A deep thinking Sunday, deep stories about drum machines, music tech, and AI.  More thoughts on parking your dreams in the never-say-never-mind lot and new updates to the buying happiness study.  Several mind-blowing videos sprinkled throughout, one on music and another that we can't do justice by describing; you need to watch it. 

A fantastic article on Aeon comes with a story about drums, drum machines, and AI.  If you have heard of a drum machine in music, most electronic, club, and dance music using drum machines.  A lot of indies and alternative music also use drum machines.  All the drums on Tears For Fears huge 80s album Songs From The Big Chair were from a drum machine, same for Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine.  Both artists took real drums and drummers on tour, but they used drum machines when they produced the album. 

Jack Stilgoe wrote a profound piece about the history of musical instruments and drum machines and then finished with discussions on the next level of AI within those tools.  The rise of AI has increased all of these conversations, but it also makes us wonder if this is another enhancement?  The argument against technology in music is that somehow the tools allow for an almost performance-enhancing drug effect on music, and if so, why is that a bad thing?  Does a traditionalist draw the line at drum machines or AI-generated melodies?  What about a microphone or an amplifier?  All of the technology makes the original notes sound different. 

Sometimes the best music doesn't play by any rules, or at least the audience can see it that way.  Even a musician playing alternative music has to follow the rules of rhythm and timing.  The music can be un-listenable without foundation and agreement between producer and recipient for rhythm and melody.  The best artists are fearless of new things and use everything available to make new art.  It usually isn't the recent artists that complain about new tech and new sounds, and ultimately the audience will tell you if it's good.

Aeon takes the conversation further, but the conclusions are the same as all conclusions we've read about the invasion of AI.  Technology can do parts of all jobs; the benefit of being an artist is how you take input and add and turn it into output.  Most artists also have a performative aspect to what they do, and all of this is wrapped up in the artist's personality, which is used and is part of the art.  Use the tools, create more art, and don't worry or complain about the robots; they will take over soon.  Until then, Make your own noise.

Another brief but thought-provoking article led to writers' room discussions.  How many dreams are parked in the never say never (NSN) parking lot.  The original topic came to us from a friend of the work, Nik Goke and Nik and his group are in their early 30s.  In your 30s, you should dream big and try many different things; what about after a 20+ year career of climbing mountains and achieving goals?  The NSN parking lot might be getting as complete as your email inbox, and when that happens, when do you start to archive or, better yet, delete a few of the NSN dreams.  For some of us, it's like email; the pile-up is more accessible than the look back.

If you have life underneath you, raised a few kids, and gotten a good start on your retirement account, it could be time to go back to the NSN lot and test-drive a few ideas.  What hobbies do you enjoy doing, and what could you do to expand on them.  Interested in writing?  We suggest starting a Substack newsletter and report and publishing every day for 179 days (3 short of 6 full months).

How ironic to write a story highlighting whether or not money buys happiness while listening to a podcast about the recent Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse.  There have been several stories on the correlation between money and happiness; most are poking holes in the report published in 2010 that suggested that happiness rose with income, but only up to $75,000.  A new study associated with the University of Pennsylvania attempts to dig deeper.

A few new methods and technologies were used in the new study, and the ability to drill down into some reasoning and additional environmental factors.  In the end, the rise from the 2010 study to this recent study is only $25,000; the study once again finds that happiness increases with income but plateaus at $100,000 vs. $75,000.  Heck, at that point, it's adjusting for inflation.

If you say this differently, what would the results look like?  Does money buy less stress, and if it does, would less stress lead to more happiness?

The most incredible video you will see this week.

A cool Insta handle: "There I Ruined It" takes a bunch of yeah yeahs from various artists to put together a funny yeahs mix.  A deeper dive into There I Ruined It and, as the tagline says, “Lovingly destroying your favorite songs.”  Give it a spin for some fun.

Desire (Come and Get It).

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

O/X