By Narayan Saimbi
When I was planning out the article for this week, I had initially thought to focus on the terrifying dominance of AI in the music industry, and that prominent artists need to start pushing back against these computer-generated chart toppers. In the short days between me making that initial plan and sitting here writing, one artist has done exactly that- and she has done it in an oh-so-human way.
Meet Rosalía. An internationally accoladed Spanish singer-songwriter, who has received universal critical acclaim for her records that span a wide variety of genres. Having won countless Grammys and other awards with the flamenco-inspired “El Mal Querer”, Rosalía followed up with the release of the experimental reggaeton album “Motomami” in 2022, receiving similar praise for this as well. Now in 2025, her recent album “Lux” departs from these traditional Latin-based sounds, opting instead for something as human as possible- classical music.
“LUX” is a project filled with religious and feminine iconography, with fourteen languages being present on the album to represent the fourteen female saints. The album has received an outstanding 100/100 on Metacritic, with The Guardian, The Rolling Stones and The Times all giving the project 5/5 stars respectively. Whilst some journalists have labelled “LUX” as experimental pop, the album is undoubtedly classical music at its finest, and Rosalía has undoubtedly brought new life to the genre in the 21st century.
But why use classical music at all? It’s simple- it is the most aggressively human genre that there is. Speaking with France Inter about the creation of “LUX”, Rosalía stated that “there is no AI at all [in the production]. It is a human album”- she also told Apple Music that she wanted listeners of “LUX” to “have the sense [and] the feeling that there was a human there”. Alongside desires for an acoustic feel to the project, these compounding factors seem to be how the Spanish artist arrived at classical music to be the conduit, for which her vision of an entirely “human” project was materialised.
Every orchestral movement, every pluck of the string, every imperfect note and timing error that inevitably comes from playing live instruments- that is the humanity of it all. No AI can recreate these musical imperfections that can only occur due to the inherent imperfect nature of humans. But instead of trying to hide these faults, Rosalía instead embraces them- she has created a project that both highlights the labour of love that goes into the creation of music, and beautifully weaves themes so central to humanity altogether in one fell swoop.
The internet music critic Derrick Gee shared a similar sentiment about the project. He noted that these decisions, and emphasis on the humanity of music, marked a change in the mindset around the art form’s creation- that is, “to be human is an act of resistance” in the wave of the AI slop that dominates streaming platforms.
Derrick Gee’s thoughts on Rosalía’s fight against AI
As I mentioned earlier, with the recent rise of AI-generated artists topping the charts in place of human ones, and the current prevalence of AI artists on Spotify-generated playlists, it is not hard to see how both Rosalía and Derrick Gee have come to this conclusion. In a society that is becoming increasingly technocratic, there are still pockets of resistance for a more human experience. Whether it’s from global sensations such as Rosalía, or from musicians and bands busking in the high street, music as a medium of expression will find a way to maintain its humanity. But you have to allow it to do so.
Supporting your favourite artists, going to live shows- this is how you can keep music alive. There’s a whole conversation I can have about the benefits of listening to your music outside of a streaming service, but I’ve certainly talked about that enough as it is. Point being, what Rosalía has shown us is that we have a choice in how we create, consume and curate the music we listen to. Let’s make the human one. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take an orchestral quartet over an AI-generated country song any day.
Leave a Reply