Block Party!

Probably the worst thing I have ever made...

▶️ PLAY THE TRACK HERE ▶️

INTRO:

Oh oh oh oh oh.

Oh oh oh oh oh.

Oh oh oh oh oh. Ah! Oh! Oh!

VERSE 1:

You're out of my life,

and my DMs.

And I'm here now

with all my friends.

For us it's mutual.

We're all agreed.

We want you gone

together, en masse, in unity...

CHORUS 1:

You're blocked!

It's a celebration of your negation.

You're blocked!

Slide on out and hit the road.

VERSE 2:

We all wanna be your ex.

Good riddance to bad sex.

Block vote

to unleash my heart.

CHORUS 2:

You're blocked!

This is a Block Party.

A celebration of your ex communication.

Best of luck

you evil fuck.

You're blocked!

It's a celebration of your negation.

You're blocked!

This is a Block Party.

BRIDGE:

You're going,

Going,

Going,

Going...

Oh oh oh oh oh.

Oh oh oh oh oh.

Oh oh oh oh oh.

Ah! Ah! Ah!

VERSE 3:

We all wanna be your ex.

Good riddance to bad sex.

Block vote

to unleash my heart.

CHORUS 3:

You're blocked!

This is a Block Party.

You're blocked!

It's a celebration of your negation.

You're blocked!

This is a Block Party.

OUTRO:

You're going,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

You're going,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

You're going,

Going,

Going,

Gone.

Author's Note

The lyrics are mine but the music track was written by SUNO, an AI song generator (with some edits and tweaks by me).

I am shocked and appalled by how it turned out! 😱😱😱

I love all music: pop, metal, chillwave, lo-fi, drone, country... I am egalitarian in my musical tastes. But in the days after SUNO churned out this robotic monstrosity, I found myself singing the fucking tune in my head.

This short ditty is like ear cancer, venereal disease and a hyper-addictive opioid all rolled into one. This is quite possibly the worst thing I have ever created. I feel ashamed and dirty and the absolute worst thing about this entire experiment is that I can't stop listening to it.

Clearly SUNO has been well-trained on decades of pop music until it is now able to recycle its data set into concentrated glycerol, razor-sharp synthetic hooks, and vitamin-free empty calories. But that said, I think it also shines a light on how many modern chart songs rely on sharp production and a medley of familiar hooks, rather than actual songwriting, originality or authenticity. (And yes, I do feel fucking old...)

We've been battling AI-generated text on Vocal for years, and I feel this challenge might be opening the flood gates on AI-generated music on Vocal too.

What can we do about it? I think the most important thing is to recognise and reward genuine (human) recording artists whenever we can. To actively seek out those who aren't algorithmically advantaged, or supported by the marketing budgets of the major labels.

(Slight digression: Did you know there are only THREE major labels today? Universal, Sony and Warner control 69% of the entire global music market. That's shocking...)

One of the reasons I wrote this was out of curiosity, and as a chance to try out SUNO. But also as an entry for Vocal's Harmonic Verses Challenge. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that challenge has a minimum 500 word count requirement – which IMO is pretty long for a pop song. Plus the challenge suggests "letting your voice bring the lyrics to life" and obviously this is not me singing or doing anything approximating actual musicality. Also the fact the entire performance is done by some heinous silicon golem, I'd question whether there's any "life" to this entire shameful enterprise.

OK I'm gonna go scrub myself clean now.

Thanks for reading!

Check out my eBooks on GODLESS or Amazon, including dark and sexy horror story Head Case and outrageous feminist splatterpunk Metagoth. Please leave a review and support independent publishing!