This or That

Last week, at the age of 82, Brian Wilson passed away. The founder and primary creative force behind the Beach Boys had for decades been revered as a musical genius. His life story was tragic, but his legacy and impact are unquestionable.

And I’m reminded of a conversation I had with coworkers years ago at the Anchor office. We were discussing the genius of Brian Wilson, which led to us talking about the genius of other musicians. And eventually we began debating the following question:

“God Only Knows” was written by the late Brian Wilson in the mid-1960s. The song was considered revolutionary upon its release. That was six decades ago. But even today, if you sit down and listen closely, it should jump out to you as a very unusual song. Melodically, harmonically, and lyrically, there’s really nothing else like it.

Paul McCartney has said on multiple occasions that he considers “God Only Knows” the most beautiful song ever written.

Twenty five years later, when musical tastes had evolved beyond recognition, Nirvana released “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, which popularized the 90s grunge movement and is often listed among the best rock songs ever written.

So back to that debate at the Anchor office. Which of these two songs was more influential? The team was very divided. If I recall correctly, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” won, but not by much. And for those of us (like myself) who voted for “God Only Knows”, we believed the odds had been stacked against us. None of our teammates were yet born when the Beach Boys released their song, whereas most of us grew up in the post-Nirvana world. It wasn’t an apples to apples comparison. A rigged election!

Legacies

How do we measure the influence of creative works? Creativity never exists in a vacuum. It is made on the shoulders of giants. Even Brian Wilson himself stated that “God Only Knows” was written in an attempt to match the genius of the Beatles’ Rubber Soul. And it is said that after the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds was released, the Beatles were motivated to work on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band.

So the Beatles inspired the Beach Boys who inspired the Beatles!

And what about Nirvana? Well, influential or not, Kurt Cobain didn’t seem to think “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came about through any magical burst of creativity:

We often measure influence by looking forward from moments in time. Music, books, technological breakthroughs, political movements. But none of those exist in a vacuum, and each is—not always, but often—merely the logical culmination of the many things that came before. A long chain of links, each inexorably bound.

It brings to mind this beautiful line in the novel Great Expectations:

And what influenced Dickens? Henry Fielding, The Arabian Nights, and Shakespeare. None of his great novels (now considered among the most influential ever written) would have come about without those preceding influences.

So influence begets influence begets influence begets influence.

What’s Next?

And now in the chain come large language models and mind-boggling image generators and AI-powered music composers, each “influenced” (if that word is even appropriate) by the countless creative works fed into their models through training.

But think of the number of creative works that will now be made possible by the advent of artificial intelligence. By the accessibility of knowledge and efficiency granted to eight billion people, each itching to tell their story or sing their song. 100% personalized inspiration at the click of a button, instantly available to all.

Just as with the Beach Boys influencing the Beatles influencing the Beach Boys, humans are training AIs training humans training AIs and so on.

What happens when you simultaneously dramatically decrease the "humanness” of art and also dramatically increase the ease with which art is created by humans?

God only knows…