Depends on your definition of “music”.
One definition is, quite simply, “organized sound”. By that definition, computers are capable of making music.
Perhaps what you’re trying to say is that computers do not produce art. Again, it depends on definitions. If we define “art” as “the subjective expression of human emotions, values, or principles”, then no, a computer can’t make art.
But, computers only do what they’re programmed to do. And since we haven’t reached the Terminator future yet, all computers are still being programmed by humans, which means a computer is a valid tool for human expression.
It’s a gray area, to be sure. Sophisticated tools like computers certainly make it easier to create a dope beat with sick bass drops, but there’s still a human involved somewhere.
Anyway, this sort of illustrates my earlier point: The music industry will latch on to anything that generates cash with minimal expense. As long as consumers are willing to buy music created with (or by) computers, then that phenomenon will persist.
When I was studying audio I had teacher tell me and really he thought the future of music went something like this.
"Ok Google make a song D minor early Beatles vibe with extra bass and some grit"
Actually AI are already composing music. And for applications like movie soundtracks, it's gotten remarkably good.
A New AI Can Write Music as Well as a Human Composer
When the sterility of the pixilated screen finally makes humans crave actual physical presence, live music will rule again. At least until somebody teaches a computer to sweat.
I wouldn't say this as though it were some distant future. I see substantial crowds at live performances all the time, all ages. Not necessarily at cover band gigs trudging through Pat Benatar at a local dive bar, though that happens too sometimes. Went to see Trombone Shorty when I was in Kansas City last June. Standing behind me was a hipster couple with tattoos and ear gages, and their 4-year-old daughter who wanted them to go to the show because she read a picture book at Trombone Shorty at the local library. The band opening for him was called the Seratones; just last week my wife and I caught them headlining a small club in Boston, with a fairly good draw for an unknown band.
The only time you’ll usually see some form of music becoming “the next new thing” for any length of time is when it becomes wedded to a larger social movement, issue, or cause. (e.g. Folk music + equal rights. Late 60s rock + the antiwar movement. Grundge + the then emerging American northwest social awareness and cultural scene. etc.) Otherwise it’s just another short lived fad driven form of entertainment
Personally, I think the notion of linking music essentially to causes is exaggerated. Grunge may have voiced a reaction against over-polished late-80s pop and hair metal but I didn't see any epochal movement driven by it. Folk and rock in the 60s happened to provide a soundtrack for the movements of that generation, but it wasn't really as essential to it as all that and that moment of time hardly provides a model for musical movements in history more broadly.
Speaking of history, I think it can be good to put things in a longer-term perspective. For most of the history of music, a new musical style or genre emerged maybe once a generation or once a century... or two. People weren't running around with their heads cut off chasing some "new sound," they just... played and enjoyed music. It's the advent of commercial audio recording and radio in the 20s and 30s that start this consumerist obsession with novelty in music, and a great deal of the seeming new genres were really just taking what had been local styles (like jazz) and amplifying them out to mass audiences.
Myself, I think there's plenty of great new music out there. I hardly ever find myself listening to much that's older than the last 10 years or so. I don't worry so much if it's a "new thing" or invented new genre, I just like stuff I find. I mentioned the Seratones above. Samantha Fish is my current utter favorite...
And I dig on the Ben Miller Band...
And the Ghost of Paul Revere...
And hey, tonight I'm going to see Tinariwen...
Not finding awesome new music you love? Look harder. Who cares what's popular or making money? Enjoy the music.
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