s. “Forget glass ceilings, it was the sanctity and privilege of secret men's business at the office that was being shattered.

With that demystification went the glamour. Esther Clerehan says 'the craft of advertising [the typography, illustration and kerning I mentioned earlier] has been democratised by the computer.’ Rocky Ranallo is blunt. ‘The industry changed when Apple made the Apple Mac and it became really easy for the clients to make their own ads.’ And this democratisation has spread much further than clients. ‘We're all Kardashians now,' says Andrew Hornery, pointing out that anyone with a voice and a presence can build a brand thanks to social media.

No wonder so many were made uneasy by those first signs of change. And it was perhaps understandable (if inexcusable) that the so-called career women in the '80s and '90s bore the brunt of that discomfort, because their arrival was easier to resist than changes in technology, and easier to blame.” (On a side note though, seeing this post by Paul Chappell, looks like not much has changed in the Australian advertising industry and women are still bearing the brunt - yikes.)

So I need to wrap up this mega edition of ‘You might like this too…’ and where I’m landing is that old mate Bob ‘Judas’ Dylan was correct in 1964 that ‘the times they are a-changin’ AND la grande dame Shirley Bassey also was correct in the 1998 Propellerheads song that ‘it’s all just a little bit of history repeating’. I am unsure about all this handwringing on AI creative tools and what the DHM is of it - is the fretting about a tool that could corrupt the quality and earnestness of creative endeavours, or is the fretting about a tool that might shatter the sanctity and privilege of secret creative business and the ensuing power structures? I don’t know. I whipped up the header for ‘You might like this too’ with AI. But all this writing was crafted entirely by me. Can you tell? Does it matter? Do I need a disclaimer? Get ChatGPT to draft you a response in the voice of Moira Rose and pop it in the comments below.

Sarah