Kaleidoscope 2023: Legendary Band, Pro-Contra AI, To Controversy And Achievement

Taylor Swift, one of the phenomenal artists throughout 2023 (Instagram @taylorswift)

JAKARTA - The world of foreign music throughout 2023 has several interesting stories to discuss and re-examine.

The journey of several legendary bands that appeared more than 50 years ago, still shows their existence to this day. In fact, The Beatles surprisingly released their last song using artificial intelligence (AI).

Meanwhile, the existence of AI in the process of producing and creating musical works has become an interesting topic of conversation this year. Several big names voiced different opinions.

In addition, the world of foreign music also leaves stories from several concerts that have become widely discussed among music lovers, including what happened in The 1975 in Malaysia and Taylor Swift in Brazil.

However, there is also the story of Beyonce who was named the most fertile musician after winning the Best Dance/Electronic Music Album category at the 65th Grammy Awards in February.

Berikut pembahasan lengkap beberapa peristiwa penting dalam dunia musik mancanegara sepanjang 2023.

Two legendary bands from England, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones come with their new works. Although in different ways, the two bands that debuted since the early 1960s show they still exist for their lovers.

Meanwhile, The Beatles with two remaining personnel, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, completed the song project Now And Then which was originally planned for release in 1995.

At that time, John Lennon's Now And Then demo was tried to work on. However, the technology at that time was not yet possible, until finally the latest technology with the help of AI was able to separate John's voice from the demo version and put in the new music.

"We can re-mix this song and make recordings worth hearing," McCartney said, quoted by VOI from The Verge.

Meanwhile, The Rolling Stones with three personnel, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and lucky Wood came with the album Hackney Diamonds on October 20.

At the age of old personnel, The Rolling Stones showed that they were still creative enough to be able to release full albums with new works. Through an official Twitter account, they even called the release of this full album a new era.

"New albums, new music, a new era," wrote The Rolling Stones.

In addition, the legendary band from the United States, Kiss also appeared with an interesting decision on December 2.

Appearing at Madison Square Garden, New York as the last concert as humans, Kiss announced they will continue their career on stage as virtual avatars.

"We're not going anywhere, you'll see us in various ways, all the time. See you in your dreams. We love you, good night," Paul Stanley exclaimed ending Kiss's human concert.

The use of AI has helped Paul McCartney complete the final song from The Beatles, Now And Then. John Lennon's voice from the original footage was separated from AI technology and combined with a new record.

Paul seemed to enjoy using AI in the cultivation of Now And The. However, he did not cover up concerns about its use in other things.

"It's a bit scary but exciting, because it's the future. We have to see where it's going," said Paul McCartney.

Liam Gallagher, the former Oasis vocalist, also responded to the AI implementation when another British group, Breezer, used AI to put Liam's voice in Oasis in their new work.

In response to netizens' questions on social media X, Liam seemed to be enjoying the results made by Breezer.

"Hearing it, (and) it's better than all the other voices out there," Liam wrote on X.

"Very crazy, I sound great," he continued.

Some musicians even openly support the use of AI, namelyition, David Guetta, Nile Rodgers, and several other names.

Meanwhile, several big names have expressed their concerns about the existence of AI. They think the human position in AI is threatened.

"We will not know what AI has created and what it is created by humans. Everything will be very vague and confusing, and I think we might look back to 2023 as the last year when humans really dominated the world of music," said Brian May, guitarist of Queen.

"I think this could be a serious thing, and it doesn't make me happy. It makes me feel worried, and I'm getting ready to feel sad because of it," he continued.

In fact, Sting straightforwardly called humans dealing 'fight' with AI in terms of songwriting.

The formulation of music belongs to us, belonging to humans. It will be a battle that we must fight in the next few years: preserving our human resources from AI," said Sting.

Not only Brian May and Sting, but several musicians have also called for a strong rejection of AI, such as John Lydon, Ed Sheeran, Duff McKagan, and many other names.

Another interesting discussion from the foreign music scene was also present in the controversy that appeared in music concerts, and the most attention-grabbing was the appearance of The 1975 in Malaysia and Taylor Swift in Brazil.

Appearing at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on July 21, Badminton (vocals) kissed Ross MacDonald (bass) on stage. The action made The 1975 appearance had to be stopped by local authorities.

As a result of the controversy, The 1975 had to deal with the lawsuit filed by the promoter. Mattmen's actions were also criticized by the LGBTQ + community, they considered the vocalist to put the community at risk in Malaysia.

The controversy also made The 1975, which was supposed to play at the We The Fest event in Jakarta, canceled by the organizers. Sheila On 7 is a substitute for the British band.

Furthermore, controversy also came from Taylor Swift's concert in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 17 November. But the problem did not come from the singer, but the event organizer.

During the concert, a young woman named Ana Clara Benevides died of a heart attack. Before the concert, he felt unwell because of the extreme hot weather. Had received first aid and was taken to the hospital, his life could not be saved.

Time4Fun (T4F) as the promoter said it had been negligent and did not consider extreme weather which could have a bad impact on the audience present at the time.

Promotor juga meminta agar larangan membawa botol air ke lokasi konceri untuk dipertimbangkan. Dalam konferensi lanjutan di Srypto Paulo, T4F juga mengajai adanya titik distribusi air di dalam lokasi konioner. Mereka juga meminta penonton membawa kaca air satu pakai atau botol plastik lembil.

Then, apart from the two controversies above, Beyonce's achievements also deserve to be seen. The wife of Jay-Z was named the most Grammy winner in history.

In the 65th Grammy Awards in February, Beyonce won four trophies, namely Best Dance/Electronic Recording for Break My Soul, Best Traditional R&B Performance for Plastic Off the Sofa, Best Song Written for Visual Media for Be Alive, and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for Renaissance.

That way, Beyonce has 32 Grammy Awards and is the most in history. He broke the record for Georg Solti who won the Grammys with 31 trophies.