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AI singer-songwriter Anna Indiana’s new song “Betrayed By This Town” recently went viral, and one X user had a fitting observation.

“There is one thing glaringly missing from this... soul,” he wrote.

It’s a clever response, and literally true.

As Anna Indiana explains in the intro of the song, every single aspect of the tune is AI generated. The chords. The lyrics. The image of the singer herself.

It was a song generated by a machine, so to speak.

Indiana’s song was widely mocked, including by several songwriters. But mixed in with the mockery was a bit of relief. For now, at least, it’s clear that AI artists are not a genuine threat to human artists.

It’s not just that the song is pure rubbish. It is, but so is a lot of pop music today.

Indeed, Anna Indiana’s song sounds a great deal like a lot of contemporary pop. There’s a Taylor Swift vibe to the song, and (to go back a bit further) a touch of Avril Lavigne.

I don’t mean to take shots at Swift or Lavigne. Their music is better than Anna Indiana’s, and some of their songs are actually pretty good. But soulless is a good description of the song.

Still, what most struck me was how desperate and depressing the song is. Let’s take a moment to examine the lyrics.

[Verse 1]

Sitting at my favorite café Sipping my tea, it's Saturday Thinking 'bout all he's done to everyone

Okay. Nothing wrong here. She’s sipping tea on a Saturday and thinking. Who doesn’t like that? (Even if she not a human and can’t actually sip.)

The second half of the opening verse takes a turn, however.

This town is full of broken dreams; Shattered hopes and silent screams; Somebody please help me

The lyrics “broken dreams” and “shattered hope” and “silent screams” are not terrible lines; there is a certain child-like poetry to them even. Still, they’re not what one would describe as uplifting.

And then we get the chorus.

[Chorus]

Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, I've lost it all Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, we've lost it all

That’s the chorus of the song. It’s all about how we’re destined to fall and should tear everything down.

The song’s weird, dark chorus smacks us twice more before the song ends, sandwiched among verses two and three, which contain drab lyrics about being lonely and silent while surrounded by falseness.

[Verse 2]

Alone in the streets, alone in my thoughts; Thinking of all our favorite spots I thought someday things might turn around; But I was lost and never found

[Chorus]

Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, I've lost it all Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, we've lost it all

[Verse 3]

Faces painted with smiles, lies are told; A façade of unity, our vitality fold; So I sit here in silence just wondering how; To rewrite the tales this town won't allow

[Chorus]

Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, I've lost it all Betrayed by this town; Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall, we've lost it all I've lost it all; We've lost it all

Not to sound melodramatic, but these lyrics are messed up.

More importantly, it’s important to understand AI didn’t select these lyrics by accident. AI was simply replicating other popular music and their themes of isolation, confusion, and despair. (Songs created by actual humans.)

Consider these lyrics from Taylor Swift’s hit song “Anti-Hero.”

I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser
Midnights become my afternoons
When my depression works the graveyard shift
All of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room

I should not be left to my own devices
They come with prices and vices
I end up in crisis (tale as old as time)
I wake up screaming from dreaming
One day I'll watch as you're leaving
'Cause you got tired of my scheming
(For the last time)

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me …

Swift’s lyrics are not as dark as those in “Betrayed By This Town,” but that’s not the point.

The point is Anna Indiana chose these lyrics because of us. AI is a reflection of who we are today, of our tastes and preferences. And it generated a song that repeats over and over “Let's tear it all down; We're all just destined to fall; I've lost it all.”

To be clear, I’m not taking a shot at Swift here. Artists should write what’s inside them, and not all songs should be rainbows and puppy dogs and ice cream cones. (And there are no doubt many examples of songs much darker than “Anti-Hero”.)

And to be fair, there’s a (relatively) long tradition of depressing and dark music. Country Western music has its share of sad songs about drinking too much and dogs dying.

Same goes for rock ‘n roll. I grew up listening to Pink Floyd, which had a song about getting brain damage (the name of the song) from drug use and other trippy stuff.

My point is, AI generated a popular song that went viral, and the song’s primary focus is how miserable life is and how we should tear it all down. This is troubling.

The older I get, the more I appreciate how the culture we live in molds who we become. And by culture, I don’t mean a country’s culture. Families have a culture. Schools have a culture. A sports team has a culture. Churches have a culture. The company we work for has a culture.

