YouTube is adding a "Made with AI" label to tracks that were "altered or fully generated" using AI, with a similar approach to its existing process for applying AI labels to videos. It doesn't sound like this will apply to any and all use of AI tools in making music, but according to YouTube, it includes things like "using a generative model to create the composition and vocals." In its rules for music partners who upload their songs, YouTube lays out how to disclose generative AI use, and says that if there's no disclosure, it may use "other signals" to decide if a song is AI-generated.
The label is rolling out starting today in the YouTub …
There's an entire cottage industry of iPod mods out there, but Sprout Pi and Sprout Pico are two of the few full motherboard replacements that combine many of the most popular mods into a single upgrade. Both versions add Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB-C, a microSD card slot, FLAC playback, and more. And while cracking open an iPod will never not be intimidating, at least the Sprout doesn't require any soldering.
The firmware allows audio over USB for wired headsets, as well as over the original 3.5mm jack. Plus, Bluetooth support lets you connect to your AirPods or favorite UE party speaker. Wi-Fi enables Google Cast and AirPlay streaming, as well …
Back in 2019, author Margaret Stohl was handed a manuscript written by Jason Jones, who's best known as the co-creator of sci-fi gaming series Halo and Destiny. The two had worked together at Bungie, and Jones wanted Stohl's opinion on a book he was writing about AI taking over the world. It was an oral history of the fictional events, with around 100 characters spread across 40 countries, all detailing the AI uprising from their own perspectives. Pretty quickly Stohl realized that this idea could be much more than a single book.
"I was floored but not surprised," she says of her reaction to the original manuscript. "He's a worldbuilder who …
Epic Games is announcing a big refresh of its PC games launcher today in preview, saying that the new version is "way faster" and now supports Linux. But the company, which has been publicly making a big push into AI-assisted development, also notes that the refresh was "vibe coded."
"Programming is hard," Epic says in a blog post. "So, instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that's way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look."
On Monday, CEO Tim Sweeney announced that the company has a "huge pivot underway," where it will be "moving developers around to retool for maximum AI acceleration. …
Rockstar Games might not keep fans waiting as long for the next installment of Grand Theft Auto. As part of Bloomberg's expansive report on the making of GTA VI, Rockstar technical lead Phil Hooker said that the "engine, the tools and the team we've built during this project will allow us to do things more quickly."
GTA VI had a notoriously long development process. It took eight years to make, leaving a 13-year gap between this upcoming installment and GTA V.
The report points to the one-year gap between Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which was possible because Rockstar already had the framework in place for its nex …
If you were asked to select the most unsettling television theme song ever composed, what would you go with? In the event that your answer ends up being Unsolved Mysteries, literally nobody on the planet is gonna have an argument for you. Not one person. However, should you be in the rare position of not knowing what we’re talking about right now, go ahead and listen to the terrifying intro music below—and, for Christ’s sake, turn on a light first.
Composers Gary Malkin and Michael Boyd wrote that haunting little tune you just heard back in the 1980s, and it’s been striking fear into the hearts of everyone who’s listened to it since. Believe it or not, even Malkin himself wasn’t immune to the song’s chilling effects. While speaking with the Los Angeles Times in 2020, Malkin recalled that after spending countless hours on the score and watching reenactments of murders and abductions in the process, he couldn’t get the melody out of his head. “I was destroyed for weeks,” he revealed, “I had horrible nightmares.”
But Malkin was far from the only one his music gave the creeps to. As he tells it, the folks at NBC had to deal with quite a few complaints over the years regarding kids being freaked out by the show’s opening credits. “We used to get letters all the time from parents saying, ‘Could you please change the theme music? Our children are terrified of it,’” Malkin remembered.
As for what it is that makes the Unsolved Mysteries theme so eerie, Malkin explained that he and Boyd used an interval called the tritone (a.k.a. the devil’s interval), a dissonant combination that, according to musicologist Neil Lerner, creates a sense of tension, ambiguity, and instability. Evidently, religious songs from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance avoided the tritone because it made people feel uneasy. Malkin and Boyd were also inspired by the sinister music featured in earlier horror movies, like John Carpenter’s classic Halloween theme, for example.
