Ever wake up in the morning,New ideas with no warning,Now you know what that's like:It feels like this!~ Assorted Jelly Beans, "Booshduckdow"
One of the main problems today is that no one is one the same page. Not only that, it feels as if nobody wants to be on the same page, constantly backbiting and sabotaging each other over petty disagreements over even basic word definitions.
How can we live together when we can't even communicate with each other? How can one build anything off of a relationship that cannot ever grow? Why does it also feel sometimes as if this never seems to get better?
Will it always be like this?
Every day it feels like a new piece of our lives is being mashed into one artificial algorithm in order to shuffle this failing modernity into one particular funneled direction. Of course, it's true, but there was a time when they weren't so obvious about these changes. Perhaps that's just the natural state of things when entropy is involved, but there is no longer any subtlety to the decline going on when even the most delusional lovers of destruction need to take pills in order to ignore it.
At the same time as all of this, however, is the plentiful amount of scapegoating and pointless battle lines being drawn over nothing. It is almost as if everyone knows there is a problem, cannot allow themselves to define it, and then therefore look for an easier target they can control and take that down in its stead.
Take the recent spree of AI "invading" modern artforms and supposedly putting creators of all stripes out of work and devaluing the sanctity of Human Art by turning it into a mechanized belt-line of product. This AI monster has striped the sovl out of creation and made Art about producing content to satiate the fickle masses. How could the machines do this? Everything but art was supposed to be mechanized!
You might be nodding your head to this line of reasoning, but before you continue down this road, I want you to look up what internet creators call themselves these days, regardless if they're streamers, video makers, or just general entertainers. You've probably already heard the phrase before: they call themselves Content Creators. Why do they use that term? Because that's their job: pumping out Content to satiate an artificial algorithm for consumers that want a constant drip feed of entertainment pumped into their veins like morphine. This is what these Content Creators treat their vocations as: mere appeasement to satisfy an algorithm that cares nothing for them and can throw them away at any moment.
Now pair the above two paragraphs together into one cogent thought. Do you see how this landscape was created? Who was it that demanded it be this way? The creation of AI did not lead to artificiality; the elevation of artificiality lead to the creation of AI.
For as long as I've been alive, expectations around arts and entertainment have changed constantly, and not for the better. Audiences have repeatedly demanded both the bare minimum (hitting specific fetish checkboxes) at the same time as requesting the maximum (jangled key subversion) which severely limit what any creator can do. This has lead to corporations such as Disney and Sony to create entire advertising campaigns predicated on online bots (it doesn't even matter if they're human anymore, to be honest) to disparage and rile up audiences to get the correct ingroup to consume their product while pointing fingers at the outgroup and assuring you the corporation is on your side. It feels good to be on the good guy's side, after all!
If this sounds completely ridiculous that's because it is. It's also unsustainable because it goes against the original purpose of art: it is the opposite of communication. It is turning creation into a farce with no purpose behind it except some combination of ideological subversion and extra pocket change. Though when Fanatics are involved, it always leans more to the former.
The question we need to start asking is what is going on here. What are we creating for, and what are we taking in these creations for. If it's just to pump out and consume content then we don't need people for that. Objectively, we don't. It is then a disposable job that doesn't need human input at all. We can just build machines to inject that bare minimum into our veins whenever we want. This is more or less what all creation has become, after all. All we have to do is lower (or let others lower) or standards and accept the bare minimum.
Who cares about uplifting themes, creativity, cogent worldbuilding, or consistency, when you can enjoy more things by pretending they don't matter? That way you can consume more! Isn't that clever! (And convenient for those in charge, but I digress.)
As an example, take this song I cobbled together in a the Suno AI program called "Cultural Ground Zero" that I made for fun. In fact, I did it twice to help prove my point. Follow me here, I assure you this will make sense.
All I did was both generate and write some lyrics, decide the music genre being third wave ska, and specified the general song structure and the AI just slapped it together. I just wanted a short goofy little song I could imagine in Tony Hawk Pro Skater or the like back in the day, and that is exactly what I got.
