Similarities Between the Evolution of the Visual Arts and Musical Arts
M.O. Free*Man
October 8, 2025
The machine amalgam utilized to make M.O. Free*Man, most especially the Suno AI component, generates music. Music that to a casual listener is most likely indistinguishable from music generated exclusively by humans (if such a thing even exists any longer given the ubiquity of AIs in music sound engineering).
However, at this point in history many people are uncomfortable with characterizing AI-generated sounds (however realistically human-sounding) as “music”. That is not an unreasonable psychological perspective, that is, that the term “music” be applied only to human-generated songs.
Nevertheless, even if one does not categorize AI-generated songs as “real” music, the generation of those sounds and songs is still an art form. Perhaps for the present period of time, we might call AI-generated songs by a new name: “Sonic Art”. Sounds (sonic waves) that constitute a new art form, but perhaps are not yet worthy of recognition as music by human listeners.
In this context there is an analogy between the invention of the camera to generate visual images (and its impact on the visual arts) and the recent invention of AI machines to generate musical sensations (and its potential impact on the musical arts).
Concerning the visual arts, the technology and skill-sets necessary for oil painting by human hands took thousands of years to develop, and oil painting (and similar types of hand-made visual art) is still viewed by many artists and most humans as the pinnacle of artistry in the visual arts. However, when the camera (a machine guided by a human) was invented a new sub-genre of 2-D art was created, photography. If we are completely honest, even many professional visual artists still do not view photography as an artistic genre that is in the same league as painting. But there is no doubt that photography is a bona fide category of visual artistry.
Concerning the musical arts, a similar millennia-long period led to the present-day artistry of music generated directly by human hands and performance. Now that an AI (a machine guided by a human) can also generate musical performance, a similar divide appears to be developing: that musical artists do not view AI-generated songs as being of the same quality as purely human-generated music.
Perhaps the musical arts might find a similar detente as has developed in the visual arts, by denoting AI-generated songs as sonic art, a specific musical sub-genre, a distinct and separate category from music generated exclusively by human hands.