Hi, everyone. A-thony I-tano here, Internet's busiest music nerd, once again talking about our favorite topic on this channel.

At this point, I'm often left wondering when I look at the comments on videos like these on YouTube or on social media, how exactly should I continue engaging with the AI topic? Because for sure, there are a lot of responses that are like, 'Oh, Anthony, just ignore it and don't talk about it, and you're making the problem worse by talking about it.' I do get that sentiment to a degree. I mean, as of this moment, the AI-generated rock band, The Velvet Sundown, is sitting at around 200,000 monthly Spotify listeners, a number that was much higher when there were headlines galore about the band and the waves they were making on social media and on streaming. And a lot of that hype seems to have died down since.

But this next artist who I'm talking about, Xania Monet, has not been discussed nearly as much, even by me, outside of an off-handed reference in a jokey AI tier list video that we did. And Xania's profile and audience seems to have grown so much larger than that of The Velvet Sundown's, with only a fraction of the debate around what she does.

I mean, the most fervor I saw around this AI thing's music was off of some headlines about, allegedly, a multimillion-dollar deal. So honestly, this whole Xania thing has been growing much more covert underneath the floorboards of the music industry like a termite infestation or some mold. Because again, not only are we seeing, honestly, some really impressive monthly listener numbers on platforms like Spotify, but also Xania has multiple songs that have gained many more streams than that of some of the most popular Velvet Sundown songs.

Currently, this Xania thing has an Instagram page with over 100,000 followers, which I know and I understand all of the theories around, like, dead internet. Sure, it is true that some of the comments under these posts look generic and botted, just random hearts and stuff like that. But by that same token, there are also many interactions under these posts that, like, honest to God look real.

'Amazing lyrics, amazing voice, showing the one true God love in your songs. They are just mad because they don't do it like this. This is how the music industry should be, focusing on the talent and always praising God. Music is music. If it touches your soul and the lyrics resonate with you, it's music. There's no difference between a writer having a singer sing their song or a writer having AI sing it. Hater's going to hate, but this is talent. My wife loves your songs.'

What is talent? I don't know. Who the fuck knows? These comments could be fake as hell. All of this could just be one huge fucking massive sci-op, but what's not helping is that the music industry, more or less, seems to be all fine with this. Because the reason Xania Monet has been such a topic of discussion over this past weekend is because is the song "How was I supposed to know?" has apparently been doing some numbers on the Billboard Adult R&B chart on the radio. Honest to God, the song is getting fucking radio play. So not only is the song charting, but Billboard as well is posting articles about the song charting, which are not really negative or shocked in tone. They more or less seem fine with this whole thing, despite the fact that Billboard has changed the rules around how things chart and what numbers are necessary to chart and how exactly they calculate all this shit.

They could easily say, 'Hey, you know what? Maybe we shouldn't let AI artists chart or totally generated AI slop chart, be it through radio sales, whatever.' They could be doing that. They could actually be making that decision right now. They're not like a governing fucking body. They don't have to wait for someone in the house to write up a bill, and they all vote on it. They could make this decision today, and they're not making it because they're like, 'You know what? No. Let this slop rot the Billboard charts and basically replace as many artists as it can and make artistry and popularity basically pointless.'

And what's funny is that this is not even the first time this Xania Monet AI thing has charted because apparently this project nailed down a hot gospel song placement with the track 'Let Go, Let God.' Really? An AI gospel track? I don't know if this needs to be spelled out, but it's AI! What the fuck does it know about God? What does it know about spirituality or sinning or temptation, or belief in a higher power? It's AI! It doesn't believe in anything! Why are you letting a robot tell you about how much it loves God?

