The origins of The Monkees band is certainly interesting. From intentions of assembling a "face" band, through Stephen Stills recommending his Laurel Canyon neighbor, Peter Tork, through the whole Boyce/Hart Brill building song factory....through Jimi Hendrix Experience as an opening act for but a handful of shows... Yes, there were was some nice feel-good pop. Neil Diamond's and Carole King's input are certainly put to good use.Kwai Chang wrote: ↑Thu May 04, 2023 11:30 am
And The Monkees in concert were the same actors from the TV show pretending to be the fictitious group from the TV show who might have mimed their instruments but still had Don Kirshner removed from the show due to artistic differences of opinion. And Davy Jones was on the Feb 9, 1964 Ed Sullivan show.
But as a live band, The Monkees simply couldn't pull it off. Not then. Not now. And that's because, really, only a couple guys had any musical talent (Michael and Peter.) Davy had stage experience, which helps but does not equate in a pop band milieu. And Mickey was a child actor.
Fun story: (I have but a few of these...):
Back in the early aught's my band used to haunt a place in Tarzana called, Paladino's Lounge. It was a popular place for all manner of covers and local bands. I recall seeing Foo Fighters there in one of their secret gigs (it was their favorite club to play in SoCal....back in the day...) My band opened for the likes of Chris Thompson (sang Blinded By The Light,) Rare Earth, and many of the more popular covers bands, Led ZepAgain, Atomic Punks...
Anyroads, one night, we found ourselves on the same bill with a Monkees covers band. They were aptly called, Hey Hey It's The Monkees!
And awful would be high praise. They really tried (and I respected this part) to combine the comedy banter and schtick with the music. But it came off so badly. Even the crickets were afraid to rub their wings together. I think this was their one and only gig. The guys in the band were already fairly well established in various other covers bands. So they were wise enough to abandon the sunk ship.
I have a few live recordings of the Monkees. Even went to see them as a threesome (minus the late Davy Jones.) It was primarily a nostalgia act by then.
Point being that while the music industry has lost its soul, it still grabs at every last dollar from every crappy venture. Nothing is off limits.
Any bets that Kiss will continue after Gene and Paul retire? I can pretty much assure you that it definitely will go on. How can it not? Or put another way, how can it rot? I guess we'll know soon enough.
And what does this have to do with AI? Well, kiddies,....application of AI in realtime is right around the corner. Consider that Kiss. and many other bands incorporate canned sounds, including vocals, to enhance their stage shows. Now add into that an AI app which takes the voice of whomever is singing, and applies just enough tone, pattern, syncopation, timbre, number of cycles, etc. And voila! Anyone can sound like anybody on stage. Done!
The software to distinguish real from faux will certainly need to be highly sophisticated. The licensing of one's likeness had better (goddamit) include their voice at any time in their career as well as their manner of wordplay. And I would wish upon wish that people. when producing an AI fabrication, maintain a measure of honesty (along with pride in their work, and self respect, if any,) as they churn this stuff out.
