Mood Music

I watched Woody Allen’s ‘Sleeper’ yesterday for the first time in a long time. For those of you who don’t know the movie, one of the director’s earlier, wackier pieces, it features our erstwhile bespectacled hero waking up from a 200-year coma. The year is 2173 and he has brought into a world that is totally different to the one he fell asleep in. Having said that, it’s uncanny how some of the houses resemble affluent new Ireland’s obsession with futuristic eco-homes – minus the un-ironic petrol-guzzling SUVs parked outside of course – but the rest of his new surroundings are a hilarious 1970s vision of what the future looks, feels and tastes like. Robot butlers shuffle around soulless condos, serving up green liquids and instant puddings, flimsy looking vehicles hover along the road, couples disappear into a machine called an ‘orgasmatron’ to have non-contact sex -  it’s forbidden to do it the old way - and robe-clad bohemians take turns on clasping an orb that makes them very high.

While there are dodgy paintings and pseudo-intellectual poetry aplenty, there is no music, which made me think about what music would sound like and how we would interact with it in 160 years’ time (I’m counting on being put in cold storage like Allen’s character, ready to thaw out and face a brave new, SUV-free world).

I recently spoke to Martin Wheeler from Vector Lovers and his main theory was that computer software will evolve to a point where we will be able to arrange and produce music according to our mood. Feeling angry, sad or just ambivalent about something? Then just hit a few keys and the computer will do the rest.

Wheeler’s theory is dependent on the technological wherewithal being in place to differentiate between really sad or mildly happy or even how moods vary according to age, race, sexual preference and other demographic changes, but it doesn’t really leave much room for making anything genuinely new or earth-shatteringly different.

I really hope that he’s wrong because this way of making music doesn’t leave much room for human error or for trying to work outside the software’s limitations. In many ways though, the concept is closer to the present than we may imagine. Nowadays, most producers only use a finite number of software applications to make music, so in some ways, Wheeler’s theory is just a few short steps ahead - but putting your faith in a computer to interpret your mood is a step too far, unless you can have a few hours alone with orb and orgasmatron before you hit ‘return’…

Comments

[tom/pipecock]

machines can never make soul music all by themselves. the reason songs affect us the way they do is because of the experiences of the artist making it. that will never change.

that said, i can certainly see a demographic for that kind of thing. its not going to be *all* music, but i bet that kind of thing will prove to be very popular with some people.

[Stef]

I think Martin has too much faith in software development and computers. They will be just as frustrating to use in the future as they are now, probably even more so.

[Fr. Deveraux]

I reckon you'd be surprised how well computers could imitate human expression. Didn't some guy write an algorithm to write "Mozart pieces" that would fool most. Reminds me of Gary Kasparov accusing Deep Blue of making moves that were too human.