How AI-Generated Content is Like Disco
If I said something about disco music right now, how would you respond? Would you groan… like most people… about how awful disco was? Or would you immediately jump up and boogie? I was thinking about the polarizing opinions on disco – you either love it and you’re totally down for it, or you hate it and won’t listen to it. Another option – you lived through it and don’t remember any of it. ;)
This made me think about disco compared to the current developments with AI-generated content. Whether you like AI or not, it’s here to stay, and it is taking a curious progression that in many ways parallels the journey an opinion changes around disco music.
Fundamentals of Disco
Everything starts somewhere, and disco music started with a couple of characteristics:
– Four on the floor rhythm where the drum hits every quarter note.
– Syncopated guitar riffs
– BIG vocals, loud, soaring, and sometimes with reverb
– Longer, remixed songs to keep people on the dance floor
The short version or as we’d say today the TL:DR version of that is that all the songs sounded basically the same, so you’re doing the same dancing out on the floor and you don’t stop to change up styles.
At first, the fundamentals of AI content seemed to follow the same sort of pattern:
– Easy, premade patterns so that you can just keep dancing
– A certain look to AI-generated images and videos
– Longer content that definitely felt computer-generated but we were able to remix it.
But then something happened... just like with disco...
In the heyday of disco fever, people realized that they could easily replicate and churn out disco music, since all of it “sounds the same.” Once the novelty of the repeatability wore off, disco songs that took 5 minutes to put together started to sound un-original.. inauthentic… missing the passion. In other words, crappy.
The record companies were still making big bucks churning out new disco tunes and remixes of everything under the sun. It didn’t necessarily have to sound better or different, because they assumed people would just eat it up.
But people stopped buying disco records, stopped doing the same dance to the same beat, and moved on to something that sounded completely new. They wanted guitar solos, improvisation, and the passion that a synthesizer couldn’t produce.
And now — people are starting to realize that the content generated by multiple AI engines really is just a remix of what is already out there. Same look, same feel, same phrasing at times. This thing that was supposed to be so great and save us time from having to write things doesn’t seem to know how to write anything that feels authentic or different. It’s like when you see what movies are coming out and you realize that they’re all remakes or spin-offs of stuff you’ve already seen. The idea is just regurgitated again with a different flair. Just like disco. Just like AI-generated content.
So Will AI-Generated Content Die Like Disco?
I’m hoping that AI takes a lesson from disco music so that content doesn’t get relegated to the novelty shelf like a dusty disco ball. But I’m still waiting for a platform that is different, that truly shows me something original that we can use AI-generated content for in our daily lives instead of reruns of existing content. As I always say, AI is a tool in the toolbox, it doesn’t replace the toolbox.
And who knows – disco music inspired the future of techno music and dj’s around the world, and also brought about a whole new generation of rock music as the “anti-disco” remedy. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a resurgence of original content writers producing authentic, passionate, and inspiring articles in the future.
Or at least SOMETHING that doesn’t sound like we’re dancing to the same exact beat.
