Taylor, Kanye, and AI

"Her (Taylor Swift's) new album was so corny!" ranted the 17-year-old as they

were taking their after-meal walk. "You can love a song for its lyrics, its

melody, or its vibe matching your mood. I like her early works but, man, two

hours and fifteen minutes of cliches!" He was griping about the "The Tortured

Poets Department," which even Bill noticed earlier while they were eating in

front of the TV.

 

"Oh." Bill said. He really had no say in his son's music tastes as he listened

to nothing except for a few classics year-round. He knew the name, of course,

but nothing else about her and, moreover, he refused to learn. His generation

had their share of pop icons, most of whom and their songs he later came to

despise. Maybe that's something they can discuss in 20 years.

 

"You know what made her famous 10 years ago?"

 

"I can't even imagine."

 

"It was Kanye West at a Grammy where Taylor's was nominated the best MTV. He

said Beyonce just dropped." Tim was into rap, which again Bill was not

conversant with.

 

"Dropped?"

 

"Released something new. You know Kanye West, don't you?"

 

"Sure. You told me about him last year. I guess at the time Taylor was already

anti-fragile: the more she was dissed, the more her fame grew, like Bruce Lee."

Bill tried to use short informal words but couldn't with "anti-fragile,"

which he thought missing from the English vocabulary until Taleb came along.

"But you still like Kanye West?"

 

"Also Kendrick Lamar. West's got his problems these days. But he was a genius

back then chopping and mixing pieces of a song to make something new."

 

"That's nothing. I could do it. I don't know songs but I read books, how about I

find some nice paragraphs from, say 'For Whom The Bell Tolls,' and shuffle them

up, maybe add a few segues, and boom, a literary giant is born? What do you think?"

 

"I'm afraid it's got to be much more complex. How would that work?" Tim smiled.

Dad was just such a one-track-minded tech guy.

 

"Well. That's simple permutation. We throw the result onto the wall and see

which sticks."

 

"That's where AI can help!" The teenager obviously thought the idea hilarious.

 

"Absolutely! What else is AI good for? It's just a few methods going over a

large database and coming up with some combinations. You got it!" Bill was

happy. He was planning on some homework on rap but so far, at least his son's

straightened out on AI.

[7grizzly]

回复 '暖冬cool夏' 的评论 : Thank you, 暖冬, for reading and liking. At least half of the teenage girls are under Taylor's spell, I heard. Tim could use some independent thinking, and discipline, when choosing what to eat :-) Bill's taking a look at rap, if just for learning new words to talk to young people.

[暖冬cool夏]

Another great writeup!
A friend of mine spent more than >$1000, just to watch Taylor's live concert in LA:-)
Tim is a great critic, and has his own independent thinking!
I don't even know Kanye West:))