The Libertines were shocked to hear a version of their hit ‘Don’t Look Back Into the Sun’ played to them with an AI version of Homer Simpson taking the lead vocal.
In a video posted on the band’s Instagram, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat are playing a round of pool when a friend puts the track on in the background.
“It’s just like the record, man,” Doherty says, but he is stopped in his tracks when the vocals hit for the first time. “Who’s remixed this then?!” he says, between laughs. “It’s The Simpsons?”
Check out the clip below, as well as another AI-generated version of Homer singing the band’s ‘Time For Heroes’.
Re-imaginings of Homer Simpson covering rock and indie classics has been a feature of the AI boom over the last 12 months, with clips of him ‘singing’ Arctic Monkeys’ ‘R U Mine’ first gaining some attention last July when generated by the TikTok user Meme Music.
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The same channel later released clips showing Simpsons characters coming together to perform songs such as Muse’s ‘Starlight’ and Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’ for some Springfield locals, as accompanied by two Transformer backing dancers.
For both clips, Homer takes on the role of vocalist, while Marge plays the electric guitar and Bart sits behind the drum kit.
Earlier last year, a fan took to social media to share their own collaboration of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, depicting the iconic 1966 Beach Boys track, ‘God Only Knows’ being played in the style of Paul McCartney, John Lennon and co.
Additionally, one of the most popular AI-developed forms of music arrived in April, when a “lost” Oasis album also emerged online and also received a wave of praise from fans online. The project — which imagined how Oasis would sound if they reformed and created music reminiscent of their ‘90s heyday — also gained recognition from the former frontman, Liam Gallagher, who described it as “mega”.
The debate about the ethics of AI usage in popular music rolls on, with Nick Cave having labelled it as “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”. He also commented on the issue later, explaining that he wished AI programmes such as ChatGPT would “fuck off and leave songwriting alone”.
Grimes, however, has expressed her support for her voice to be used in AI music. Taking to social media, she permitted fans to use her voice for any upcoming projects because “it’s cool to be fused [with] a machine”. She later made over 200+ GrimesAI Records available for content creators to use on any platform.