This is just a guess, but maybe it will come from live community theatre. Look at the way people are going nuts over Daniel Radcliffe on “Every Brilliant Thing” on Broadway, and WHY. Perhaps people will get fed up with mediocre corporate celebrities and the PR machine, and local celebrities will become the trend—ones you can actually come across at the grocery store. There’s no AI at the local community theater and limited special effects—just honest performances from real people. And the bad, unprofessional acting? Maybe it will come to be valued as “theatre grunge” and loved for its edgy authenticity!
Live performance. Even not particularly good live performance, if it's an authentic effort, is better than most corporate generated music let alone AI generated music. Go drop ten or twelve bucks, see someone new and local. Get out there
A few years back I had the privilege of helping install a large scale kinetic work of art in a hospital. The work included classical figuration, old-school boat-building techniques, and a custom winch system installed with the help of a rope-access crew that spend half their lives climbing mountains. To this day we get letters from patients who find the work therapeutic as they navigate their healing journeys. Real work makes a real difference in lives.
I also love Matthew Crawford's take on learning from tradition: "The point isn't to replicate the conclusions of a tradition... but rather to enter into the same problems as the ancients and make them one's own." - From The World Beyond Your Head
I keep listening to Van Morrison, who draws deeply on the black American music of his youth. Ray Charles helped him believe in his soul back in those days. And still does apparently.
For almost Twenty years I have been hoping people will discover a new novelty, people actually playing their instruments live. No tracks, no miming, no lip synching, no auto tune etc. When I do solo saxophone gigs NO TRACKS show the melody, harmony, rhythm Don't be lazy be live.
Paul Anka bought the music rights from a French composer and wrote the lyrics for My Way.
Dean Martin released the biggest hit of his career, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime. This song was originally written in the 1930's. Just two examples of why originality has been replaced by past hits re-released for a new generation. That's why, when I hear a song, I'm more interested in the composer than the singer. The composer is the creative force that often goes unrecognized.
IMO their music respects and incorporates the best of early blues, Gregorian chants, and Indian ragas. Every time I listen I hear something new and like them more.
I was going to break down what they do (not what they play), but watch and listen for yourselves. All I'll say is that the guitarist/bassist/effects guy boggles my mind, the drummer slaps, and even their costumes are part of the music.
As long as we have bands like them, all is not lost.
Creative and original music and films will be remembered far into the future, unlike the slop like the current pop music and endless remakes of Spider-Man films. What old films and music are still worth watching and listening to? The most memorable ones are the ones that were breakthroughs. They might have been influenced by the past, but they took from the past and remade it into something new. "Apocalypse Now" is based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness as an example, and in music, bebop used the chord changes from standard pop tunes and reinvented them. Led Zeppelin and the Beatles were influenced by the old blues artists. Today, some artists and films are original and not just slop copies of the past. Jacob Collier listens to and absorbs music from around the world. The music industry hates him because he does not sign a contract that makes them money by repeating the same thing year after year, like so many pop stars today.
Easy to agree with all this …except the maybe the part about a human revolutionary response to this new AI reality which appears to be happening unlike the predictable patterns of the past. The volume and velocity is out of control. We will continue responding to other human art. Will new generations raised on robot buddies and AI pals respond to non human art? They’ll sure have a lot to choose from.
Brilliant analysis. I would add that our obession with identities of all kinds, on both the Left and the Right, work against the idea of a shared common humanity. As you put it Michaelangelo understood that the human condition was timeless, and I'm sure, that the whole point of art was to communicate what it means to be human. Placing identities before the human condition, and insisting that these identities have inherent existence, erases the idea that we have anything important to share with each other.
I've been working on a project for a couple of years putting Tang Dynasty poetry to music. I'm sure some would say this is cultural appropriation. But I do it because, for me, music unlocks the power of these poet's insights into the human heart. To suddenly feel that Du Fu or Bai Juyi have something to say to me in 2026, is mind-blowing. It's affirming of my own humanity.
