I listen to music.

I don’t know if you know this but I listen to music. All the time, everywhere. After breakfast, the Jukebox Oldies internet radio station goes on and stays on all day whether anyone is home or not. Monday evenings, chill with local jazz station JazzFM 91.1. Tuesday evenings, the companionship of a radio announcer with local station Zoomer Radio am740 (“Zoomers” are Baby Boomers with zip). The rest of the weekday evenings differ between internet stations; our cable company offers Stingray Music, a poorly named but decent service – Easy Listening sometimes, Classic R’n’B & Soul, Remember the 80’s, Massive Classic Rock and even sub genres like Breezy Yacht Rock or All About Jazz Fusion. Saturdays used to be Humboldt 101 until the untimely death of its broadcaster and Sundays used to be Crooner Radio until that station came to a sad end. The weekend wraps now with Stingray’s Cocktails at the Sands and/or Big Band Classics.

On my run every morning, I’m working through my library on YouTube Music. I get in the car to go to work and – if I’m bang on time – I get 6 minutes of gentle classical from a local station, the sister of Zoomer Radio. Then I play whatever CDs I’ve put in the car; those that I have recently purchased and are “Up Next” or ones I’ve pulled off the shelf because of my moods, what I’m into lately, want to revisit or what the season calls for. But now here’s what I wanna talk about today; when I get to work, I open up YouTube and look for appropriate background music to play while I slay dragons and put out fires for 8 hours, wasting my life working a day job. What to play, though, that is acceptable in the workplace? Nothing I really have to listen to because I can’t play it loud and I’m working.

Villa Vybes Vinyl YouTube Yacht Rock playlists are a shiny, new toy in my life and that will be all I’ll play at work for weeks on end. Lately though I’ve been stumbling on certain channels and “albums” with odd names and funky “cover art”. When I would look into who the “artists” are I would see this disclaimer; “How this content was made — Altered or synthetic content – Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated”. I then had the horrible realization that I was listening to Artificial Intelligence!!

This horrified me because that’s terrible. Isn’t it? It is flat-out wrong to listen to music created not by the human mind and soul but by a computer. Isn’t it? These questions brought to mind a few points I’d thought I’d share with you as a means to open a discussion and for you to decide how you feel about this. And to explain myself so maybe you’d forgive me for the egregious crime of allowing AI into my life.

First off is the workplace setting. I’m old school. Work is work and its not supposed to be easy or comfortable in any way. Only recently I have entered an office setting, though, and I am slowly assimilating into a work world that includes things like conversation, coffee, lunch at my desk and some quiet. Part of what comes with this is internet access for personal use, something I use sparingly while on the clock. So, music playing while I work I still consider a treat and one not to be abused. The music I choose to play then has to be unobtrusive with minimal loud swells, for example.

An obvious choice would be the easy listening of the Fifties, a favourite genre of mine. This got me thinking about the many orchestras that were popular at this time, those ran by guys like Les Baxter, Percy Faith and Jackie Gleason. Here again I paused. If and only if you really drill down and study the music, you’ll find that these band leaders do have signature sounds that will allow you to identify who you are listening to. But it could be argued that this type of music is provided by anonymous artists and one could easily be the other. I’ll digress quickly by noting that I once read that some artists in the Electronic Dance Music genre actually prefer to downplay their own celebrity and operate more in anonymity. So, its not always about the persona of the artist. Does the generic aspect of easy listening music align with AI-generated music? After all, Muzak was created by real orchestras that were working in anonymity to provide background music that was meant to be sensed more than even heard.

Back in the day, easy listening was also referred to as mood music. Here is where AI is really utilized – what vibe are you looking for? Comes the summer and I want sounds that go with the warm weather, say Hawaiian music or bossa nova. Are authentic playlists available that include this type of music? Sure. But what may be even more prolific – at least on YouTube – are AI “albums” devoted to many and varied moods. Copacabana Tidal is a channel I’ve been using lately; “These are AI-generated bossa nova songs, specially crafted for people to relax while going about their daily routines”, says the channel’s bio but it also adds “If you prefer real artists with similar musicality, I recommend Luiz Bonfá, Neco, Baden Powell, and João Donato” so I give them points for that. This channel offers videos that provide the gentle strains of the bossa nova music I love so much and there is nothing really “wrong” with the music. It sounds authentic. It’s not, but… There is also something to be said about the “business” side of the music business. Videos are always coming down off YouTube because of copyright concerns. If the copyright holders are not interested in sharing the contents of their vaults for whatever reasons, then they don’t want anybody else sharing them, either. This always rankles me. The thing being that often because of some stupid business snafu or contract entanglement, we are not allowed to hear certain music or watch certain movies. So they remain hidden forever? That’s bad. Copacabana Tidal suggests you look for real artists and that’s great. But are the recordings of these artists always available?