Like an AI pop song, I guess, is one thing. 'Oh, it's summer. I got broke up with, what a bummer.' Or whatever generic live, laugh, love shit these AI models generate. AI Slop pop wallpaper isn't great, but it's one thing. It's another to basically have the Suno AI bot tell us about heaven, about how sad and in emotional pain it is, tell us about its soul, or tell us about how much it misses its dead loved ones, and doing it in a way that is meant to replace actual R&B and gospel artists. And I don't care how much the people who support this bullshit say, 'Oh, that's not what this is for. That's not the point.' Even this AI thing's name reads like a ripoff of Victoria Monét. And look, it does seem to be working in terms of convincing some listeners. And most likely, whatever playlisting this song is seeing, people aren't being told that it's AI there, too. This shit is not being adequately labeled. And given the typical history of how AI music has gone hand in hand with botting and fake streams, and like, who knows how much of these tracks algorithmically are being shoved down people's throats because of that.

Now, for a second here, I thought it would make sense to give you guys a little bit of background on this AI music project because there has been a lot of theorizing that this merely exists as some purely white guy-created AI figure to profit off of black art, music, and aesthetics by creating this carbon copy. For sure, to an extent, it is that. But allegedly, the mastermind behind Xania Monet is one Telisha Nikki Jones, who is said to be basically the lyricist behind the project. Though who knows if every single word going into these songs is purely coming out of her head. I mean, in theory, that could be the case, but simultaneously, it's just as easy, if not easier, to AI-generate lyrics to go along with music. On top of that, a lot of the words and a lot of the sentiments going into these songs, I don't know, just like some millennials live, laugh, love shit, like the most cliché observations on loved ones and spirituality and relationships, 'Having to be strong when things are hard.' Honestly, the musings contained within these lyrics are so dime a dozen, it would be a waste of time to actually sit there and think about them.

In addition to that, I mean, the music itself, there's not really a whole lot to report. In terms of Xania delivering pretty much the same type of boring and overly saccharine millennial balladry that we've heard a hundred times before, but with an R&B twist. A few gospel nods here and there, too. Digital production, overused chord progressions. And in addition to that, what's maybe the most gross and disappointing thing about Xania's music is, despite how vocally intensive these styles of music are, you get that same shitty, splotchy, scratchy sound and aesthetic on the vocals that feel like they've been fed through a really bad low-quality MP3, like you get with most AI music. 'I'm amazed. Voice just heals me.' Meanwhile, the vocals sound like shit. Seeing so many grandmas and grandpas and dads and moms and uncles and aunties get caught up in the AI net here, I'm sidebarring, but I just want to say it's just hilarious to see this because for years we have heard from these generations that like, 'Oh, man, new music is trash and old music is way better and superior, and it's not like it was back in the day. Back then, we cared about artistry and this, that, and the like.' Meanwhile, you are literally getting rizzed up musically by an AI chatbot. What do you know about artistry?

Anyway, Telisha Nikki Jones is seemingly a real person with a bit of a Facebook profile where she tries to make some extra bank off of her success with Xania Monet by offering users a spot at her AI school, where I guess she's going to give instructions on how to make more garbage AI music. Of course, she also has motivational posts on her page celebrating her success in the AI music field.

'Making history in real-time. Overjoyed isn't even the word. People cling to what they're used to, until someone proves there's more. And when you break a barrier they swore couldn't be touched, it shakes everything. Now, here we are, I created the first AI artist on Billboard radio airplay, the same space they said wasn't built for this. When innovation steps in, the world has two options: fight it or adjust, and eventually, they adjust. This is bigger than me. It's proof that the future doesn't wait for permission.'

Bro, chill out. Chill. This person basically punched a bunch of words into an AI prompt, and she's acting like she invented a fucking automobile. I'm sorry, but the attitude this person is showcasing is the level of pretentiousness that artists usually get painted with impunity for actually creating art with their fingers, their minds, their voices. I don't know. Even if it's some of the worst music ever created, I think artists who are actually working off of their own ideas have more license to feel this way about themselves than somebody who's just fucking telling Suno what to do.

But yeah, I'm going to leave this here for now. Let me know what you guys think about all of this in the comments, I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano. AI art. Is it getting worse?