Whether it comes in the form of a new Romanticism, I think the next artistic movement, if there is to be one, will once again take humanity as it's subject -- not isms or identities.
I don't know, modern Hollywood may try to go through the motions of hitting the procedural steps of the mythic hero's journey, but in most cases they are sorely missing the intimate emotional growth elements for the heroes themselves. The point of most myth, folktales and fairy tales, at least from the point of view of scholars like Vladimir Propp, is to provide an allegory symbol to the young as they struggle to emerge into adulthood. Heroes in today's movies rarely grow or transform or struggle with weakness or limitations - they are bland stereotypes of what a hero used to be (just compare Luke Skywalker to his modern contemporary Rey).
Yes, it is a formulaic approach, just like the ones peddled to artists today by industry pundits. The problem with formulas is that they only focus on technique, thus lacking any of the spiritual profundities that made the originals valuable in the first place.
Very well said, Su. I've been on a huge dive into Anthroposophy recently and it led me to the rather obscure short stories of Michael Ende. I marvel at how well he encoded broad spiritual concepts, free of religiosity, into so much of his work. Now if Mirror In The Mirror: A Labyrinth would just come back into print in languages other than Japanese and Spanish.
The key distinction here is between looking backwards for truth and looking backwards for product. Michelangelo raided the past because he thought it still contained living standards. The modern reboot raids the past because shareholders enjoy low-risk necromancy.
That’s what feels so deadening now: not old forms, but old forms exhumed by people who don’t believe (or understand) in them. The reboot is classicism after its soul has been removed and replaced with brand management. AI slop just accelerates the same logic. Once culture becomes managed repetition, the machine isn't an intruder. It’s staff.
When an artist does deliver a new take on a classic, often the response is confusion or dismay. People get way too comfortable with the familiar.
This is just a guess, but maybe it will come from live community theatre. Look at the way people are going nuts over Daniel Radcliffe on “Every Brilliant Thing” on Broadway, and WHY. Perhaps people will get fed up with mediocre corporate celebrities and the PR machine, and local celebrities will become the trend—ones you can actually come across at the grocery store. There’s no AI at the local community theater and limited special effects—just honest performances from real people. And the bad, unprofessional acting? Maybe it will come to be valued as “theatre grunge” and loved for its edgy authenticity!
You gotta get off Spotify, my guy. Not only is it filled with AI slop, but it’s also airing ICE recruitment ads. Bad news all around.
Live performance. Even not particularly good live performance, if it's an authentic effort, is better than most corporate generated music let alone AI generated music. Go drop ten or twelve bucks, see someone new and local. Get out there
A few years back I had the privilege of helping install a large scale kinetic work of art in a hospital. The work included classical figuration, old-school boat-building techniques, and a custom winch system installed with the help of a rope-access crew that spend half their lives climbing mountains. To this day we get letters from patients who find the work therapeutic as they navigate their healing journeys. Real work makes a real difference in lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBShqgyvuNM
I also love Matthew Crawford's take on learning from tradition: "The point isn't to replicate the conclusions of a tradition... but rather to enter into the same problems as the ancients and make them one's own." - From The World Beyond Your Head
I think a lot about Crawford's chapter on the pipe organ makers a lot, particularly in regard to what people and companies are doing with AI.
I keep listening to Van Morrison, who draws deeply on the black American music of his youth. Ray Charles helped him believe in his soul back in those days. And still does apparently.
For almost Twenty years I have been hoping people will discover a new novelty, people actually playing their instruments live. No tracks, no miming, no lip synching, no auto tune etc. When I do solo saxophone gigs NO TRACKS show the melody, harmony, rhythm Don't be lazy be live.
Paul Anka bought the music rights from a French composer and wrote the lyrics for My Way.
Dean Martin released the biggest hit of his career, Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime. This song was originally written in the 1930's. Just two examples of why originality has been replaced by past hits re-released for a new generation. That's why, when I hear a song, I'm more interested in the composer than the singer. The composer is the creative force that often goes unrecognized.
