The Velvet Sundown, a brand-new musical phenomenon, has gone viral on streaming services, and not for the reasons fans may have thought. In just a few weeks, the band, which draws inspiration from the soft, nostalgic sounds of rock from the 1960s and 1970s, surpassed one million monthly Spotify listeners.
Their debut album Floating on Echoes, released on 5 June, features standout track “Dust on the Wind,” which alone has been streamed over 1.2 million times and topped charts like Sweden’s “Viral 50.”
When it was discovered that The Velvet Sundown isn't a traditional band at all, curiosity and controversy grew along with the band's popularity. Actually, artificial intelligence was used to create every aspect of the group, including their music, appearance, and backstories.
In a bold statement posted across streaming platforms and social media, the creators described the band as a “synthetic music project guided by human creative direction,” adding that all songs, lyrics, and visuals were crafted using AI tools.
“This isn’t a trick — it’s a mirror,” the bio reads. “An ongoing artistic provocation designed to challenge the boundaries of authorship, identity and the future of music itself in the age of AI.”
At first, the group's sound and appearance gave fans the impression that they were a legitimate quartet of musicians in the vintage style. Their social media accounts featured a sepia-toned portrait of four happy people who appeared prepared to embark on a vintage rock tour.
Both fans and critics have had conflicting reactions to the announcement, particularly as the band prepares to release Paper Sun Rebellion, their sophomore album, on July 14. Thirteen tracks on the new album will all be similarly AI-generated.
The wider ramifications were discussed by Dr. Fabian Stephany, assistant professor for AI and Work at the University of Oxford. He emphasised the legal ambiguities surrounding generative models remixing copyrighted content and cautioned that AI-generated art masquerading as human could undermine public confidence.
The rise of The Velvet Sundown coincides with public condemnations of the unchecked use of AI in the music industry by artists such as Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, and Céline Dion, who have called for more defined boundaries and moral guidelines.
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