Should We Be Worried About The Velvet Sundown? Maybe.

I’ve been giving keynote addresses and workshops all around the world over the past two years about the impact of Generative AI (GAI) on music and music education. Aside from sharing many GAI tools that can be used in music education, the main theme that I emphasize is that music educators are in control of how these tools can or should be used in their teaching. If you don’t like AI at all, don’t use it. If you’re worried about students becoming lazy and using AI to do all of their homework, it’s probably a little too late for that. If you wish you could just “teach music” and not get bogged down with all of the related administrivia, use AI tools to do the tasks you don’t want to do (or don’t have time to do). I recently watched the video above from one of my favorite YouTubers - Rick Beato. It features a band on Spotify named The Velvet Sundown, a trippy band with over 500K monthly listeners. The problem with this band is that they don’t really exist. They are undoubtedly completely generated by AI - everything from their profile, to their pictures, to their music. This is EXACTLY what teachers and musicians have been worried about when I ask them what about AI scares them. It’s here.

The Velvet Sundown

One of the most impactful (and divisive) tools that I share with teachers is Udio and Suno - GAI driven music creation tools that creates music from text prompts. The reaction I get from the audience is always a mix of being stunned and frightened. Stunned that text prompts can generate music and song lyrics that I would say are mostly passable (although some of what it creates is really terrible). Scared that technology like this might one day replace real musicians. This is the point where I always emphasize the point that if you think an artist is generated by AI (as The Velvet Sundown obviously is), then don’t listen to them. The more people Follow, Like, Subscribe, and Listen to their “music”, the more of this type of crap will show up. In what is definitely a little hypocritical of me, below is their new album - entitled Paper Sun Rebellion. If you want to help “fight the power” at Spotify - only listen to less than 30 seconds so that they don’t get any royalties and please don’t follow them. The “single” is called Dust On The Wind and if you know anything about rock music, it is an obvious play on the incredible song by Kansas called Dust In The Wind (which you should definitely listen to). The song is one of the most boring songs I’ve heard in a while: vanilla, predictable, formulaic, soulless. I think that most of their listeners are just like me - curious that someone has likely created a completely fake band with music generated by tools like Udio and are happily collecting royalties from folks like you and me. So what does all this mean?

While The Velvet Sundown may be one of the first fully AI-generated bands to gain widespread attention, let’s not confuse novelty with artistry. While the concept might be intriguing to some, the music itself falls really flat. Stripped of soul, nuance, and intention, it feels more like a tech demo than a legitimate artistic endeavor. AI can mimic the sonic textures of 70s psychedelia or the swagger of glam rock, but it can’t replicate the cultural context or emotional authenticity that gave those genres weight in the first place. As a child of the 1970’s, the reason why I fell in love with certain bands is because they made me feel something. Whether it was the lyrics talking about things I had no idea about at the age of 10 (sex, drugs, lost love), the stories that their songs told, the way the music sounded “new”, or even how they dressed, my favorite bands were bands that I connected with on a personal level: Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and The Grateful Dead. These bands experienced things - crazy things - and I listened intently to every word and note. The Velvet Sundown? Elevator music. Muzak. Background noise. The kind of music you hear when you’re on call waiting, or getting a root canal.

Educators and musicians should be particularly wary of this new “genre” of music. If we’re going to hold up The Velvet Sundown as an example of what’s possible with AI in music, we should also ask our students: what’s missing? I’m sure that what I love about music is exactly what they’ll say: there’s no lived experience, no struggle, no collaboration between human minds creating something truly new and innovative. Instead, The Velvet Sundown is a highly polished facsimile—a kind of sonic deepfake. It's tempting to marvel at the technology that created it, but what does this teach young musicians? That style is more important than substance? Vibe over voice? In music education, we strive to nurture creativity, empathy, and personal expression with our students. The Velvet Sundown offers none of that. It's an exercise in surface-level aesthetics, not meaningful musical growth. As teachers, we should treat this band not as a model, but as a warning: AI can simulate music, but it can’t replace the messy, beautiful process of making it. Let’s challenge our students to go deeper than algorithms ever could. I would LOVE to hear what students think of this band. I am hoping that they will feel the same way. The reason that they sing their hearts out to Taylor Swift’s We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together is because they know that Taylor wrote the song from her own lived experience and that it is highly likely that they have lived through something similar. THAT is what connects musicians to their fans IMHO.

I hope that The Velvet Sundown (a ridiculous spin off of The Velvet Underground - a truly innovative band) ends up on the trash heap of one hit wonders. If they do get more and more popular, how are they going to pull off a tour? Holograms? Peoples in costumes lip syncing? In the meantime, I will continue going to live concerts and supporting live musicians. To me, it’s one of life’s greatest pleasures