The program created this:
The first one created with the prompt
The second one with the same prompts
Did you listen to them? They sound like 1990s ska tunes, don't they? Surely this means musicians are in danger, right? Well, hold on a moment. You might think that if you don't know much about the genre besides how stale it got in the 2000s. (Honestly think these are somehow more creative than some of the boring stuff I heard in the '00s and '10s though.) But if you legitimately enjoy the genre, you would understand how they fall short.
My personal opinion on these tracks: they're fine. As someone who has repeatedly said third wave ska is one of his favorite genres, this hits all the tropes. It does exactly what I want the algorithm to do and delivers the bare minimum to reach it. To be honest, it's just as good as a lot of the genre is these days. Why? Here is where we get into the weeds.
My issue with the genre today is people want to write to tropes instead of writing songs, and it's been a problem in the genre since the 2000s. That's because people who want to write third wave ska songs today will write "third wave ska songs" and check trope boxes off to slap together an acceptable genre song. They themselves are already doing the same thing the above AI is doing. At that point, why do I need any human input? Humans were not made to check boxes in order to create. They were made to create, period.
In other words, what they do is barely any different to what AI does. The "human touch" or whatever weak qualifier you want to give them is irrelevant: nothing is really being expressed musically other than wanting to fit in a box to get content out. Back in the day you wanted to make sure your CD was put in the right corner of the store, after all. Wouldn't want to stumble into something original you didn't expect.
There isn't any difference to what a lot of creativity arguments boil down to today. The change is that today there is a thankfully shrinking demographic of consumers who desire only check box entertainment, and now they have a toy they can use to give that to them instead of making human beings do that waste of time for them. If these AI programs threaten what you do, then what you do is simply not very good.
To contrast the above example, I want you to listen to keep the above AI songs in mind, then listen to the one just below with your headphones on. Whether it's your genre of choice or not, I want you to hear it for several reasons. The main one being that the below comes from when the genre actually was at its peak in popularity and the song is not even a well known example of the genre or from one of the popular bands of the time. I want to make this contrast because you need to understand just how different a checkbox creation is compared to a piece of art made for specific purpose, even an obscure one that was never even popular in its day.
The song is called "Entry Level Positions" by Assorted Jelly Beans from 1998, a third wave ska punk trio that put out only two albums and are almost unknown today. The album it comes from, What's Really Going On!?!, was a huge step up from their 1996 self-titled debut (here's an example of what that sounded like), and is still one of my favorites from the genre a quarter of a century later. Despite the year it came out, it points out and criticizes the decay of Cultural Ground Zero, and the decay going on.
Listen to this ditty here: [Warning: It's loud!]
[Trivia: their drummer is now in The Aquabats]
Did you hear it? Then maybe you already see the differences. Ska punk existed to make the audience move, whether by dancing or shuffling, it wanted you to move. The band uses every trick up its sleeve, inspired by both 1980s-era punk rock and 1990s-era ska to get you to do that.
The song is messy and overwhelming, yes. That is the point. But a close listen reveals a unique song structure and lyrics interwoven with the composition, sound effects and vocal tricks (where did this go in rock music?), and even a unique usage of a horn section (which sound almost like traffic noises) that the band only ever employed on one other song.
"Entry Level Positions" matches the albums intent to replicate a full collapse with tracks that feel like the band could fall apart at any moment to match the state of the modern world itself. Listen to the song a second time more closely and you can easily tell the difference between this and an AI song. There is simply too much here for an AI to replicate. That is because this song, even made by a nearly unknown band and one of their lesser known tracks, is much more than the bare minimum.
It should also be reminded that this song came out when the genre was at its commercial peak. This was being released the same time No Doubt, Sublime, and the Might Mighty Bosstones were selling millions of records, and this band even played on stage with some of them. This creative track and sound was made with the intent to reach as many people as possible, not to chase away "normies" or something stupid like that.
