How does AI interpret the biggest songs in the world?
- New study reveals images created by an artificial intelligence engine which was given hit song lyrics as prompts
- Lyrics from artists including Harry Styles, The Weeknd and Taylor Swift were used, creating striking results
New research has revealed how artificial intelligence interprets song lyrics, with some fascinating results.
The study by Pirate, the world’s leading provider of rehearsal and recording facilities for artists, used AI image generator MidJourney to create imagery based on lyrics from some of the biggest pop songs. Iconic lines from songs such as Harry Styles’ smash hit As It Was, or Taylor Swift’s anthem Anti-Hero were used as prompts, leaving the model to create a selection of four pictures for each. The results are revealed below…
As It Was, Harry Styles
Prompt: “In this world, it’s just us, You know it’s not the same as it was”
images provided by Journo Research
The AI produces some otherworldly pictures in response to the chorus lyrics from the Harry Styles hit, which has racked up more than 2.4 billion streams on Spotify. The images mostly feature couples in a romantic twilight with satellites featuring prominently – bringing to life the theme of the one you love being the only other person on the planet.
Anti-Hero, Taylor Swift
Prompt: “It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero”
images provided by Journo Research
The lead single from Taylor Swift’s Midnights has reached nearly one billion streams on Spotify and the AI interprets the lyrics quite literally – showing a series of men in superhero-style costumes looking tired and dejected, surrounded by debris – an appropriate vision for a song which predicts devastation and loss.
Die For You, The Weeknd
Prompt: “Even though we’re goin’ through it, And it makes you feel alone, Just know that I would die for you”
images provided by Journo Research
The song which was on The Weeknd’s 2016 album Starboy got a new lease of life this year. The original and a remix featuring Ariana Grande have now been streamed on Spotify a combined two billion times. The MidJourney engine created a couple embracing in each of its four images – in one of them the woman is sporting a prominent skull tattoo – likely inspired by the mention of death in the line, while in another she’s less obviously playing a guitar.
Flowers, Miley Cyrus
Prompt: “I can buy myself flowers, Write my name in the sand”
images provided by Journo Research
After its release in January this year, Flowers became the fastest song to reach one billion streams on Spotify, and the imagery of the lyrics translates directly into the pictures produced by the AI, with flowers shown artfully strewn across a beach. Two of the images feature a solitary person, who looks fairly mournful in each, which could be seen as at odds with the song’s defiant tone following a break-up.
Kill Bill, SZA
Prompt: “I did it all for love, I did it all on no drugs”
images provided by Journo Research
SZA’s song about getting extreme revenge on an ex contains chorus lyrics that MidJourney considered to be in contravention of its community guidelines, so it refused to create images based on them. However the less violent line “I did it all for love, I did it all on no drugs” was allowed, and produced some beautifully colourful results, all portraits of women, with flowers, butterflies and hints of psychedelia a recurring theme.
Commenting on the images, a spokesperson for Pirate said: “These are lyrics that have been listened to and sung millions of times, becoming embedded in people’s minds and part of their daily lives, so it’s fascinating to see how an artificial intelligence creates imagery that ranges from the striking to the beautiful to the bizarre. It reminds us that true human artistry is still an essential part of the creative process in music, but also that the advance of AI could help inspire new ways of thinking about the craft of writing songs. From a music artist’s perspective, AI can also help lower some of the costs associated with self-releasing music such as design for album art or even creating music videos.”
The study was conducted by Pirate, a music technology company that operates fully automated and self-service 24-hour music studios across the UK, US and Germany.
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