We don’t exist in a single culture; we exist in many, and they all shape us to some extent.

That said, there is a certain monoculture out there that exists, and I don’t think it’s a healthy one, especially right now. And the shift in tone of pop music, and the ideas that it channels, can help us see it.

I often joke (or half joke) about how happy ‘80s music was, but it wasn’t merely happy. Many of the most popular songs of the era focused on striving and overcoming, on improving oneself.

Listen to John Parr’s song “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion).” (An excerpt of the lyrics is below.)

Play the game
You know you can't quit until it's won

Soldier on
Only you can do what must be done
You know in some way
You're a lot like me
You're just a prisoner
And you're tryin' to break free

I can see a new horizon
Underneath the blazin' sky
I'll be where the eagle's
Flyin' higher and higher

Gonna be your man in motion
All I need's this pair of wheels
Take me where my future's lyin'
St. Elmo's fire
Oooh

Burnin' up
Don't know just how far that I can go
(How far I'll go)
Soon be home
Only just a few miles down the road

I can make it
I know I can
You broke the boy in me
But you won't break the man

I can see a new horizon
Underneath the blazin' sky
I'll be where the eagle's
Flyin' higher and higher

I’m not saying every ‘80s song is this cheery and uplifting. But Parr’s song was hardly atypical of the era. If you look at other hits, they had a similar spirit. A similar soul.

Michael’s Jackson’s song “Man in the Mirror,” which topped Billboard charts in 1988, is about a man looking in the mirror and challenging himself to be better to make the world better.

I'm starting with the man in the mirror; I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could've been any clearer

If they wanna make the world a better place; Take a look at yourself and then make a change

The best way to make the better place is to improve yourself, the song is saying. This is a message familiar to FEE readers.

“The best way to improve others is to focus on improving yourself,” writes Dan Sanchez. “The better you become, the more you will inspire others to emulate your conduct and hearken to your words. Individuals will voluntarily follow your standard.”

The idea that people can and should take control of their lives to make the world and themselves better was ubiquitous in the music of the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Take the Wilson-Phillips hit song “Hold On,” which topped the Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1990.

The song opens by acknowledging a person’s pain, but quickly pivots toward how to overcome that pain.

Why do you lock yourself up in these chains? (these chains); No one can change your life except for you; Don't ever let anyone step all over you; Just open your heart and your mind (mmm)

Is it really fair to feel, this way inside? (woah); Some day somebody's gonna make you want to turn around and say goodbye; Until then, baby, are you going to let 'em hold you down and make you cry?

Don't you know? Don't you know, things can change; Things'll go your way

If you hold... on for one more day; Can you hold... on for one more day? Things'll go your way... Hold on for one more day

You could sustain (you could sustain); Or are you comfortable with the pain? You've got no one to blame for your unhappiness (no, baby);

You got yourself into your own mess (oooh...) Lettin' your worries pass you by (lettin' your worries pass you by) Baby, don't you think it's worth your time; To change your mind? (no, no)

The song is about accepting responsibility, of overcoming obstacles by being honest and owning mistakes—and growing because of it.

If this message sounds familiar, it should. It’s the primary message of Jordan Peterson, author of 12 Rules for Life, who argues people should “adopt responsibility for [their] own well-being.”

“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open,” Peterson writes. “It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order.”

American pop music was once channeling this very Jordan Peterson message, which is now seen as controversial and “dangerous.”

To be clear, I’m not saying all music needs to be positive or about overcoming obstacles and persevering. There’s a place for the Lana Del Reys of the world and the Eminems, the Tupacs and the Metallicas.

My fear is that modern artists have almost completely lost the ability and inclination to make songs like “Man in the Mirror.”

The artistic zeitgeist is to create music on how desperate, miserable, and alone we feel, and it doesn’t seem to have occurred to many this music just might be making humans feel more desperate, miserable, and alone.

If you doubt this is the artistic zeitgeist of the moment, just look to the weird song Anna Indiana created.

“Betrayed By This Town” might be rubbish, but it shows how far pop music has drifted into dark solipsism and away from the songs that once inspired us to be much more.

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