AI slop, begone! The viral musical virtuosos bringing brains and brilliance back to social media

"Chloe Sobek is a Melbourne musician who plays the violone, a Renaissance precursor to the double bass. But instead of playing it in the traditional manner, she puts wobbling bits of cardboard between its strings or uses a sheep's bone as a bow, and these weird interventions have become catnip for Instagram's algorithm, getting her tens of thousands sometimes hundreds of thousands of views for each of her self-made performance videos."

"When Laurie Anderson's robo-minimalist masterwork O Superman hit No 2 in the UK charts in 1981, thanks to incessant airplay on John Peel's radio show, it was a signal of a media outlet's power to propel experimental music into the mainstream. That's now happening again as prepared-instrument players such as Sobek, plus experimental pianists, microtonal singers and numerous other boundary-pushing solo performers, are routinely breaking out of underground circles thanks to videos generally self-recorded at home going viral on TikTok and Instagram."

"You may have come across a cover of a Mitski song played on a sinister microtonal scale, or a piano piece where the player frantically draws a circle across the keys of a piano, or in the case of Brad Barr, a strained drone made by Barr pulling a long piece of polyester through his guitar strings. It all suggests that the general public are actually a lot more receptive to weird music than many assume but why is it all resonating quite so strongly?"

Chloe Sobek plays the violone but modifies it with wobbling cardboard and a sheep's bone bow, creating prepared-instrument performances that attract tens or hundreds of thousands of Instagram views. Viral short-form videos from prepared-instrument players, experimental pianists, microtonal singers and other boundary-pushing solo performers are bringing underground music to mainstream audiences via TikTok and Instagram. The phenomenon mirrors Laurie Anderson's 1981 chart breakthrough, showing how media exposure can propel experimental work into wider recognition. Viral attention has translated into real-world opportunities, including invitations to perform for established artists, demonstrating the platforms' capacity to expand audiences for weird, experimental music.

Read at www.theguardian.com