Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Coulson Center, I'm John Stone Street.
Well, according to a recent article in The Atlantic, there's a new hit band. but it doesn't really exist. Velvet Sundown got a million hits on Spotify before the wider public realized that they were completely generated by AI.
Now manufactured musical acts are of course nothing new, but at least the boy bands of the nineties and you remember the monkeys, they were at least made up of dancing, singing, living human beings. Velvet Sundown's two albums have a kind of coffeehouse vibe. Band photos, history, and song lyrics can all be found online for this group that doesn't really exist. And apparently they even have a social media strategy. When my colleague Tim Padgett shared the Atlantic article online, the band liked his post.
And one of their own social media posts reads this way: quote, they said we're not real.
Well, maybe you aren't either, end quote.
Now, could there be a better encapsulation of our moment than this story? Disembodied art, music without a musician, and will anyone even care as long as they like it? Back in 1999, the film The Matrix told a dystopian tale of an ordinary man that discovered his entire world is an illusion. manufactured by artificially intelligent robots. And a big part of that story is that humans are easily captive because of their addiction to ease and escape.
In 2021, the star of that film, as well as all the Matrix sequels, Keanu Reeves, had dinner with some friends, whose teenage daughters had never seen the film. When he explained the plot to them, the girls were quite puzzled. Why would anyone want to leave the illusion? One of them even said, Who cares if it's real? Reeves' reply to them was, that's awesome.
No, it's actually terrifying, and it should be terrifying to the person who starred in the movie. For a generation or more now, art, music, and entertainment has been all about the individual's experience. There's no right or wrong way to listen, to view, or to understand. In fact, there's not really anything to understand. Since meaning is a matter only of personal interpretation and construction.
And what was a kind of culture-wide application of the reader response theory everyone was taught in reading class? It doesn't matter what the artist intends or how anyone else understands it. It doesn't even matter if what the artist creates is good.
Now, in the case of Velvet Sundown, it doesn't even matter if there's an artist at all.
Now, on one hand, innocuous AI-generated music playing in the background of our road trips and offices and kitchen might not mean all that much. At least it wouldn't mean all that much if we were a different kind of culture. But we aren't. We're a culture that long ago detached from truth and any moral vision for our imaginations. We've detached our identity and purpose from who we truly are, made in the image of God.
To reflect our Creator and Source of all truth. We've detached beauty from God. In fact, beauty has, in large part, fully succumbed to mindless sensation. and crassness has now become a substitute for excellence.
Now, in contrast, it's certainly notable that music played such a prominent role throughout the history of the people of God. There are whole sections of the Bible in which God reveals himself to his people. in the form of song. from the psalms to large sections of the prophets. The songs of Moses, Deborah, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, these all punctuate the redemptive work of God.
And throughout every expression of the church, Christian worship has been characterized by song as well. Because God created humans to worship Him, music is inescapably a form of worship, for better or worse. Ultimately, real people should be creating music because it's real people who were created to worship. with music. As the psalmist sang, my lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to you, my soul also, which you have redeemed.
For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. And I want to say a special thanks today to Paul and Glory of St. Paul, Minnesota, Thanks for being a Cornerstone Monthly partner of the Coulson Center.
You helped make this episode of Breakpoint possible. And for a version of this commentary that you can print out and share with others, go to breakpoint.org. The Colson Center is coming to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a screening of the groundbreaking new documentary Truth Rising on November 12th. This event is free and open to the public. Join us from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m.
at the Matthews Performing Arts Center to watch this inspiring film. This event is free, but registration is required.
So secure your spot today at colsoncenter.org slash Grand Rapids. That's colsoncenter.org slash Grand Rapids.
