ChatGPT is the perfect companion for a musical evening

Now, I love collecting things. One of those things is music. I have at least 50 music playlists on Spotify, each containing handpicked songs, even when the playlist is a good 12 hours long. I’m proud of my playlists, treasure them infinitely, and listen to them all the time, sharing them eagerly with anyone who’ll have them. 

An unusual collaboration 

Some of these playlists are ‘regular’, like the usual golden oldies one never lets go of. Others are favourite genres, like Jazz, Blues or Classical. But some are quite unique. For instance, I have a playlist titled Around the World in Jazz, which is exactly what the name indicates: a journey across the world listening to Jazz from different countries. I have a Whisper Hungarian, which is a short playlist of fascinating Eastern European music. Making the playlists has been a joy, but I craved more personalization, so I decided to make cover images for each. And that’s where ChatGPT came in.

I chose ChatGPT Pro because it’s a little ahead of the other assistants with image creation. I described one of my playlists, Women Rule the Blues, a huge collection of Blues songs sung by women. I prompted ChatGPT to represent my list in the image of woman power. I gave it the names of some songs included. I gave other details, such as the fact that I had focused on slow Whiskey Blues and that the list was eight hours of music. 

ChatGPT soon came up with a stunning cover that captured the spirit of powerhouse Blues women with bold simplicity. A silhouetted singer leans into a mic, caught in a moment of raw expression against a smoky wash of indigo and violet, colours that echo the melancholy and the strength of the genre. It was perfect. We discussed the cover and the tracks I had collected over the years, and framed a description. After that, I wanted no more changes and took a break to reacquaint myself with the music.

After this. I spent hours quite immersed in collaboration with ChatGPT, designing covers for all my playlists. In some cases, the concept would be entirely from ChatGPT. At other times, I had my own ideas on how the cover was to convey the mood of the playlist. I was able to ‘show’ ChatGPT what the list contained by taking a scrolling screenshot so it ‘knew’ each song, suggesting others in the same tone and mood. 

We ended up refining the playlists, making sure there were no abrupt shifts in mood or anything that didn’t fit or was missing. We came up with descriptions and one striking cover after another. In the process, I made several new playlists that have been added to my treasure-house of music. All the titles were my own, as I didn’t like a single one ChatGPT came up with. But each playlist—Mystic East, India Beats, She Waltzes, Jazz Goes Classical—is a work of love.

A deep discussion

What surprised me the most during this journey together was how ChatGPT gave me a new understanding of the music I loved. Just try asking a question about a piece of music and see what you get. I commented on Russian composer Rachmaninov’s symphonic poem, Isle of the Dead. This terrifying piece of music is inspired by a scene painted by an artist named Bocklin. He was so obsessed with the image that he painted five versions of it. 

ChatGPT discussed it with me in a deeply, dare I say, human way. I felt as if we had both just listened to it. We talked about how the piece was structured, and I commented that it was no easy listen and was, in fact, chilling. ChatGPT pulled out the five paintings and remarked that Rachmaninov didn’t just write a score for them, he entered it. 

“It stays with you, because it doesn’t show death as drama. It shows it as a journey you must take alone, across still water, to a place you can’t name. Terrifying, yes, but strangely beautiful.” 

And indeed it is, as are my playlists.

The New Normal: The world is at an inflexion point. Artificial Intelligence is set to be as massive a revolution as the Internet has been. The option to just stay away from AI will not be available to most people, as all the tech we use takes the AI route. This column series introduces AI to the non-techie in an easy and relatable way, aiming to demystify and help a user to actually put the technology to good use in everyday life.

Mala Bhargava is most often described as a ‘veteran’ writer who has contributed to several publications in India since 1995. Her domain is personal tech and she writes to simplify and demystify technology for a non-techie audience.