The Real Imitation Game

AI and the art of the cover song

After being goaded by an AGI-pilled former post-doc, I chose violence on Twitter.

I had previously expressed hope that the new AI craze would lead to some neat new music-creation tools. Instead, as Kevin Baker astutely observed, the meme product releases are showcasing tools for generating annoyingly uncatchy Dr. Demento songs.

I can’t figure out why the suno and udio demos are what goes viral. There are plenty of people out there who both love music and are software engineers. And I think projects like this one from stability.ai have real potential for musicians. But I realize the market for music software is pretty small, and the market for hypey AI nonsense is pretty large.

There just seems to be a disconnect between what the AI Twitter Bros think is worth building and what… I don’t know… music is. I guess there’s a market for generating garbage filler background musak for YouTube videos? But YouTubers don’t seem to have a problem finding royalty-free music for their projects.

AI misses the boat on music because human and machine imitation may be fundamentally different. Music is almost exclusively already imitation. Copying is central to the art. What makes music great is often the ability to invent inside constraints of culture. Certainly, some rare innovators blow people’s minds with entirely new sounds, but more often than not, the new sounds are only interesting in reference to the old sounds. What makes songs resonate has far less to do with prompt engineering and far more to do with manipulating vibes. 

I mean, what is the appeal of a cover song? These are just pure imitation, right? People love covers, but they can be incredibly hard to pull off. Take your favorite song and look for covers on YouTube. You’ll probably come away disappointed! Artists showcase their genius and talent through what they bring to covers. Some people are just absolute masters of cover songs. Jeff Buckley, Dave Grohl, Julien Baker, Miley Cyrus.

What? Miley? Yes, Miley Cyrus. For a long time, her tabloid persona often outshined her genius, but Cyrus has the incredible ability to bring something new to almost any song. She gave hints of this when she was still a teenager with a showstopping cover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.

But maybe you could attribute that one to her relationship with Dolly. A few years later, for Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary, she pulled of a remarkable cover of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

This one was a total reimagining of the song. Maybe you could think that this was packaged for a pop singer by some producer behind the scenes, but Cyrus’ power and emotion on the choruses brought the house down.

Cyrus has a unique singing voice. Her range tops out below a lot of men’s, but she has unnerving power and hyperbolically precise pitch control. And while I know some people think she is just a belter, I’ve watched enough of her performances to appreciate her understanding and control of dynamics, being able to instantly switch from a sad whisper to a primal scream. And she has a deep appreciation and love of the history of popular music. She’s first and foremost a performer, always trying to bring out particular nuances of songs she reimagines.

Let me share some of my favorites. Here's Miley’s cover of “Heart of Glass” as a post-punk song: 

The musical arrangement here pretty much follows Blondie, with a subtly harder edge. But Miley’s voice here is not subtle. An octave down and full of bile, she completely changes the character of the song. The lyrics of this song are clearly about heartbreak, but Harry’s version makes it sound like she’s done so much cocaine that she doesn’t care. And don’t get me wrong, that’s what makes the original ‘Heart of Glass” so brilliant. But Miley decided to come in with a more angry version and pulls it off.

Maybe it’s too over the top for you. But then check out her cover of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.”

Here, she shows restraint, keeping the vibe of the original song only to break at the last moment. This is a drugged out song about unrequited love, and Miley hints how sad she is that “it’s strange you never knew.” Whereas the original version rests on a psychedelic monotonicity, Cyrus shows she’s always a little on edge, holding back until the end to let it out in a Courtney Love-esque lament.

Oh, speaking of Courtney Love, Cyrus has a perfect cover of “Doll Parts.”

Here again, she doesn’t overdo it, pulling out a relatively faithful cover. She almost exclusively stays within Love’s very limited range but still brings a powerful gravitas to the song. It’s worth waiting for the powerful ending we all know is coming.

Kids who grow up in the public eye are seldom afforded the opportunity to become adults. I think Cyrus made it because she is fearless. In one of the most impressive performances I’ve come across yet, she sang at Chris Cornell’s memorial concert, performing a cover of “Say Hello 2 Heaven.” There’s some restless laughter when Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard introduces her, but she’s enraptured the crowd by the middle of the first verse. Though she can’t hit all of Cornell’s high falsetto notes, she still brings the house down.

Speaking of lack of fear, here she is trying to get her fans to get into the Cocteau Twins.

It didn’t work, but I hear so much potential! Any singer who is going to try to come to Elizabeth Fraser has to have balls, and Cyrus brings the right ethereal qualities to the stage. I know there are dozens of us who want to hear a proper version of this cover.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the Miley Cyrus covers on YouTube. That she can elevate every song she sings is a rare gift. Even Miley singing a kitschy karaoke version of Faithfully by Journey is transcendent.

Wait, wasn’t I supposed to be talking about AI? All Miley is doing here is taking popular songs and thinking about the instrumentation and delivery. I’m sure you could generate covers in Suno. Here’s a prompt: “Heart of Glass as a Post-punk song.” But it’s the inspiration and passion Miley brings to these songs that matter. Imitating songs is cheap. Elevating songs takes someone special.