It sounds a lot like everything else
AI slop has reached a new level of ascendancy, as a country song by an AI artist has hit number one on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart.
Breaking Rust, an AI « band » that appeared on the internet in the middle of October based on its presence on Instagram, topped the chart last week with a song called Walk My Walk. Look at Breaking Rust’s social media pages and you’ll find nothing to indicate there’s an actual human involved in the music-making portion of the band’s songs – just a chiseled-jawed, clearly AI-generated cowboy, and video clips featuring folksy people doing folksy things or slow-walking away from the camera. To say the various songs are similar would be an understatement: They’re practically identical down to their bland, hollow lyrics.
Hang on a second, you may be wondering: Doesn’t Breaking Rust sound like every other so-called « bro country » band that’s come to dominate the genre over the past decade by singing soulless, cookie-cutter songs about trucks, beer, American flags, and scantily-clad women? Absolutely.
If so, why should we assume Breaking Rust is an AI band? Well, because Billboard said it is in a story about AI artists just last week.
« Breaking Rust, an AI-powered country act, debuted at No. 9 on the Emerging Artists chart (dated Nov. 1) », the music publication said. « The project, credited to songwriter Aubierre Rivaldo Taylor, has generated 1.6 million official U.S. streams. »
Taylor has almost no internet presence, appearing only in association with Breaking Rust and a decidedly dirtier act called Defbeatsai.
