"Walk My Walk": AI-generated song tops a Billboard list for the first time
After AI music has repeatedly caused a stir in recent months, an AI song has now reached the top of a US hit list for the first time.
Variety looks different: The Instagram account of Breaking Rust
(Image: @breakinrust)
In the USA, an AI-generated song has reached the top spot in a ranking for the first time. The track named “Walk My Walk” by the band Breaking Rust leads the Billboard the charts of country songs with the most digital sales. You can't really tell that it's an AI creation by listening to the song. It's more apparent from the artwork and short videos used to promote the song and others from the same group on Instagram. Furthermore, Billboard itself revealed just a few days ago that Breaking Rust is an “AI-assisted country band.”
Although the tracks are very similar, the group has several of them in the charts. It is unclear who is responsible; Billboard refers to a songwriter named Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor.
AI Music Has Long Been Part of the Charts
When Billboard publicized the AI origin of “Walk My Walk” last week, the US magazine listed several other AI-generated titles that had already reached chart positions. AI music is no longer a fantasy or “a niche curiosity of internet detectives,” Billboard explained at the time. It is here and is beginning to impact the charts. The article presented several projects where supposed artists were actually AI creations. At the same time, Billboard admitted that it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify AI creations as such. With Breaking Rust, however, this doesn't seem difficult if you only briefly glance at the associated Instagram account.
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The US music magazine Holler points out in light of the success of “Walk My Walk” that the song's origin is not immediately apparent. At the same time, the success, precisely because of this, points to a “very dystopian future for music.” Even if more and more people claim that AI will soon be accepted like Autotune once was, there is something that feels wrong about Breaking Rust's chart success. The song is catchy but also extremely superficial—especially if you know its origin. Meanwhile, Breaking Rust continues on Instagram, with the clips overlaid with interchangeable AI recordings of lonely cowboys in black and white images.
(mho)