Two other channels are Peaceful Reveries and Vuzak. The former describes itself thusly; “I make music in various forms, genres, and manifestations. On this channel, you will find different genres of music such as vintage music, instrumental jazz, classical music, vocal jazz and trumpet tunes, and orchestral music. Also, I sometimes blend ambient sounds, nature sounds, natural atmosphere, or vocals into my tracks to add more emotional depth and texture to my tracks”. The latter provides “Ambient western & spaghetti western instrumentals, chill country-inspired lo-fi vibes, slow burn desert blues, vintage tones and modern minimalism”. The videos on each channel are cut up into “tracks” each with a “song title” and all vids of course come with AI-generated visuals.

Nuvoluxe is not only on YouTube but also Patreon, Amazon Music and iTunes. Their description at YouTube talks about wallpaper music and says that “each album is intentionally kept in the same mood and feel, without big shifts, so it can play softly in the background while you focus on other things. The consistency is the feature: it’s about setting a steady atmosphere, not drawing attention away from what you’re doing” – which is an almost verbatim description of elevator music, beautiful music, Muzak or easy listening; all real music genres that featured actual people doing real songs. But this is not the same thing. Or is it? One video at Nuvoluxe is Music in the Air; “inspired by authentic airline reel-to-reel music compilations of the 1960s and 70s” that were played on airplanes to soothe passengers in-flight. Maybe channels like Nuvoluxe are saying that if the mammoth conglomerate copyright holders of real-life music are so intent on keeping a tight grip on their property and monetizing it in their own way and by their own means then, screw it – we’ll make our own music that sounds just like yours. We will “copy” you – not mess with your “copyright”.

Your Background Music Channel just began in January of 2025 – half-a-million views, almost five thousand subscribers. The art they use is pretty cool and vintage-looking, I’ll admit and their bio also encourages you to check out the humans; “My goal is to introduce—and reintroduce—listeners everywhere to the timeless sounds of Bossa Nova, blending modern AI tools with deep respect for the genre’s roots”. This channel even has a link to an online store where you can purchase downloads of their imagery; postcard-like photos of actual physical heritage sites with graphics stylized for today and other reimaginings of golden era night clubs in Rio, “inspired by” the real things. Who’s buying these?

The Vintage Relaxation channel is all about the graphics and they “combine thoughtful lyrics, careful experimentation, and innovative AI to recreate the nostalgic sounds of a bygone era”. They also have a shop where you can buy a pint glass adorned with one of their pseudo-vintage, AI-generated images for only $30. Who’s buying these? The LoFi Signal FM channel is kinda cool. They don’t blather on much about who they are but the videos they serve up are alternate universe albums of lo-fi acid jazz and their graphics are not trying to be old school or anything else except cool – and they often succeed. One example is the boss monkey in shades on The World Can Wait, a two-hour broadcast of “70s LoFi”; “Relax, all right? Now take a deep breath, chill out. Enjoy the moment. Don’t think too much. The waves keep coming, the world will keep spinning” says the description. Also, every vid has the following disclaimer – “Music & visuals generated with AI, fully mixed and curated by Lo-Fi Signal FM™. Every track is arranged, mixed and mastered manually, and each cover is selected and edited to match the playlist’s mood. Made in digital space. Curated by humans”. Along the same lines is Nebula Breeze, “altered or synthetic” videos of jazz fusion, music for “whether you’re on vacation, driving, designing, studying, reading, writing, or simply dreaming”. This channel even says its content is copyrighted – AI music made to subvert or replace copyrighted material that is copyrighted itself.

Here’s a somehow troubling point – in the case of easy listening music, sometimes you can’t tell the difference between AI and the real thing. And this brings up the query – is that OK? For the record, there is a plethora of excellent channels and videos on YouTube that offer real life music from the past – by way of their own extensive curation or their sharing of actual physical media from back in the day. Of particular pleasure are the many videos you can find of tapes of music that played in supermarkets and department stores, shopping malls, actual Seeburg tapes or records and I can confirm that these are delightfully transportive.

