The images that artificial intelligence creates about songs that talk about places

@ElentirENG ES 9·05·2024 · 19:41 0

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly used tool for all kinds of things, even for art.

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As I am a big music fan, I came up with a little experiment to answer this question: How does artificial intelligence interpret the lyrics of a song? I chose several songs in different languages ​​that talk about different places, some real and some fictional. For this test I used the website Openart.ai, which allows you to make some adjustments. I did several tests of each song and finally I kept the image of each one.

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Old Walking Song'

I told you about this Tolkien poem here six years ago. It's my favourite poem by this author, so it was logical to start with this topic. This poem is what Bilbo sings when he begins his journey to Rivendell, a poem about roads and what awaits you on them. I have put the entire version that appears in "The Fellowship of the Ring" and the artificial intelligence has interpreted it that way. I really liked the result. It seems that at any moment a Nazgûl is going to appear riding a black horse.

John Denver, 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

Now for a classic of country music by John Denver, his famous song about West Virginia. I've included the first two verses, so as not to overwhelm the artificial intelligence with too much detail. I've never been there, so I'll leave it up to you to judge.

AC/DC, 'Highway to Hell'

From a country classic we move on to a hard rock classic, the most famous AC/DC song. The artificial intelligence has returned several images that best reflect the concept of the road. I have chosen this one. I guess the artificial intelligence has understood that the best way to beat hell is to drive in the right lane of an American highway in the wrong direction, hehe.

Los Limones, 'Ferrol'

Being Galician, I couldn't miss this beautiful 1992 song by Los Limones dedicated to the city of Ferrol, a song that makes many Galicians nostalgic. The result didn't convince me much... I haven't been to Ferrol for a few years but I don't remember it exactly like that. 🤔

Los Secretos, 'La calle del olvido'

We continue with Spanish pop, in this case with a sad song from Los Secretos from 1989, sung by the late Enrique Urquijo. Of all the images I have obtained in this experiment with artificial intelligence, this is one of the most fascinating.

Rosalía de Castro, 'Paseniño, paseniño'

Now let's move on to a song in Galician, a poem by Rosalía de Castro that was set to music by Amancio Prada. A song that I really like and that talks about a woman who walks alone and sad as night falls, watching the Moon rise in the sky. The woman walks towards the parish of Bastavales, in Brión (La Coruña). The interpretation of artificial intelligence seemed curious to me.

Mina, 'Città vuota'

Me gusta mucho la música pop italiana de la década de 1960 y no podía faltar en este experimento. He elegido una canción de la cantante Mina, "Città vuota" (Ciudad vacía). Habla sobre una mujer que camina por una ciudad llena de gente, pero a ella le parece vacía porque sólo quiere ver volver a su hombre amado. Me ha parecido curioso que la inteligencia artificial me muestre una imagen en blanco y negro. ¿Sabría que le había pedido una canción de la década de 1960?

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Treebeard's song'

Let us now return to Tolkien and "The Lord of the Rings". One of his poems that I like best is Treebeard's Song, in which he speaks with nostalgia about the places he visited in the past, in each season of the year, when the sea had not yet swallowed up the lands of Beleriand. I have tried this song twice, since it speaks of different places and at different times of the year. The Tolkien Ensemble did an excellent version of this song, with Christopher Lee as vocalist. Above these lines you can see the image of Dorthonion in winter.

And here you can see the part about summer in Ossiriand. I really liked both of them, so I did a third test.

This time we see the image alluding to the final part of the song, which speaks of Fangorn Forest, Treebeard's home during the events narrated in "The Lord of the Rings." It was hard for me to decide between the four images generated because they were all very good.

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'In Durin's Day'

We continue with Tolkien's work, but this time with a song of dwarves, "In Durin's Day", which I already told you about here. It is one of my favorite songs from the album released by Brocelïande in 1996, covering Tolkien's poems. The interpretation of the artificial intelligence is impressive.

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Misty Mountains'

Another dwarf song from Tolkien's work, this time from "The Hobbit." Peter Jackson included a very good version in his trilogy about this work. Artificial intelligence has given me four very good images and I have chosen this one.

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Song of Gondor'

Yet another Tolkien poem, published in The Lord of the Rings, about the city of Minas Tirith, the capital of the kingdom of Gondor. The Tolkien Ensemble made a musical version that I really like. The artificial intelligence was only able to give me one image with a white tree (the others showed golden trees). I liked it, although the tree should have been inside the walls.

Naomi Shemer, 'Yerushalayim Shel Zahav'

Let's move on to a song in Hebrew that I told you about here, written by Naomi Shemer in 1967 and that I particularly like. It's a beautiful description of the city of Jerusalem. In this case, artificial intelligence has had it easy.

Ultravox, 'Vienna'

I'll end with a famous song by Ultravox, Midge Ure's band. It was released in 1980 and talks about the Austrian capital in winter. Artificial intelligence has made a very literal interpretation.