In Bang Si-hyuk’s Billboard cowl story, the HYBE founder and chairman shared his private emotions and the primary steps the corporate was taking in making ready for the rise of generative AI in music.
“I don’t understand how lengthy human artists will be the one ones to fulfill human wants and human tastes,” Bang advised Billboard editorial director Hannah Karp, earlier than new particulars had been revealed about “Mission L,” HYBE’s first public endeavor with Supertone, the artificial-intelligence audio firm that the Ok-pop company acquired by way of a $36 million funding this previous January.
After two weeks of on-line teasers for MIDNATT, described solely by official communications as “the mysterious artist” in collaboration with its legendary BIGHIT MUSIC label and not too long ago created interactive-media unit HYBE IM, the secretive “Mission L” was lastly unveiled on Monday. In a never-before-seen debut single launched in six languages, “Masquerade” was revealed with MIDNATT singing in English, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese language and Vietnamese, using Supertone’s expertise to help in multilingual pronunciation, tone and supply, in addition to shift MIDNATT’s voice from male to feminine.
As high-tech because the AI-enabled artist sounds, the inspiration and targets behind MIDNATT are much more human.
Regardless of fan theories of a virtual pop group, music-focused game or fully AI artist, MIDNATT is the very-much human singer-songwriter Lee Hyun. Configured as an alter ego for the veteran musician who debuted in 2007 underneath Huge Hit Leisure (earlier than the label’s company rebrand into HYBE), MIDNATT’s glossy electro-pop sound on “Masquerade” is way from Lee’s profession beginnings in vocal acts 8eight and Homme, or his signature, chart-topping ballads like “You Are the Better of My Life.”
“It began with the pondering that I wish to strive a unique model of music,” MIDNATT tells Billboard throughout a night Zoom name from Seoul. “You’ll be able to consider MIDNATT as myself making an attempt a brand new style. I didn’t give you the identify on my own, however I feel the identify began from my want to specific the boundary between eager to strive new music and tackle challenges, and never doing that as an artist doing music for greater than a decade.”
Whereas BIGHIT MUSIC artists like BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER have reworked the worldwide music business, a venture like MIDNATT (which interprets to “mid night time” in Swedish and “naked face” in Korean) permits a extra senior soloist the uncommon likelihood in Ok-pop to tackle a brand new musical identification and idea.
“[The song’s] producer Hitchhiker mentioned, ‘You will have one thing totally different in you, one thing different in you, so let’s deliver that out,’” MIDNATT says of a chat with the experimental hitmaker, who has delivered his model of mind-bending EDM for artists like BoA, Tremendous Junior, EXO, Purple Velvet and NCT for over a decade. “He listened to the demo that I recorded for producer Bang [Si-hyuk] earlier than I even debuted — I couldn’t even keep in mind I did that — however he remembered that I recorded in an R&B model in falsetto. He mentioned, ‘You will have that voice in you; why don’t we develop your voice from there?’ And that’s how the entire venture got here to start. I’m type of feeling strain proper now as a result of I didn’t count on this to be this massive of a venture.”
Actually, MIDNATT’s deal with accessibility and deeper reference to folks worldwide seems to considerably deal with a hurdle within the Korean-pop business of getting listeners previous any language limitations.
“Once I would hearken to music in different languages, I couldn’t immerse into the music in addition to in my native language, and we had been speaking about how we might overcome these language limitations,” MIDNATT provides. “The venture got here to be by speaking about these language limitations.”
Even with world attraction among the many HYBE artists (albums from BTS, TXT, SEVENTEEN and ENHYPEN made up half of the IFPI’s world high 10 album gross sales chart final yr), the company noticed their tech developments as a chance to align with MIDNATT’s bigger conversations.
“Fairly than a expertise check, we initiated this venture based mostly on the will to deliver music and the artist’s message collectively, that are the essence of HYBE, to a wider viewers by way of the convergence of music and expertise,” explains Wooyong Chung, president of HYBE IM. “We determined to tackle this venture due to the tales [MIDNATT] needed to share, the musical challenges he needed to take, and the will to succeed in out to his followers in inventive methods appeared attainable with just a little push from expertise. With MIDNATT, we believed we might introduce a brand new dynamic to the business by combining music and expertise to create one thing contemporary and genuine.”
For “Masquerade,” MIDNATT initially recorded in Korean, with the music later translated into 5 different languages.
“I believed at first Vietnamese and Spanish could be actually onerous,” MIDNATT recollects of the recording course of. “However it turned out that English was probably the most troublesome language to document in…after all, the expertise improved the pronunciation and intonation general. However because it’s my music and I’ve to document it, I did my finest to be very fluent within the language that I’m recording in, since you by no means know, I may need an opportunity to do it dwell sometime.”
For selecting the languages, Chung provides that Supertone had already efficiently labored within the chosen six (“We would have liked to create high-quality music,” he says). On the similar time, metrics like engagement on totally different fan platforms additionally influenced their choice (“We additionally took into consideration the artist’s need to speak with followers who left valuable feedback on YouTube even when the artist is probably not accustomed to their language”). There’s additionally hope to develop extra music in much more languages.
“Masquerade” additionally brings an surprising however fascinating new perspective to the recent subject of synthetic intelligence in music. Whereas Drake, The Weeknd and Common Music Group made headlines for taking down a faux music by the 2 superstars after it earned tens of millions of streams and impressions on streaming companies and social platforms, MIDNATT has the artist’s full permission for all AI modifying.
“After I skilled it myself, I feel it actually is determined by the way you put it to use,” MIDNATT says to creatives who’re cautious of AI in music. “The sense of duty is what issues probably the most. So so far as it’s used within the music, I feel it’s a nice alternative for me to make [my song] extra accessible and extra immersive to the followers worldwide.”
“Now we have been dealing with new expertise by exchanging concepts to make sure it to develop into a device that helps folks,” provides Chung. “Our precept for making use of expertise to music on this venture is evident. The rights of artists to their creations should be protected with utmost significance. With that in thoughts, we try to push the boundaries of what musicians can think about and what music can specific.”
Just like UMG’s take that generative AI creations “exhibit why platforms have a elementary authorized and moral duty to stop the usage of their companies in ways in which hurt artists,” Chung agrees that “creating social consensus in addition to correct laws to maintain up with the brand new adjustments are important” to face this new period of music.
Whereas MIDNATT thinks “artists must be discreet and cautious” with quickly advancing tech, the hot-topic of AI itself appears to have added an surprising, and finally pointless, depth to his hopes to dream larger along with his new music.
“With the phrase AI apart, I simply need everybody to know that this began out genuinely and kindly in my coronary heart to deliver immersive experiences with my music of MIDNATT,” the singer says. “I merely need everybody to take pleasure in my new problem.”
And suppose extra folks hear “Masquerade” and MIDNATT’s music due to an artificially clever smoothing of language limitations? In that case, the problem is on its solution to realization.