The post This TV Theme Scared Kids So Much, Parents Wrote Letters Asking NBC to Change It appeared first on VICE.
On October 3, 1992, Sinéad O’Connor appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live for the second and last time of her career. That evening, she performed two songs: her new single “Success Has Made a Failure of Our Home,” and an a cappella version of Bob Marley’s 1976 record “War.” At the conclusion of “War,” O’Connor held up a picture of Pope John Paul II, tore it to pieces, and yelled, “Fight the real enemy!” You can take a look at the footage for yourself below.
SNL producer Lorne Michaels reportedly demanded that the studio’s “Applause” sign be turned off immediately after the incident, which resulted in O’Connor’s actions being met with absolute silence from the audience. The network was said to have received upwards of 4,000 complaints in response and banned O’Connor from appearing on the show ever again. O’Connor’s behavior was also promptly condemned by everyone from Catholic cardinal Bernard Francis Law to the Anti-Defamation League.
On the following week’s episode, guest host Joe Pesci brought up O’Connor during his opening monologue. “She was very lucky it wasn’t my show, cuz if it was my show, I would’ve gave her such a smack,” Pesci joked, to a round of applause. “I would’ve grabbed her by her…her eyebrows,” he continued, poking fun at O’Connor’s bald head:
Madonna parodied the stunt as well when she was the musical guest in January 1993, tearing up a photo of Joey Buttafuoco at the end of one song:
For her part, O’Connor addressed the backlash in a letter that was sent to several news publications, calling herself an abused child and revealing that she became a singer so that her story could be heard. “The Catholic Church have controlled us by controlling education,” O’Connor continued, “Through their teachings on sexuality, marriage, birth control, and abortion. And most spectacularly through the lies they taught us with their history books.”
O’Connor closed out her statement by writing, “My story is the story of countless millions of children whose families and nations were torn apart for money in the name of Jesus Christ.”
The post 34 Years Ago, Sinéad O’Connor Was Banned From ‘SNL’ After This Notorious Moment appeared first on VICE.
While performing at the Punk Rock Music & Bowling Festival in Las Vegas on May 27, 2018, NOFX members Fat Mike and Eric Melvin joked around about the Route 91 Harvest mass shooting that left 58 people dead and hundreds more injured. After Melvin suggested that you don’t get shot in Vegas unless you’re in a country band, Fat Mike responded by saying, “That sucked, but at least they were country fans and not punk rock fans.” Take a look at the footage for yourself right here:
Stone Brewing, who created NOFX’s official beer, Punk in Drublic, and sponsored their music festival of the same name, quickly cut ties with the band over the incident, and NOFX was even dropped from the lineup of their own festival. A little while later, the group issued an apology on social media, writing, “There’s no place here to backpedal. What NOFX said in Vegas was shameful.” It went on to say, “We crossed the line of civility. We can’t write songs about how people in this world need to be more decent when we were clearly being indecent.”
By the end of June, Fat Mike took to Instagram to explain to fans that the ramifications of his joke were way worse than anyone was expecting. According to him, all of their upcoming shows in the U.S. had been canceled because of the controversy. Furthermore, Fat Mike claimed he was told that NOFX wasn’t welcome at any major venue in the country. He closed out his statement, which you can read below, by thanking his followers and telling them that the Punk in Drublic tour would still continue overseas.
Though things eventually cooled off, the wound was still too fresh for NOFX to perform at the Punk Rock Music & Bowling Festival in 2021. The band was scheduled to headline on September 24 of that year but dropped out due to complaints. “There has been a lot of hate messages and threats because we are on the bill,” their announcement read. “It just feels wrong. We know we said shitty things that caused it, so we get it. Sorry to everyone that wanted to see us.”
The post 8 Years Ago, NOFX Made a Joke That Led to Canceled Shows and a Public Apology appeared first on VICE.
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