Check out Angine De Poultine, a two-person band unlike anything I've ever seen. Here's a live gig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ssi-9wS1so&list=RD0Ssi-9wS1so&start_radio=1
IMO their music respects and incorporates the best of early blues, Gregorian chants, and Indian ragas. Every time I listen I hear something new and like them more.
I was going to break down what they do (not what they play), but watch and listen for yourselves. All I'll say is that the guitarist/bassist/effects guy boggles my mind, the drummer slaps, and even their costumes are part of the music.
As long as we have bands like them, all is not lost.
the comments section for that youtube elevates the actual video beyond spectacle to a total integrated art form.
He is making a different argument, but I suspect a lot of what Grafton Tanner says in his 2024 book, Foreverism, is complementary to your argument.
Creative and original music and films will be remembered far into the future, unlike the slop like the current pop music and endless remakes of Spider-Man films. What old films and music are still worth watching and listening to? The most memorable ones are the ones that were breakthroughs. They might have been influenced by the past, but they took from the past and remade it into something new. "Apocalypse Now" is based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness as an example, and in music, bebop used the chord changes from standard pop tunes and reinvented them. Led Zeppelin and the Beatles were influenced by the old blues artists. Today, some artists and films are original and not just slop copies of the past. Jacob Collier listens to and absorbs music from around the world. The music industry hates him because he does not sign a contract that makes them money by repeating the same thing year after year, like so many pop stars today.
Easy to agree with all this …except the maybe the part about a human revolutionary response to this new AI reality which appears to be happening unlike the predictable patterns of the past. The volume and velocity is out of control. We will continue responding to other human art. Will new generations raised on robot buddies and AI pals respond to non human art? They’ll sure have a lot to choose from.
The civilized world is here for this!
Brilliant analysis. I would add that our obession with identities of all kinds, on both the Left and the Right, work against the idea of a shared common humanity. As you put it Michaelangelo understood that the human condition was timeless, and I'm sure, that the whole point of art was to communicate what it means to be human. Placing identities before the human condition, and insisting that these identities have inherent existence, erases the idea that we have anything important to share with each other.
I've been working on a project for a couple of years putting Tang Dynasty poetry to music. I'm sure some would say this is cultural appropriation. But I do it because, for me, music unlocks the power of these poet's insights into the human heart. To suddenly feel that Du Fu or Bai Juyi have something to say to me in 2026, is mind-blowing. It's affirming of my own humanity.
Whether it comes in the form of a new Romanticism, I think the next artistic movement, if there is to be one, will once again take humanity as it's subject -- not isms or identities.
I don't know, modern Hollywood may try to go through the motions of hitting the procedural steps of the mythic hero's journey, but in most cases they are sorely missing the intimate emotional growth elements for the heroes themselves. The point of most myth, folktales and fairy tales, at least from the point of view of scholars like Vladimir Propp, is to provide an allegory symbol to the young as they struggle to emerge into adulthood. Heroes in today's movies rarely grow or transform or struggle with weakness or limitations - they are bland stereotypes of what a hero used to be (just compare Luke Skywalker to his modern contemporary Rey).
Yes, it is a formulaic approach, just like the ones peddled to artists today by industry pundits. The problem with formulas is that they only focus on technique, thus lacking any of the spiritual profundities that made the originals valuable in the first place.
Very well said, Su. I've been on a huge dive into Anthroposophy recently and it led me to the rather obscure short stories of Michael Ende. I marvel at how well he encoded broad spiritual concepts, free of religiosity, into so much of his work. Now if Mirror In The Mirror: A Labyrinth would just come back into print in languages other than Japanese and Spanish.
The key distinction here is between looking backwards for truth and looking backwards for product. Michelangelo raided the past because he thought it still contained living standards. The modern reboot raids the past because shareholders enjoy low-risk necromancy.
That’s what feels so deadening now: not old forms, but old forms exhumed by people who don’t believe (or understand) in them. The reboot is classicism after its soul has been removed and replaced with brand management. AI slop just accelerates the same logic. Once culture becomes managed repetition, the machine isn't an intruder. It’s staff.