AI KITSCH, PSEUDO ART AND ORIENTALIST MUSIC VIBES
Iranian Canadian musicologist Farya Faraji (page) has made a podcast in which he is going deep into the technical details of AI generated musical kitsch. We made an endeavor here on the issue related to the Byzantine and Roman 'vibes'. Faraji is making mince meat of the stuff spit out by various AI apps. After our post was published, we had some personal contact with one of the creators, who tried to pretend that AI involvement had been minimal. When you have heard a few of these efforts, it soon becomes apparent that the compositions follow a distinctive pattern. It's formulaic.
Jan. 24, 2026 Farya Faraji: AI Songs Are Pretending to Be Authentic Historical Music.
The formulas are even true of 'real' modern music: it all follows familiar patterns that have been successful in the past and are therefore repeated over and over and over. Our era is not particularly conducive to creativity.
Faraji explains why it is particularly obvious that Eastern musical modes can't be mistaken for Western tropes. The two are at the root as distinct in character as Eastern and Western Christianity!
The formulas are even true of 'real' modern music: it all follows familiar patterns that have been successful in the past and are therefore repeated over and over and over. Our era is not particularly conducive to creativity.
Faraji explains why it is particularly obvious that Eastern musical modes can't be mistaken for Western tropes. The two are at the root as distinct in character as Eastern and Western Christianity!
Chapters
0:00 Intro
04:42 Vibes based music vs musicology
10:28 AI historical music = generic slop
18:12 When AI music is presented as authentic
31:16 AI replacing traditional musicians
42:32 AI music emulates Western music theory
59:30 Authenticity = not being popular
1:04:48 Realising you created a monster
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