Over the past couple of years, Timbaland has positioned himself as one of the few contemporary pop figures willing to fully embrace the use of artificial intelligence in music. He’s partnered with the AI music platform Suno (which is being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement), started his own AI entertainment company, Stage Zero, and proclaimed that contemporary music is “bland” and “boring” and that AI is “the only thing that has a pure soul right now.”
Putting that theory to the test is the debut of Timbo’s first AI-generated artist, Tata Taktumi, with the single and music video, “Glitch x Pulse.” It is certainly a song — two songs even. Part one, “Glitch,” boasts a beat that sounds like something Timbaland could’ve made with its big bass hits and strange ambient synth squiggles. The “Pulse” section also sounds like something Timbaland could’ve made, but more in his upbeat, off-kilter, capering pop register (that kinda just makes you want to listen to Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous” instead).
Capping off the uncanny familiarity of the whole endeavor are the classic Timbo ad-libs peppered throughout “Pulse.” Some even sound just like the “Yeah!” yelps on Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” but in a way that kinda makes you want to listen to Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack” instead.
As Timbaland and his creative partner Zayd Portillo previously explained to Rolling Stone, their workflow for Tata (and the other AI artist they’re working on) involves uploading Timbaland-created demos to Suno, then letting the AI have its way with them. Tata’s voice is also AI-generated, as is her digital presence in the accompanying music video, which also features Jabbawockeez.
The only thing fully human in “Glitch x Pulse” are the lyrics. The song is credited to four songwriters: Portillo, Alice Aera, Emily Haber, and Brandon Avila.
Whether “Glitch x Pulse” has that “soul” Timbaland was aiming for will be up to the listener. Though he does seem to be doing exactly what one of his other collaborators, film producer Rocky Mudaliar, said he was aiming to do: “[P]ioneer a new genre of music — A-pop, artificial pop.”
From Rolling Stone US
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