WORSHIP LEADERS
‘ IT’ S NOT MUSIC!’ // OLD ARGUMENTS IN A NEW AI WORLD | Grant Norsworthy
Sometime in the 1970s( yep, I’ m pretty old), at a big family get-together in our home, my older brother decided to share our current favorite album with the cousins. He brought the needle down on Larry Norman’ s Only Visiting This Planet. We kept the volume low so as not to disturb the adult conversations, but some of the kids gathered around the speakers, listening, chatting, and passing the album sleeve from hand to hand.
Here was an artist singing about Jesus( though not on every song) with a sound we could relate to. It stacked up with what was on the radio- with what kids at school liked. It sounded like the secular music my parents had forbidden me to own. I loved that album. Still do.
I didn’ t notice my favorite Uncle John leaving the room.
My dear( now departed) Uncle John was an accomplished, classically trained church organist. I later learned he found it impossible to be in the same room as our chosen soundtrack.
As my mother told me after everyone had left, Uncle John declared:“ It’ s not music!”
I wish he had simply said he didn’ t like it. That it wasn’ t to his taste. I might even have handled,“ It’ s not musical to me.”
But“ It’ s not music!”?
This episode didn’ t diminish my love for Uncle
John, nor my respect for the music he loved. But I did quietly relegate his musical opinions to being out of touch- irrelevant to me, and the grumblings of an ageing curmudgeon.
“ It’ s not music!” I hear the same accusation today about music created with artificial intelligence( AI). Or,“ It’ s not real.” Or,“ It’ s fake.” To be clear, I have serious concerns about the changing musical landscape in the wake of the AI tsunami. If I’ m honest, I’ d prefer it if AI music simply wasn’ t a thing at all. But it is. It’ s here, whether we like it or not.
Whether we see AI as a positive or negative force- or, like most of us, some of both- we need to be able to talk about it. And talk about it cleanly. image by Stable Diffusion
36 February 2026 Subscribe for Free...