In an ironically, deeply disconnected world, music is the last unifying relic we have.

The United States, once in the midst of the digital-information age, is now battling for its place in the newly-arrived Age of Artificial Intelligence.

We live in a post-truth world. The world I grew up in: a world of fact versus opinion, reality versus fiction, verifiable versus obscure — is decaying.

Dead or alive?

Technological advances in the last 25 to 30 years have made us incredibly privileged. With the world at our fingertips through smartphones and the Internet, Americans could connect with anyone in the world and educate themselves on important cultural happenings across the globe.

The globalization of information has inadvertently led to a dead internet. Not dead in the sense no one uses it, rather, “dead” in the sense of our opinions and cultural discourse has been hijacked by the algorithm. Major tech companies and monopolies have shaped the way we consume ideas and discuss culture.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published an article in January 2026 exploring the validity of the dead internet theory (DIT). Rather than skewing more towards the conspiratorial end of the theory, the IEEE’s article offers a “leaner” understanding of how algorithms shape our opinions.

The IEEE uses the original understanding of the DIT — algorithms create and share fake information to drive their own goals — and polishes it, relating to what we are struggling with in 2026.

With great power comes great responsibility. According to the leaner DIT, tyrannical governments and overreaching corporations never needed an excuse to aid the spread misinformation; they have been doing it as long as they have been around.

Misinformation and fake content are also provided by everyday people. AI generated images, videos and memes — colloquially known as AI slop — are scattered throughout the internet, invading everyday life. Young adults struggling to find jobs due to AI-driven layoffs and a shrinking white collar market are flocking to AI skepticism.

AI in music

While some musicians are welcoming and embracing AI, others are fighting against using it in their work. In contrast, a March report by the AI-powered music creation tool, Moises, found more professional musicians use AI tools than amateur (or hobbyist) musicians.

This contradiction between the most outspoken and popular critics of AI in music, versus label musicians who actively use AI tools to create their work is a frightening indicator of the future of artistic expression.

Lauded Australian musician, Nick Cave, wrote about creativity through AI and how computers fail to create any worthwhile artistic output, due to its lack of humanity.

“What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite,” Cave wrote in 2023. “It [making music] is an act of self-murder that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It is those dangerous, heart-stopping departures that catapult the artist beyond the limits of what he or she recognizes as their known self.”

Since 2023, AI-generated music has progressed so rapidly it even takes up spots on the Billboard Hot 200. It is devoid of any human input, other than having been given a prompt. There are various examples of popular AI-generated music on pop, country, RnB and Christian contemporary charts.

One might pause and think music created by AI is the for the lowest common denominator of listeners. It is an affront to creativity and uses the blandest, most inoffensive approaches in song structure and lyrical expression. However, this perspective can easily have holes poked in it.

AI-generated music, to me, is not the death of pop music but an unfortunate byproduct of its toxic, radio-friendly runoff. All of the criticisms laid onto AI-generated music is exactly how I feel about pop music as a whole: soulless, vapid, radio-friendly slop for the masses. Whether it was made by a computer or 20 suits in the recording studio means nothing to me.

As avid enjoyers of music and human creativity, what can we do?

Headphones of hope

The music industry, pop music, pop culture and cultural hegemony all intersect in this issue. According to BYU professor Scott Church, pop music is paradoxical in nature. His 2019 article in the pop culture and pedagogy journal “Dialogue,” argues pop music is one of the most interesting topics scholars study, due to its cultural importance and historical-snapshot quality.

“Critical scholarship enmeshes popular music amidst these contradictory cultural processes,” page 59 reads. “Thus, all artists, producers, and consumers of that music are unwittingly participating in this struggle for meaning.”

In this context, cultural hegemony theorizes those in positions of power imbue revolutionary ideas into culture in order to please the masses and tranquilize resentment. Sounds confusing? It is.

Progressing past the age of Rock-n-Roll in the 50s and 60s, the music industry realized if it commodified popular forms of music and packaged it to the masses: they would be rich. This idea birthed many popular rock bands in the mid to late 60s. The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones etc.

From rock, to hair metal, new wave, grunge, hip-hop, contemporary R & B, electro-pop and the calculated resurgence of country — it often feels like popular music has been jumping from one fad to the next. However, what is missing here is the important cultural contexts each of these popular genres existed in.

Woodstock in 1969 is a popular example. It was one of the most culturally important moments of the latter half of the 20th century and happened to coincide with some pretty great live performances as well. Hippie counterculture and the many different forms of rock, folk and funk — both existed because of the other. As Church said in his article, context identifies meaning in pop music.

So, where does music stand today within the context of AI?

Music does not need to take a monolithic stance against AI or AI-generated music. Rather, musicians, both big and small, should position themselves as mirrors into the ways people feel about it. Today’s global uncertainty, paranoia and anxiety is often reflected in current popular music. Paramore’s “This Is Why,” Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” and Geese’s “Getting Killed” are some examples of popular and critically acclaimed albums capturing a cultural moment.

As listeners, we should uplift more creative and innovative musical ventures instead of replaying manufactured top-40 hits — though the two are not mutually exclusive. Music is supposed to unite us, not pit us against sides. It is supposed to capture timely cultural moments in history, not always living in the past. Music with a purpose — in the age of misinformation and AI — is revolutionary.