This was not a purposeful rejection of commercial aspirations usually reserved for when a subculture begins its fall from grace--in fact there's a good chance a lot of people heard this album back then and liked it. Commercial peaks come when something is at its creative peak, not before or after. This means groups like Assorted Jelly Beans were still playing pop music aimed at people who wanted to hear the genre. There is no faux rebellion playing into a rejection of false crowds.
For art to connect, it must be aimed at the largest number of people who want to engage with it. It should not deliberately shun people.
To be fair, the album is about how culture is in freefall and crumbling apart and trying to figure it all out. And because this was before Blue Team Good, Red Team Bad thinking that mentally stunted the genre a mere handful of years later, you end up with a message that resonates just as much today as it did back then and to far more people. Though I bet the band would have preferred if the song were dated instead. Nonetheless, even ska punk bands would devolve into weaponizing their music in mere years after this released, sealing their genre into ghetto status and putting out the bare minimum for people who wanted just that. Creativity did not flower in this down period when normal people left. It never does.
On the other hand, the band's most popular song, "Rebel Yell", which is probably known most for being in a Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game, is more or less about this poisonous artificiality of creating product despite the fact that art itself is actually incredibly dangerous and powerful on its own. It can warp and change who you are. Given what the album is about, these two songs form the picture of an art world very rapidly losing its footing and understanding the purpose of expression and connection. It's a very important message lost in the growing sea of Content, even more so that we're a quarter of a century removed from that old era.
And as a result these songs sound like them. the band. I recommend the album, but it's really for aficionados who already like the genre, as it's not very accessible stuff overall. It could only have come out when the genre was flowering with popularity and attention. Regardless, they get across what they want to get across via their very unique approach and sound. But this is what we engage in art and entertainment to do: connect with the artist and maybe come to a clearer understanding of them, our neighbors, the universe, and ourselves, through it. You are not getting that experience by creating content for robots to shovel out into a perfect package for consumption.
The above music is a nearly unknown song by a nearly unknown band, and not even their most well known piece, and it still blows away the AI examples I used before it. The problem in this scenario, however, is not the AI or that it exists to begin with: it's that the audience has been trained to want checkbox content and artificial filler dressed in the right clothes. They want that more than they desire creativity.
This didn't start with AI, and it's not going to end there.
Artists, for instance, have been going ballistic over the recent strides in image generator AI to give more of less basic pictures for people who put in prompts. For a while, there were those running around screaming that their world was falling in on them. If you even so much as looked at one of these generators, they would destroy you. A bit hyperbolic, but it was over the top, and still is at times. Some people were really scared of these things, you see.
Again, if you wish to only produce the bare minimum, then sure, your job might be in danger from these things. If you have something to say, though? You have nothing to worry about. Just as the above example, so it is here.
First, before we go further, let me give you an example.
I've used AI image generators both for memes and for fun. I've yet to use it officially for any project, and I probably won't at this stage. The reason for that is because, while it works for silly images, or vague setting concepts and stray ideas I want to see before me, it's not really for much beyond that. I guess it might help for animators who use their own style and process, but for static images it has little use right now.
You might have, for instance, seen my cover for Y Signal. I used a free photo from Pixabay and edited the image myself, adding in my own font and filters to make it look like the cover it is today. For the story it is I can't really imagine a different cover. The book is very bizarre, after all. I couldn't even conceive of how an illustrator could get the vibe I wanted from the story. That said, I think it works very well.
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| Y Signal can be found here! |
Most of my books use hired illustrators because they are action stories, but this one has a different focus, which required a different sort of cover. I prefer a design that looks rough and worn, much like my stories are. I can't get that with prompts. I need to batter it in myself to get the exact result I want. If someone else used this image for their own story, it probably would look very different from this. That's how it should be.
As a result, I banged out a cover that I've been told is great. It required a lot of finagling on my part, but it came out great and I'm glad others see it that way. All of the covers I've made, illustrated or not, have a lot of touchups made by me to get them just right for readers. I want them to be aesthetically pleasing, but also to match the quality of the writing inside. Therefore they have to be equal. My covers, in other words, take a long time to craft, just like my stories.
