Music historian asking what our tools do to what we do, from bone flutes to AI. Two books out in 2026: The Museum of Imaginary Musical Instruments (Reaktion), and Forty Thousand Years of Music Technology (UChicago Press). https://deirdreloughridge.com
Deirdre Loughridge
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Hello there
Well to be candible about it, this made my day
“I am happy my kids didn’t need to learn cursive.” Shock + horror. But seriously, this is a great post about why we have to keep asking what to offload to AI and what not, both now while the technical and cultural defaults are being built and always (as I try to do with 40k years of music tech)
“we purposely stayed away from all electronic sounds. But what we found is that some of the most organic sounds, for instance, bird calls, can feel electronic. We’d be reviewing a scene, and Phil [Lord] would say, ‘That sounds too electronic,’ and we’d be like, ‘Oh, that’s just a whippoorwill.’”
This method also makes detection readily defeatable. But I’m fascinated there is this presence in the frequency spectra that human ears (ostensibly) can’t hear
Browser extension by researchers at University of Chicago to detect AI songs generated by Udio v1.5 and Suno v5 - very high accuracy thanks to consistent artifacts in their frequency spectra inaudible to humans: www.etch-humanity.org/etch-lab/qui...
Talking about imaginary musical instruments, as Thomas Patteson and I are wont to do. The book is out in the US July 6, and we’re available for podcasts, events, and conversations. @reaktionbooks.bsky.social @uchicagopress.bsky.social
