It's kind of fun to do the impossible.

-- Walt Disney

Hit Music creating software

It has been 17 days since I posted anything here. I have been in a semi-haze. Last night, I thought that I would stop posting altogether.

However, today things seems to be getting back to my normal routines. I suspect the effects of the Percodine that the ER doctor prescribed for the pain of my broken toe. I know now that the drugs were total overkill. My Osteopath put me on Tylenol with codeine. Yesterday I stopped using any pain killers. I feel they mess up my thinking process. Someone wrote to ask if I was okay. Apparently, she became concerned with the increase in spelling and grammar errors in my latest emails. Hmm, I don't have a clue what these were. She said that my emails normally do not contain errors.

I need to make a commitment to write every day. If I fail to write, over a short period, my thinking becomes hazy again. Perhaps, it is what D said...I need someone to talk with. Talking or writing forces me to get outside of my head and to think concretely.

Today, I spent quite a bit of time catching up with the news.

There was a piece of news regarding a Spanish software that have analyzed 250,000 songs that made it to the charts. The software reduced the music to mathematics. They are marketing their services to music companies as hit pickers. Here is my followup to the news item that I email a friend:

I think they took all the songs that made it to the charts. I seem to remember the number at 25,000 or more. Once you reduce music to mathematics, they are not that many variations to follow. A computer can do that easily. On my little computer system, I have more than 5,000 songs that could be read. Actually, as I write this, I think the number was 250,000 songs. That number makes more sense. The software can determine how to write songs to appeal to specific emotions.

I do not think the performer needs to give permission because the software does not copy or reuse the music in any copyrighted way.

The software developers are marketing their product big time. In the past, the music industry was probably driven by individuals with an ear clued in to popular tastes. I would guess these people are not cheap or always "right-on". Think about the most recent releases of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Shania Twain. What a pocketful of lost money those CDs turned out to be. I don't remember how many millions they paid Mariah Carey to get out of recording any more of her CDs.

I can just see the executives at Sony, etc. decided to give this new software service a spin.

I read another article about an additional use of the software. The software can also write formulaic music and add either public domain poetry or other inexpensive poetry. I found this idea alarming. The author of the article irritated me with his pompous and condescending brush aside of this possible development. He felt that since the formulas were derived from music making the Charts, there was no need to worry about the future of music. He said that 70 to 80 percent of the music hitting the charts were trash. Therefore, the formulaic music would also be trash. Sheesh, what conceit.

He did not define "trash". I hate to read people who always think they know all the inside scoop. His elitist attitudes definitely got my dander up!

First of all, I do not agree that music hitting the charts can be summarily labeled trash. Charts measure what is selling/popular! That is exactly what the software is tracking.

And second, even if his ridiculous claim is true, there still leave the possibility of 20 to 30 percent real hits percentages. I can see the music industry producing the fomulaic music real cheap. I would call this process bottom trolling for hits. When they find a hit, they would then have their big name entertainer re-record the hit. No much risk. Everyone is happy. Not!

This would probably kill the music writing industry. What human could compete with a computer who can produce 500, 1,000, etc songs that are all potential hits? Who would need live musicians when the computer can simulate all instruments with 100 percent accuracy and consistency? If this becomes a greater force in the music world, I would guess that innovation in music writing would almost dissappear. The software would keep analyzing it own hits. We would get stuck on a treadmill without a way off. The music industry would have become so reliant on the software, they would have lost the ability to "feel" the public's pulse.

The public might be lost in manipulative music which always seems to strike the right chord. Are hidden subliminals messages not far behind? In the old days, subliminals required human intervention. I think hidden subliminals are outlawed. However, I am not sure.

But, if the music is created and controlled by computer, who knows what messages the music indistry might hide inside the music. I wonder if out current sound systems can accurately pick out mathematical subliminals. Wow, what if mathematics were actually a universal brain language.

GEE...I seem to be going off on a paranoid tangent! I know what it is...I got upset because the computer shut down on me and I took it personally.Sorry. Let me get my breath...pant...pant.

Anyway, back to reality...