I want to give people a reason to pick up a physical version, after all. There is no sense slacking on one area of the process.
On the other end of the spectrum, I have played around with image generators for fun. I generated some pictures of my main characters from Y Signal as I think they might look back in the year of 1995. Why? Because it was fun. It was a bare minimum prompt made to give me the bare minimum in return. And I don't really think there's anything necessarily wrong with goofing around like that.
At the end of the day, it's just a tool and that means it can be used for anything. And that's just what I did.
Here are the pictures I generated did for Y Signal:
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| From L to R: Danny, George, Ray, and Andrew |
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| George, Ray, Danny, and Andrew, from the 90s in Y Signal |
Pretty nice overall, I think.
I had the idea of putting out a '90s anime design of the characters of my story that takes place in the 90s and wanted to see how that would look. It was a silly and simple idea, so I decided to just go for it and see how it would turn out. Feel free to enjoy it. The image is just meant to be a toss-off. It's simple and I like it.
As a cover to the book, though? No, it doesn't fit. The story is oddly dark and dangerous, and this is just a random slice of life scene with the four friends portrayed in the style of certain media at the time. It's not meant to express anything, just be a goofy lark for myself and anyone who enjoyed the book. And I like it for that.
This is also why the cries of the crowd that demand AI be "turned off" as if it were a spigot falls on deaf ears. These AI generators are not meant to make serious art: they are meant to create content, which is a perfectly fine thing to do--even better because artists no longer have to waste their time doing it. Instead of Content Creation they can now focus on expression and communication through art and entertainment. The bare minimum is now covered and audiences can now fulfil that novelty for themselves. Artists are now called to higher things and don't need to waste their time on what they never needed to in the first place.
We aren't talking about Progress or Retvrning or any such romantic notion. It is simply that we have created technology meant to deal with busywork which should leave artists free to indulge more in creativity and out-there ideas, the kind that cannot be pumped out by algorithm keywords or just general plagiarism. Artists are now free from the shackles of having to stick to the bare minimum in order to survive, and now need to go all out in order to reach people instead. This is a good thing, in the end.
For one last example, let us talk about the current crowdfunding campaign my book is a part of (yes, very coincidental!) in order to really discuss how the sausage is made.
A few years back, I wrote a story called "Cold Heart of Ouranos" and submitted it to what was then the Planetary Anthology series. It came out and was well liked despite production issues the publisher was going through. Slowly, as I wrote it, I got a greater vision as to what the bigger story was. It turned out to be the first chapter in a four part cycle each based on the seasons that I called Star Wanderer. The second tale I wrote was called "Judgement Sun" which was also submitted and accepted to the Planetary Anthology series. It was not long after at this point I had the four parts imagined and sketched out.
Around the same time I began a separate series called Galactic Enforcer starring Ronan Renfield, a space cop that ends up in over his head in the Unknown constantly invading his life. "Golden Echoes" ended up being published by StoryHack and "Dead Planet Drifter" ended up being published by Cirsova, but both series were developed at the same time.
It then became clear to me that these weren't all that separate after all and, much like CL Moore and Henry Kuttner did with "Quest of the Starstone" ages ago, I realized these two characters were actually even more closely intertwined than I first thought. So while Star Wanderers might be thought of as a "fix-up novel" in that old sense, it's not really one. It was more that the bigger story unveiled itself as I went along until I wrote out the last story myself. That's not an experience an AI can replicate, nor could it anticipate where the book goes by the end of it, never mind where I will go in the future. Because I will do more in the future.
If you've read any of the stories I've put out in this series before then you know these are different enough even from the other material I've released that they are difficult to classify. As a result I knew I would need some help putting this book together.
Enter Cirsova.
For those unaware, Cirsova is one of the leading publishers of modern short stories of the weird and the thrilling and has been doing so since 2015. Since they published one of these tales, I knew they would be the best ones to help me get this out to as many readers as possible. Therefore I approached them with the plan for the project.
