Opinion Remember when the hottest news in the schoolyard was which band was the hottest this week? Those days are back, baby. An AI-generated band called Breaking Rust has just hit the top of the Billboard Country chart in the US with a song called Walk My Walk. Some questions will never be answered – could it ever release a sea shanty, and will all the albums be compilations? What this means for the future of the music industry, the AI industry, and music itself, is less funny.

It is deeply ironic that the country genre is first to cop the slop. Country is very jealous of its authenticity, of communicating the emotions and experiences of common people. Three chords and the truth, as songwriter Harlan Howard said. Country is also deeply formulaic, it knows what buttons to push to connect

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