Def Leppard’s Phil Collen Weighs in on the Growing Debate Over AI in Music

While artists continued to lash out over AI being used in the entertainment industry, the technology has proven to be resourceful. No longer needing an entire studio and producers, artists could create a song from start to finish using nothing but AI. But that was where the debate started. As more and more AI songs flooded streaming platforms like Spotify, stars warned that the technology was killing the human spirit. But according to Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, they needed to embrace it. 

With a career dating back to the 1970s, Collen watched as the industry changed more than a few times. And throughout that time, there was always a new type of technology that promised to take a singer’s sound to the next level. But no matter what the future held, Collen could always hear the humanity in the music. That was until AI injected itself into mainstream music. 

When asked for his opinion on AI, Collen viewed the technology as disappointing. “It’s disappointing, because you hear lots of… At the moment you can still tell if a song’s A.I. I hear a lot of country bands and R&B, and you can hear something, you go, ‘Okay, well that’s definitely A.I.’ But the stuff we do doesn’t sound like that. It definitely sounds a different way. And the same with the live recordings or live performances.”

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Phil Collen Doesn’t Want AI To Take Over

Although Collen admitted that bands used technology to add samples and loops, he insisted that the sound was always human. And that was the crucial difference. “All our vocals are really live. We actually really sing them, and you can tell the difference. There’s a feeling, especially if we make mistakes, which happens every night, if you forget words or whatever. So I think there’s something really cool about that.”

Collen understood the need to put restrictions on the capabilities of AI. But when it came to the technology being used in society and entertainment, the musician believed even the harshest of critics were using it. “Everyone uses it. People [use it] and they don’t even realize they’re doing it. They Google something and A.I. will talk straight back at them. So, yeah, we all use it. I think you just have to be aware. At the moment, I love what we’re doing and I love the fact that we’re not too reliant on that stuff and that it hasn’t taken over yet.”    

Having watched technology reshape music, Collen knew fighting change wasn’t going to stop it. Instead, he believed artists needed to understand AI without becoming dependent on it.

(Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Live Nation Las Vegas)