You could start off by just searching “Muzak”, “Seeburg” or even “Department Store” and you’ll see results from various sources and many channels will show up multiple times. Check places like Raptor’s Videos (“old commercials, obscure music”), The World of Budget Vinyl Records (“Seeburg background music, and miscellaneous 16 2/3 rpm records”), Stuffer White (old-time radio and some Muzak “watch party” videos that stretch to four hours), Soft Tempo Lounge (new favourite, great music and spectacular moving images) and Fardemark (“rare easy listening recordings, most notably Seeburg 1000 Background music records”). So, an authentic Beautiful Music Experience can be had in the wilds of YouTube. And I just discovered Yawaraka Jazz, a channel featuring an audiophile spinning jazz on vinyl. Nicely curated 45-minute vids. Check him out and Buy Him a Coffee.

Everything costs money. YouTube Premium, obviously, allows you access to much more music on their platform; you have paid money so therefore you are entitled to listen to music that costs money to listen to. But regular YouTube will likely offer any amount of these AI-generated channels while real human music might be harder to access. So, all this begs the question – for those of us who truly love music, for those of us who are “music people” and maybe I’ll add for people who are singers, musicians and composers – is it OK to listen to AI-generated music? If it is, why is it OK? And if it’s not, what is the main argument against it?

If we’re not careful, our world may end up looking like Blade Runner, a film depicting bioengineered humanoids that you cannot tell from actual flesh-and-blood humans running amok. Right now it’s just bioengineered acid jazz that you cannot tell from Thievery Corporation…running amok.

“Recreate” the sounds of a bygone era? Why not the actual sounds of a bygone era? I think it goes without saying that, if you have the choice, one should always defer to actual songs written and performed by actual people. I think I will go ahead and be so bold as to say that no human being should choose AI over the real thing. Unless…

I will admit that AI music fascinates me and I’ve been using it. In no way, shape or form do I prefer it but I do see its use as a backdrop to work, sleep or creating the same way I see the benefits of white noise; rain falling, water flowing, pirate ship creaking, etc. That is actually an interesting concept; AI-generated music serves the same purpose and has the same function as the sound of a storm or traffic noise – or a buzzing drone. “A constant background noise-especially: one that drowns out other sounds” – I would use Merriam-Webster’s definition of white noise to describe AI music but not real music.

Requesting “AI’s” help as opposed to Google searching I can condone as I’ve used it and the results were helpful. But another real negative is the proliferation of AI images popping up on social media. Some phony AI image can lend credence to a phony AI “news” story and people can get fooled. That, my friends, is a slippery slope. And people sharing AI images of classic film stars on social media really gets movie fans going. Why on earth, they ask, would you need AI Marilyn when Real Marilyn is so beautiful? And for my Featured Images here at Vintage Leisure I always work hard to find real images that depict what I want to get across. It would be easy to ask AI to design one for me but I don’t want to do that; feels wrong, for this site, anyways. AI certainly needs to pump that brakes on other things, too – I see tools here at WordPress or out there on an internet browser that are labelled Help Me Write. As a writer, that sickens me. And, as a metrosexual, I always bristle at weather apps willing to Suggest An Outfit for Me. As Fred Sanford would say, back off, clown.

AI music making like 80s synth wave to play in the background while I work is OK but the bigger point is this; why accept a computer-generated facsimile when the actual sounds or images of the past that AI mimics – when the actual things they are copying – are still out there and accessible? There has not been some apocalyptic deluge that wiped out all historic documents – not yet – thus necessitating efforts to remind us all what things were like in the old days. The historic documents are still out there. We have them on our book shelves and on our turntables. There is no need to embrace the new at the expense of the old. And if you like old things, how are you OK with new things that just pretend to be old?

There’s some creativity involved in creating AI music but I would say that it does not begin to compare with someone living life and relating to other people, feeling something as the result of an earthly experience, sensing the need to express that feeling and utilizing an instrument to bring out their thoughts and feelings in a song. The point concerning us here is the origin of the music – from someone’s mind, heart and soul? Or the result of a computer having been programmed using certain parameters?

Eventually, we may need us a Rick Deckard. A blade runner who will walk the rain-drenched, neon-lighted streets of YouTube and social media hunting for replicants to retire. With extreme prejudice.