AI Might Be a Stale Non-Fiction Writer, But It's a Better Songwriter Than You Might Think

Unpacking AI's lyrical and music "abilities," when you know how to coax it.

If there’s one thing most of us writer’s know, is that AI is soulless. A year ago, after seeing countless AI articles pop up on Medium, I wrote an article on how you could not just “read” to recognize AI, but the very “look” of an AI article laid out on the screen revealed its artificial fabrication.

To that end, the word “artificial” is rarely used in a positive light, and yet we somehow embraced the term Artificial Intelligence, over something like Synthetic Intelligence or even Enhanced Intelligence.

Something to consider.

AI tends to create sentences with the same length and even tonal structure, unless you force serious manipulation to the prompting. Paragraphs are often similar looking and in the same formatting style as well.

But what about songwriting?

First of all, songs SHOULD have far more soul than say non-fiction writing, right? We connect at a soul level to music. I recently heard someone say that music gets past the gateway of the conscience, seared or otherwise, and can influence people’s hearts to change actions and even beliefs.

Can AI make that happen?

Let’s test it, shall we?

I’ll let you make the decision. Is AI a better songwriter than a non-fiction writer?

In the last three months, after learning about it on Substack from

Brian W. Sykes

I dove into the AI music generation platform SUNO. I was blown away at the quality of the song production and vocal ability. But this was also an opportunity to dust off twenty year old lyrics and re-invigorate them into powerful new anthems.

When I first started using SUNO, all the lyrics were my own, painstakingly written over about a year of my life, two decades ago. What this exercise reenergized in me was a dormant passion for songwriting again, and I’ve written six more songs, the traditional way, since starting with SUNO.

In the process of this, I taught a friend to use SUNO.

One day, before a lesson, I decided to use AI to craft some quick lyrics that we could then pump into SUNO to demo. The result of that AI changed my impressions of AI capabilities.

Let’s see if it does the same for you.

In the process of all of this learning and teaching, I also began using AI to create music videos. Below are three starts to three Music Videos I’ve created: one of the songs is completely my own writing; one song was written in AI, with about 30% hand edited; and one song was written in AI with very little personal hand editing.

Can you instantly tell which song was written in AI?

Song: Glass House

Song: A Shot Away From Home

Song: More Than Me

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Could you tell? Let’s try a different way. Here are the first verses and first choruses of each song. Maybe that will help.

Glass House

Verse 1
We wore our wealth like second skin
lace and leather, thin as sin,
Perfect picture, gilded frame,
how they loved to know our name.
They called us envy’s finest show,
but didn’t know what lay below.
I thought we built a masterpiece,
flawless down to every crease
But crystal lies crack with ease.

Chorus
Now I’m standing in the shattered glass,
Cut by pieces of a love that couldn’t last,
A broken palace
I can’t call home,
In this glass house,
I’m alone.

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A Shot Away From Home

Verse 1
She puts on her heels and that Friday smile,
Says, “Don’t wait up,
I’ll just be a while.”
Headed to that place
with the neon glow,
I knew it well,
I’ve been down that road.
It always starts with a drink or two,
Soon she’s dancin’ with somebody new.

Chorus
Bartender’s pourin’
her halo’s slippin’,
Whiskey whispers where she belongs.
She don’t mean harm, but the truth’s still clear,
Every glass she holds pulls her far from here.
Yeah, she’s just a shot
away from home.

---

More Than Me

Verse 1
Carefree and untamed
I first caught your eye
The wild child who just wanted to fly
You did all you could to pin me down
And as love swept in, I came around
Time heals wounds, but changes our stories
As life and family brought on new worries

Chorus
We started off strong
Little tied us down
I loved that life too
Til’ I had to come around
I took on alone
Life’s responsibilities
And found you loved what used to be
More than me

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Looking at the words on the page, one may be more obvious, But are you certain which one was written by hand, and which were “artificially” fabricated. (I’ll tell you which one was mine at the end).

For that matter, do any of them sound lifeless?

One of these songs was thrown together in AI, just for the sake of that “teaching session” but I loved it so much, I made a music video out of it. The other AI song I got more astute with the prompting, but I love both songs.

Most AI music I’ve heard online lacks this level of depth, and I’ve shared a few reasons for this in this article on Medium. But our personal level of care and depth has not only left us questioning the ability of AI, but do I love these songs as much as I love traditional music?

The answer to that question is not only yes, but I decided to do something about it. Maybe it’s a global test, so to speak. I’ve created one of the very first AI-Centric Online Music Stations. Flair AI Radio (type: https://flair-ai-radio.radioweb.co) - where the criterion is that the song’s music must be generated in AI, but the lyrics can be hand written, or AI, or a hybrid of both (which is where I play).

Come over and take a listen at the now two hours of music (growing every day), and see what you think, and see if you can tell which songs were written traditionally.

But this is also an opportunity for you to craft those song ideas you’ve been playing around with in your head, and we can even help you put them together. Just visit and see what you think, because we believe the future of music just got personal. Meaning, in a few days your favorite new song, may just be one you helped write!

Is AI a better songwriter than it is a non-fiction writer? We think so. At least, when you know how to coax the lyrics out of it, and can “hear” the hit through the AI music generation. It’s not easy, but it is a lot of fun. So come over to Flair AI Radio (type: https://flair-ai-radio.radioweb.co) and see if you can tell which songs are “naty” and which are “artificially” written.

By the way, MORE THAN ME, was the song I wrote a month ago, and I enjoyed every moment of the writing process. But I also had a blast in the process of generating the other songs.

I think you just might too.