Recently, supposed news about artificial intelligence who concluded that, from a scientific point of view, music Loquillo better than Bruce Springsteen. As always happens on social networks, this caused a lot of discussions between lovers of both. However, it is enough to do a little searching to make sure that the algorithm they are talking about does not exist and the news has never been published. Leaving aside what the origins of this misinformation might be, it is worth asking whether it is true that science can choose what is true. best musician in the world. Are there clear criteria? Is it possible to make an objective choice?
The truth is that there are already quite a few studies looking at this issue. Some even dare to name names: Freddie Mercury, Axl Rose, Mariah Carey, Beethoven… It all depends on whether we have vocal, interpretive or compositional abilities, among other factors.
However, there are also algorithms that, instead of the best musician, calculate that Great song. The one that gets into your head even when you don’t want it to. They tend to be catchy tunes, a far cry from what most purists consider good music. But what is good music? The one you can never forget? The one that breaks something inside you? One that appeals to a wider tonal range? Here’s what science says about it.
The best musician in the world
In 2014, Concert Hotels conducted a simple study that analyzed the vocal ranges of some of the world’s most iconic singers. Analysis of their melodies determined the lowest and highest pitches they could reach. The goal was to determine who the best singers in the world are, but sticking only to the notes they are able to sing correctly. Thus it was established that the best singer in the world would be Axl Rose. The Guns N’ Roses singer had a very wide range, especially in the bass area, but also reached very high tones. Immediately after this there will be Mariah Careybreaking all stereotypes at a high level, but also reaching a rather low level.
At the bottom of the list we find a country singer. Luke Bryan and right in front of him Taylor Swift. The latter shows us that a wide vocal range does not necessarily mean success. And in fact, this is just one parameter, and there are many more.
Many other studies actually point to a better musician, or at least a better singer, as Freddie Mercury, late Queen vocalist. He ranks 11th on the Concert Hotels list, just behind Elvis Presley, but his voice was unique for many other reasons.
In fact, it has been analyzed by biophysicists such as the Austrian company Christian Herbs. This scientist specializes in vocal physiology and has dedicated his career to analyzing the voices of many singers. In Mercury’s case, he discovered that his vocal cords were vibrating. faster than usual so that he could modulate his voice at unique frequencies that virtually no one else had achieved naturally. So while his vocal range wasn’t the widest, he had other characteristics that made him special.
What can artificial intelligence say?
artificial intelligence He is not born smart. It must be trained using existing information. For example, you can learn an artificial intelligence algorithm for detecting cancer on mammograms, showing thousands and thousands of them with a previous diagnosis. In this way, the machine is able to detect details corresponding to the disease and find them in images with an unknown diagnosis. You can also train an algorithm with millions of images to create your own illustrations.
This way, the AI algorithm will determine who is the best musician based on previous human criteria. You should give an idea of good or bad musicians according to certain optionsfor example, the vocal range of Axl Rose or vibrato by Freddie Mercury. Artificial intelligence does not have an all-powerful answer, but rather brings together what many people have thought about in the past.
However, sometimes they can be even more cautious than humans themselves. When, for example, we ask GPT chat about the best musician in the world, he tells us what it is very subjective decision.
Even if we force him to choose between two translators, for example Loquillo and Bruce Springsteenremember that their contexts are very different and therefore comparing them is a subjective matter.
GPT chat doesn’t get wet, although there are probably algorithms designed for it that do. Despite this, they will always focus on specific criteria that still have a certain prior subjectivity.
The perfect song according to science
There’s one thing you can know relatively objectively: whether a song will be successful. Success is subjective to the one who catapults it, but objective if we adhere to statistics. Numbers are numbers.
Therefore, algorithms can be trained to determine the parameters of success. You can even go further and use a society’s brain activity as a guide. In 2023, a group of scientists managed to predict the success of a song with 97% correct.
To train their algorithm, they recruited a group of 33 volunteers who were first surveyed about their musical tastes and then rated on their performance. neurophysiological activity while listening to music. It makes sense that their pleasure centers would be activated by their favorite styles of music. But you can still try to find patterns in how good a song will be. This was the mission of the algorithm, which they trained on this data and which subsequently managed to match the sensations of the participants with almost 100% success.
Specific cases
You can also analyze how it will be song of the summer or a good candidate for Eurovision. As for the latter, when analyzing the winners of recent years, one can notice that those whose lyrics are in English, talk about personal relationships, include the word love, repeat many choruses and are addressed in the first person to the beginning, usually achieve a higher level . second. Does this mean that songs with this structure will always win? Of course not.
People really are less predictable than we can believe. We like songs that talk about love, those that evoke emotions in us, or simply those that make us have a good time. According to numerous scientific studies, some of which are also based on neuroimaging, sociocultural context is critical. All of this shapes our tastes, which vary greatly from person to person and even from one life stage to another within the same person. So while we all have one thing in mind, there is no such thing as a better musician in the world. Each of us has our own and that’s okay too.
Source: Hiper Textual
