January 31, 2026

HOW MEDIOCRITY TOOK OVER THE GRAMMYS:

Is music getting worse? Rick Beato is a musician, producer and critic with more than five million YouTube subscribers. His answer would be: yes, pretty much. In a recent video, he compares the 2026 Grammy Song of the Year nominees to those of 1984. There are a few bright sparks among the slate of new songs, but Beato regards most of them as derivative, unoriginal and unlikely to be remembered past the end of the awards show. In contrast, 42 years on, all the 1984 nominees – Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” and Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long” among them – are firmly embedded in the popular music canon.

One could ask the same question about science: has it gotten worse? My answer, I have to say, reflects Beato’s for music. As in popular music, bright sparks do still show up in the stream of science. But, as with popular music, nearly all of what passes for “science” these days is dull, derivative, repetitive and forgettable, unlikely to make an impression past the deadline for the next grant application.

Beato has a compelling explanation as to why popular music seems to be getting worse. His thesis is simple: the culture and economics of the music industry have cheapened creativity and incentivized mediocrity. New technologies are accelerating this decline.

Could something similar be behind the cheapening of science? “No” would be the reflexive answer of most in the industry – and probably laymen, too. But both music and science are, at root, creative arts: Einstein liked to imagine what it would be like to ride a photon; August Kekulé dreamt that the structure of benzene was like an ouroboros, a snake swallowing its own tail; Francis Crick and James Watson imaginatively turned the DNA double helix outside in to arrive at a structure no one else thought possible. Science advances more through these flights of creative fancy than through all the millions of scientific papers academics publish each year. As in the field of music, creativity in science has been debased like a tin nickel. Mediocrity is incentivized.

Science and music have begun to converge in the form of AI. In a recent YouTube clip, producer/engineer Warren Huart noted:

Songwriters are using AI to write tracks. They’re using the AI to write tracks. Maybe they’re manipulating it. Maybe they’re taking an individual vocal, etc. But I have heard and seen and experienced it, and people are playing instruments to those tracks.

Now, I think [AI music generating platform] Suno stopped the ability for people to download stems, but you could still put in your track idea—make it a death metal song with Hawaiian bloody blah blah—output it, and then Izotope [RX] it and remove all the stems that way. And then real musicians—yes, real musicians—are then replaying the parts.

That is happening each and every day in our industry, and with people you know: with producers you know, with engineers you know, with mixers you know, with songwriters you know, and with artists that you know. That is how songs are happening.

There will be more material being made than ever before. Artists who are successful will be pumping out more music than they’ve ever done before because now, some of the heavy lifting—the initial ideas—will be done by AI. And it’s happening now, for real.

So not just the sort of country song that went to number one in a digital playback of a country music chart or wherever it was—that’s just the beginning. There are already songs that you are hearing that started off as AI, and maybe they’ve been replayed, maybe they’ve been manipulated, but that is where our industry is at for real.

According to Billboard in late November, “In just the past few months, at least six AI or AI-assisted artists have debuted on various Billboard rankings. That figure could be higher, as it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent.” How prolific will AI-generated music become going forward?

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

Posted at 12:32 pm by Glenn Reynolds

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Mamdani Voter Ezra Klein Tries, Fails To Achieve Solidarity With Student Activists Who Called Him a ‘Zionist Pig.’

The student agitator accused Klein of enabling Israel’s so-called genocide in Gaza. The columnist, whose speaking fees typically run from $40,000 to $70,000, sought to assure the shrieking activist that he also despised Israel, which he said was tormenting Palestinians through “apartheid and subjugation.” The activist kept ranting about fascism, so Klein pleaded for his attention. “Buddy, buddy, talk to me,” he said. “I am right here.” They didn’t care.

The anti-Israel agitators made their way to exit, chanting as they went. “Ezra Klein, you’re a liar, you set Palestine on fire,” they shouted. “Every time Ezra lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies.” They soon joined other protesters outside the venue, clapping along to more chants about how Sarah Lawrence was inviting fascists and protecting Zionism.

“Welcome to Sarah Lawrence,” Judd quipped. Klein thanked her for the courtesy.

Klein appeared somewhat surprised when the activists refused to engage with him. “Why do you think I deny what’s going on in Gaza?” he asked the terrorist sympathizer. “I don’t think you know what I think.”

It’s safe to assume the student activists didn’t know much about anything. Klein has not shied away from criticizing Israel, which he has argued is on the verge of becoming a “pariah state.” He voted for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani (D.) and said he didn’t think there was “anything anti-Semitic about him at all.” He has described “anti-Zionists” of the left as promoting universal human rights, even if they occasionally hold “dumb signs at protest rallies.” In Klein’s view, it’s the right-wing anti-Semites who are motivated by racial animus.

Charles Murray rings the bell curve in response:

Posted at 12:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

“RULE OF LAW.’

Posted at 11:29 am by Glenn Reynolds

CONSEQUENCES: Audit demanded after claims that MIT faculty hiring sidesteps DEI ban. “Some Massachusetts Institute of Technology departments use so-called broader impact statements in the hiring process in the wake of a nearly two-year-old decision to ban mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion statements. It’s one example of how the ideology remains part of the ecosystem at MIT, with an estimated expenditure of $25 million annually on about 50 part and full-time employees working on DEI, according to an alumnus watchdog in a presentation Tuesday.”

Posted at 10:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

DO TELL:

Posted at 9:28 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHERE THE ANTI-ICERS ARE HEADING: Unfortunately for most, it’s not, as yet, jail. But the logic of their protest demands and actions, as explained by Modern Age Editor Daniel McCarthy, is this: America is irretrievably and utterly fascist, which means it’s not merely justified to resist the regime, but absolutely mandatory to use whatever means necessary to bring it down, including violently and against the cops (and, ultimately, the U.S. military).

Posted at 9:28 am by Mark Tapscott

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY:

Posted at 8:52 am by Glenn Reynolds

KARENS MAKE POOR MANAGERS:

Posted at 8:47 am by Glenn Reynolds

POLITICS: The Real Reason Democrats Are Threatening Noem Impeachment, One Member Says.

“If you remember, just two years ago, Republicans conducted a very thorough investigation, and we impeached [DHS] Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for failure to perform his duties,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., said. “And so, should we be surprised that now we’re seeing Democrats try to come in and impeach the current Homeland Security secretary?”

Dems are big on payback; Republicans not so much.

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I READ “DEVELOPMENT,” “AID,” OR “NGO,” AND DIDN’T ASSUME “FRAUD”:

Posted at 8:08 am by Stephen Green

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON:  Tomato Wyrm.

Cecilia Duringhurst never expected to inherit anything, much less her estranged great-uncle’s country manor. It’s in a bit of a sorry state, coated with dog hair and staffed only by Jock, the old gamekeeper… but it comes with a greenhouse, large gardens, and the hopes of escaping city life.

Determined to save Hendre Court from ruin, she finds an unexpected ally in Greig MacDougall, Jock’s grandson and her new gardener. Together, they are swapping city life for muddy boots, endless weeding, and the fragile hope of turning heirloom tomatoes and cut flowers into a sustainable future.

As they dig in side by side, unearthing old secrets and new possibilities, Cecilia senses the estate holds more than soil and stone—something ancient and watchful that is tied to the Duringhurst line, and rooted to this hill.

Secrets and seedlings will burst forth in the spring… and just possibly, despite the frosts of misunderstandings and chill winds of finances, a relationship that will entwine all of them and blossom.

 

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt