Bobby Baskaran – May 2025
For as long as there has been music, there has been an unshakable belief that its essence lies in human emotion. The heartbreak in a blues riff, the euphoria in a pop anthem, the anguish in a ballad – all of it, we assume, is drawn from real-life experiences and deeply felt emotions. But is that really true? And if not, does it matter?
With AI rapidly becoming a force in songwriting, production, and even performance, the biggest argument against it is that it lacks human emotion. But here’s the thing – human emotion in music has been faked, curated, and engineered for decades. Some of the greatest songs ever written weren’t about real heartbreaks but about imaginary ones. The most moving melodies were sometimes composed in boardrooms, not bedrooms. If AI can create music that evokes the same emotional response in a listener, does it matter whether a machine or a human wrote it?
The History of Manufactured Emotion in Music
Songwriting has never been as raw and personal as we like to believe. Ghostwriters have penned confessional ballads for singers who have never lived the experiences they sing about. Producers have shaped vocals and instrumentation to sound emotional, even when the artist wasn’t particularly feeling anything in the studio. Pop music, in particular, has always been an exercise in precision-engineered emotion – built to tap into collective feelings and trends rather than personal experiences.
Take Diane Warren, one of the most successful songwriters in history. She has written gut-wrenching breakup anthems while openly admitting she’s never been in a serious relationship. Max Martin, the mastermind behind countless pop hits, has crafted love songs for artists who were barely old enough to understand love. The emotion was never real – but the impact? Undeniable.
Now, AI is stepping into this role—not as a replacement for human creativity, but as an extension of it.
AI as a Tool, Not a Threat
The fear surrounding AI in music often paints it as a replacement for human artistry. But in reality, it’s just another evolution in music production. Autotune was once seen as unnatural. Sampling was dismissed as unoriginal. MIDI production was accused of stripping away the human touch. Today, these tools are an inseparable part of modern music. AI is simply the next iteration.
An AI model can analyze decades of hit songs, understand the patterns that trigger emotional responses, and generate melodies or lyrics that evoke the same feelings. Is that really so different from what record labels and producers have been doing for years? If a song moves an audience, does it matter if the artist wrote every note or if an algorithm suggested the perfect chord progression?
The Real Question: Who Controls the Narrative?
The real challenge with AI in music isn’t whether it can generate emotional songs—it already can. The real question is who is in control of the narrative? Do artists use AI to enhance their creativity, or do corporations use AI to mass-produce soulless content?
AI-generated music, when used as a collaborative tool, has the potential to push artistry further than ever before. It can help songwriters break creative blocks, assist producers in crafting unique soundscapes, and even allow artists to generate alternate versions of their own music. But if AI is used purely as a cost-cutting measure—removing artists from the equation—it risks turning music into a formulaic, assembly-line product with no identity.
Final Thought: Does Authenticity Matter?
The idea that AI can’t create emotion is flawed—because emotion in music has always been a performance. It has always been shaped, crafted, and sometimes even fabricated. The difference now is that we’re more aware of the process.
What matters isn’t whether AI can make “real” music—it’s whether we, as artists, choose to guide its evolution or let it define the future of music without us. AI is not the enemy. It’s just another instrument. The question is: Who’s holding the baton?