logo
What does AI band The Velvet Sundown's rise mean for the future of music?

What does AI band The Velvet Sundown's rise mean for the future of music?

While few expect The Velvet Sundown to start picking up Grammy awards in the near future with its bland indie ballads, there are some who are beginning to wonder.
Advertisement
In the space of just six weeks, the band has pumped out three albums containing 13 songs each and had close to 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify as of July 22.
But The Velvet Sundown – or rather, its makers – do not hide behind the fact that it has been relying on artificial intelligence to do so.
'Not quite human. Not quite machine. The Velvet Sundown lives somewhere in between,' it says on the band's social media accounts and its Spotify site.
It is said to be a band of four, but the members have not been seen in public so far. Images of the group have evidently been created by AI.
Advertisement
Music by The Velvet Sundown started making the rounds across streaming platforms in early June. Combining rock, country and folk elements, most of the songs are interchangeable, mellow and tame – as long as you ignore lines like 'March for peace, not for pride' in the group's most played song, 'Dust on the Wind'.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

How Seoul's All That Jazz, the first jazz bar in South Korea, is still setting the tempo
How Seoul's All That Jazz, the first jazz bar in South Korea, is still setting the tempo

South China Morning Post

time25 minutes ago

  • South China Morning Post

How Seoul's All That Jazz, the first jazz bar in South Korea, is still setting the tempo

For a lonely traveller in search of a lively night in a foreign city, Smalls Jazz Club might be the spot in New York. In Tokyo, there's Blue Note Tokyo. And in Seoul, it's All That Jazz, which has set the tempo for the city's jazz scene since 1976. Tucked away in Itaewon – perhaps Seoul's most international neighbourhood – Korea's first jazz bar, with its signature blackwood interior, has long served as a haven for music lovers and performers alike. Jin Nak-won, who has run the club for nearly 40 years, says that his addiction to jazz all started with the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 'Take Five'. 'That saxophone drove me crazy,' says Jin, 68, a nostalgic smile spreading across his face. 'I was in fourth grade, and music was always playing in my cousin's house, usually from an old record player in the master bedroom. One day, I happened to hear the song – it was just unbelievably good. I loved it so much that I played it on repeat all day until their family came home.' Jin did not even know what the song was at the time. It was not until a few years later, while listening to a compilation album, that he realised it was 'Take Five' from the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out album. That was when it clicked: the tune that had captivated him years earlier was jazz.

Why we remain ‘magnetically attracted' to Gwyneth Paltrow, by her biographer
Why we remain ‘magnetically attracted' to Gwyneth Paltrow, by her biographer

South China Morning Post

time2 hours ago

  • South China Morning Post

Why we remain ‘magnetically attracted' to Gwyneth Paltrow, by her biographer

Just days before the release of the much-anticipated Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell, the book's subject, actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, inserted herself into one of the most viral stories of the summer. In a video posted to Astronomer's social media accounts, Paltrow announced her new role as the company's 'temporary spokesperson'. The AI company has been in the news since an affair between its CEO and its head of HR was uncovered through a kiss cam at a Coldplay concert in Boston earlier in July. The band's lead singer is Paltrow's ex-husband Chris Martin, who is also the father of her two children. That carefully orchestrated – and likely well-remunerated – stunt was yet another example of how the 52-year-old Oscar winner and wellness guru always manages to be part of the conversation. Advertisement Amy Odell spent three years researching Gwyneth: The Biography. Photo: Handout In an interview prior to the release of the book, journalist and writer Amy Odell, also the author of a bestselling biography of American Vogue's former editor-in-chief Anna Wintour , calls Paltrow 'a master of the attention economy'. 'If you try to think of people who have had cultural impact, it's not a long list,' she says. 'But she is someone who, for 30 years – love her or hate her – has been in the public eye; people have been magnetically attracted to her, people have found her incredibly polarising. So I thought there was an opportunity to explore how she became this person who is so fascinating and so polarising, and how she impacted all of these different industries: beauty, fashion, entertainment and wellness, which I think is the most significant of all.' Odell devotes a big chunk of the book to Paltrow's role in the creation of what she calls the 'wellness economy'. Paltrow single-handedly transformed that industry in 2008 when she established Goop, a newsletter turned media platform and online retailer catering to wealthy women like herself. Gwyneth Paltrow with her late father Bruce Paltrow and her mother Blythe Danner at the 71st Academy Awards. Photo: AFP Odell does a great job delving into the charmed life of Paltrow, the daughter of late director Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner . Growing up on movie, television and theatre sets surrounded by A-listers such as her godfather Steven Spielberg, Paltrow catapulted to fame in her 20s, winning an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love (1998) when she was only 26. She also became tabloid fodder thanks to high-profile relationships with actors such as Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck. While Paltrow has played her fair share of remarkable roles in movies such as Seven (1995), Sliding Doors (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and within the Marvel universe, Odell believes that Goop will overshadow all her other projects. 'I think that her legacy will probably not be for her acting roles – and they are iconic acting roles – but for her impact on the wellness industry specifically, and for showing the world how much people will spend and how much effort they will undergo to be well, no matter what science tells us.' Odell goes to great lengths, perhaps even too great, to debunk all the bogus health claims that Goop has made over the years. As a veteran journalist, she takes her fact-checking seriously. This is evident on every single page of the book – and is also in stark contrast to the way the Goop editorial team operates, according to Odell's sources.

Chinese artist Cai Guo-qiang uses AI to create his ‘gunpowder art' in Macau exhibition
Chinese artist Cai Guo-qiang uses AI to create his ‘gunpowder art' in Macau exhibition

South China Morning Post

time2 hours ago

  • South China Morning Post

Chinese artist Cai Guo-qiang uses AI to create his ‘gunpowder art' in Macau exhibition

Cai Guo-qiang is one of China's most famous living artists. But for those familiar with the gunpowder paintings and outdoor pyrotechnic spectacles that made his name, his latest exhibition in Macau may be a bit of a head-scratcher. 'cAI Lab 2.0 – Is It Your Gaze That Meets Mine, or Mine That Seeks Yours?' is taking place at the MGM Macau as part of the wider Art Macao festival 2025. The exhibition's title, while not clarifying much, does hint at having something to do with AI. All of the 67-year-old 's artworks featured in the exhibition are generated by cAI – an AI model Cai and his team created in 2023 after seven years of research. These works include 12 texts projected onto the walls of a narrow corridor; digital fireworks that appear on floor-to-ceiling screens; and phone booths in which visitors directly converse with cAI. Cai (centre) gives a tour of his new exhibition in Macau during its opening ceremony. Also on show are around a dozen pieces of gunpowder art created by cAI, using a humanoid arm sprinkling gunpowder onto canvases and setting off explosions – which is just how Cai makes his signature art.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store