AI slop and musical creativity

Music in this episode, not counting my Suno output:

Fleetwood Mac - “Dreams” (1977)

Thelonious Monk - “Round Midnight” (1968)

Cordelia’s Dad - “Montcalm and Wolfe” (1998)

The Bee Gees - “Stayin’ Alive” (instrumental) (1977)

Catherine Sikora - “The Knowing of Sums” (2016)

Ethan Hein - “The Knowing of Sums remix” (2020)

The Velvet Sundown - “Dust on the Wind” (2025)

Neil Young - “Out on the Weekend” (1972)

Koji Kondō - “Super Mario Bros Underworld Theme” (1985)

References

I refer to Margaret Boden’s 2004 book, The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms.

I also refer to a study of a songwriting class that quotes a student talking about the difference between musicians and artists. You can read that study here:

Dweck, J. (2023). Children as songwriters: The social-emotional benefits of songwriting in the elementary grades. Research Studies in Music Education, 46(2).

Here’s the interview with Mikey Shulman where he says that people don’t enjoy the process of making music.

Here’s my summary of the research on the learning impacts of LLM use:

Get full access to Ethan teaches you music at ethanhein.substack.com/subscribe