We had a pretty grim 13 hour drive back from the annual seaside holiday yesterday. We'd been enjoying the delights of Baška on the island of Krk, a holiday that involved plenty of snorkelling, good food, red wine and ... music.
I know I'm a bit late coming to the "singer" pictured above. Still, it was interesting to discover his music, sitting on the dock of the bay (more or less). We'd ordered our food, probably had a sip or two of wine, when I became aware of the background music. We like to play "spot the intro" when sitting in bars, but couldn't quite place this one. Sounded like bluesy soul with a bit of an Otis Redding feel about it.
We were both a bit irritated by the lyrics, but couldn't say exactly why. And after ignoring the music for a few minutes I then asked my husband:
Is this still the same song playing, or another one?
It was definitely the same voice, same style of music, same rather cliched world-weary lyrics, but it was almost impossible to tell where one song stopped and the next started.
We reached for Shazam.
No result.
I suspected AI in play and said as much. The next time the lady serving came to our table, my husband (with more guts and perhaps less diplomacy than me) asked:
We're curious about this music. Do you mind me asking if you've made it with AI?
Oh no, no, the lady explained. I've got a paid-for YouTube account with no ads and I discovered him on there. Hang on, I'll tell you his name. She came back with a big smile - Eddie Dalton, she said. Do you like the music?
Very pleasant, my husband answered, more diplomatically than usual.
It didn't take us long to discover the truth about Eddie Dalton. He's got millions of YouTube views and followers, been No.1 on iTunes etc. etc.
And, of course he is "created" by a content "creator" called Dallas Ray Little (which may not be his real name). This character churns out a lot of music of various genres on his Crunchy Records label.
If you look on YouTube, "Eddie" is there in all his smooth, soulful glory, with songs titled "Another Day Old" or "Cheap Red Wine."
I suspect, if I'd heard one or two songs in isolation, I wouldn't have twigged. Would have thought it was a new artist paying homage to the great 60s soul- and bluesman. Or maybe someone from that era who'd never made it as big as he should have.
But there's nothing on YouTube labelling Eddie Dalton as AI.
Does this matter? On the one hand, maybe people don't care. From the comments on the videos, people - especially the 60+ age group - find the music soothing and the bittersweet lyrics resonate. And is it really any different to the muzak, lift music, chill-out music etc. that previous decades have produced? As my husband said, one or two of the songs are "pleasant" enough to listen to.
Dallas Ray Little claims to write the songs, but I doubt it. The lyrics sound like he's prompted the machine to go through the back catalogue of every soul and blues singer, plus a few MOR artists and string a few cliches together on the subject of drinking to forget, or regretting you were so mean to her, or lamenting about lost youth.
It pissed me off, and made me feel embarrassed that the charming lady at the restaurant thought Eddie Dalton was real. While Dallas Ray Little - whoever they are - is raking in the profits.
Still, we had plenty of real music of all sorts, too. Brass Palmas for starters. And then a glorious impromptu singalong in a little restaurant where musical instruments were taken down from the walls and English, Argentinian, Austrian, Italian and Croatian all sang Let it Be together.
It wasn't smooth, it wasn't perfect. To anyone listening, it may not have been pleasant, either.
But we were singing from our hearts.
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