The Rolling Stones hit out at AI music: “If you were any kind of creative person, you wouldn’t do that”
The Rolling Stones duo Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have both criticised musicians for using AI to create unoriginal work.
Notably, while The Stones have never taken the step to incorporate AI into their music, they did team up with Deep Voodoo to deepfake themselves young for the video for their recent single, ‘In The Stars‘.
The video saw The Stones’ faces from the 1970s superimposed on a young band who portrayed them for ‘In The Stars’, which Jagger has now explained.
He shared to Billboard: “We had a lot of fun with that. It’s only the faces of the musicians that are different. They’re not fake people in a fake room; they’re all in a room, really playing together. The musicians are real musicians that look a bit like The Rolling Stones in 1968. The only thing was the faces.”
Meanwhile, Richards believes that perhaps music videos is where AI could have a positive impact, stating, “That’s our brushing with AI. I said, ‘Very nice. I wish I looked like that now.’ But maybe that’s what they’re good for — music videos. Put it in its proper place. It’s a cartoon of me, younger.”
However, while they were receptive to the idea of using this technology for music videos, both Jagger and Richards are against AI-generated music that rips off artists, such as themselves, who have come before.
Jagger said, “Obviously I don’t want to be imitated by AI, vocally and instrumentally, and the band doesn’t. I don’t want people just putting stuff out there that can sound exactly like The Rolling Stones — I think that’s obviously wrong.”
He did say that people should “go ahead” if they wish to make AI music, before adding, “But it has to be original — you have to have your own input and your own thoughts.”
The frontman also condemned people who use AI to copy his own band, stating, “If you were any kind of creative person, you wouldn’t do that.”
Richards, on the other hand, said, “My thoughts are: I’d rather hear something original. Music could do a lot better than just trying to copy itself.”
The guitarist added of his perspective, “Music is to play around with. Surely there’s enough originality without having to copy nursery rhymes.”
Madonna also recently waded into the subject of AI, describing the process as “the complete opposite of making art.”
Similarly, Alice Cooper outlined why he believes AI will never replicate human artists, stating it “has no emotion, it has no heart, it has no feel, has no soul to it, and that’s where it dies right there.”
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