One day I was standing at an intersection, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. Then a food delivery guy rode his e-bike up and stopped beside me. He was listening to music, and he wasn’t using earphones.
He was listening to Dusk by Steve Chou. Actually, not by Steve Chou. It was one of those disco ball boom-chk-boom-chk remixes. By don’t-know-who. Then he suddenly started his bike and rode diagonally to the other side. The light on the other side had turned red, but our side wasn’t green yet.
He was probably in his early 20s but listening to a 2000s song. Because the Chinese music scene hasn’t produced a cultural icon in a long time. Even my mom knows Jay Chou and Stefanie Sun. She’s never heard of Deng Ziqi. Back then there was no Spotify, no YouTube, and we all listened to 933fm. That’s how Jay Chou became a superstar.
At least that disco remix was still made by humans. At least you still need a singer. And someone to do the remixing. But as AI gets better, we don’t even need a cover singer anymore 1. Just prompt, a lo-fi EDM disco version of this song with a lot of bass, and you’ll get one in 10 seconds.
Then you try to tell the delivery guy about this. He’d look at you like you’re an idiot. Can’t you see I’m busy? I’m delivering for Grab, Foodpanda, and Deliveroo at the same time. I’m running out of time with this order. The customer is messaging me. I have no time for your lecture about the livelihood of artsy-fartsy people.
Our side turned green. His loudspeaker was so loud that I could still hear the outro of the song. I don’t know what song was next in his playlist. It’s not important because it’s background music, just melodic enough to keep him awake while doing mundane tasks.
And we’re still looking for the next Jay Chou.
Surprisingly, the Chinese readily accept this. I mean, go read the news about tone-deaf industry leaders getting booed at western university commencements for mentioning AI. ↩