I also wanted a cover that made the weirdness of space cops and lone knights caught between the world of crime and the Unknown and what lies in that gap. Therefore we requested the services of artist Anton Oxenuk, someone who can get into that vibe unlike few others I've seen. You've seen the result, and that's the cover for the campaign:
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| Art by Anton Oxenuk! |
As one can see, that's not the sort of art one can get out of typing in some prompts. The otherworldly quality as well as the fast-paced action could only be expressed with a cover like the above. It was especially made to hit a specific vibe to give an idea of the stories awaiting you inside. And that's what a cover is meant to do.
At the same time as this I also wanted to add a little bit extra to backers of the campaign. Despite the crazy stories and killer cover, I was thinking about the possibility of a sort of soundtrack companion to the book. How many mediums can we dip into at once?
What I decided to do was commission the crazed creator (what else do you call this man?) named Jacob Calta who knocked out two songs based on the story, each centered around a different main character. I guess I could have gone into the above song generator and did it that way, but it wouldn't really be what I wanted or what the stories deserved. I needed a composer who understood what I wanted to get across and could reach for it. That is exactly what happened, and you can hear the songs by backing the campaign today.
This wouldn't have been possible if I didn't want to make this the best campaign it could be, and if I didn't choose to get the right people involved. And that's what makes all the difference. Thanks to this, within a week of launching, we reached $2000 of our initial $2500 goal. And now we've even got some stretch goals lined up!
None of this would have been possible with both the backers and the people helping me with this campaign.
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| Check out the soundtrack companion in the campaign! |
All that aside, you understand the central point being made. There is more to art than gimmicks and tropes. There is a specific point to creating beyond Pumping Things Out. There are reasons and purpose to everything, even if we always seem to lose it in the weeds.
If we want to make a real change for the future, it will have to in our expectations for what art actually is and what we want from it. No more can we continue to expect and desire the lowest common denominator because we want to mindlessly consume. There is more to art than that, just as there is in life.
Thankfully, this isn't 2014 anymore. Just as it's not 2004, or 1994, or the much desired 1984. We are in 2024, and the tides have shifted. We have decided to no longer let things continue to crumble and instead fight for something more.
We might not all be on the same page, but we'll get there eventually. Times are already no longer what they once were and we are quickly learning what it takes to move in the right direction. It might have taken a bit longer than some of us would have liked, but there is no avoiding it. The '20s are a period of shift and we're living through it now.
Where we'll be in a few years, who knows. For now, lets appreciate what we got and what is coming over the horizon.
If you listen closely, you can almost hear it!
All this time spent running aroundAnd still searching for something that can never be foundStill looking for these answers, still looking for yourselfThe answer's not in me, and it's not up on a shelfButI know you want it bad, something you've never hadStardom made you a man, you can't fool all the fansI wanna hear a song I could stand listening toMaybe see something that I could believe inSo sing a song, sing it loudMaybe someone in the crowd will understand(It's all about running from the gaping mouth!)So sing a song, sing it loudMaybe someone in the crowd will understand(It's all about running from the gaping mouth!)The spotlight's shining (heard you had something to say)The hourglass is pouring, your boring crowd fades awayThe spotlight's shining (heard you had something to say)The hourglass is pouring, your boring crowd fades awaySo . . .Soundlessly, you think you're newYour fifteen minutes was yesterdayThe flavor of the minute now tastes like shitSo now just try to deal with itAnd now you think you are the oneWhy go on? 'Cause all your fun has come and goneAnd now you want to hear that songThe one that they just play too longToo longSame songToo longAlright, listen up'cause I'm only going to say this onceEverything you've heard by now is a lie pretty muchThe TV stimulates your mind, but it makes you feel controlledThis music thing's so powerful, it can fill an empty soulAnd you know this
And you know it's gotta go
American Dream, isn't what it seemsMoney and Fame, it's only in your dreamsSo take a step back, and take a look aroundYou got the Rebel Yell, but you haven't made a soundNo sound.
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