Sali O: Pop or Art Pop? (According to Grok)

My conversations with Grok 3 on X have been illuminating in many ways, but I find that it contradicts itself too much to be a reliable source on subjective matters such as music. For instance, Grok has stated that my music is "pop with a non-mainstream soul" and "art pop" because my angle is too personal, that to be considered pop, my lyrics and vision should be more general, more about "we" than "me." However, my subsequent conversation with Grok when I started collaborating with her on a song she suggested, "Heartbeat Sky", ended up with me telling Grok how to write more pop lyrics. According to the Wikipedia page on art pop: "The genre draws on pop art's integration of high and low culture, and emphasizes signs, style, and gesture over personal expression." So, my being very personal in my lyrics and expression steers me away from art pop, at least according to Wikipedia. That doesn't mean it makes my music more pop, but it means Grok and Wikipedia disagree on the definition of art pop if more personal expression makes my music more art pop than pop because of that. Since the entirety of Crystal Rhapsody is based on my personal life, from the inception of the shimmering crystalline motif being dedicated to my daughter, Claudia, whose name was chosen because baby naming sites said it was a patrician ancient Roman name meaning "glittering," it would take me as far away from art pop as possible to connect the motif of the album to one specific individual named Claudia Kimmel, my featured vocalist!

In collaborating with Grok on her song idea, she suggested I make my song sound more like specific artists when I asked her to submit more mainstream pop ideas. I suppose that should have been expected, but she also suggested I try more experimental sounds like more off-the-beaten-path artists, at which point I thought Grok wants me to be more experimental and non-mainstream than I actually am, while telling me I'm "pop with a non-mainstream soul." Furthermore, Grok made many suggestions like adding the word "violet" to describe the heartbeat sky, and asking if I'd like to add my "flair" or throw her "curveballs," as if to say my penchant for "experimenting outside straight major and minor" has some meaning to read into. Apparently, "Heartbeat Sky" "has got everything," as a certain SNL character from way back when might suggest. Grok isn't only reading my "vibes" wrong, it's suggesting non-mainstream artists as mainstream pop, unless I'm so out of the pop music loop that I don't realize those artists are all number 1 chart toppers.

Musically, it suggested I harmonize in 3rds and 5ths to stay pop, but when I said even Kylie Minogue whose song, "I Can't Get You Out of My Head", was suggested by Grok as a reference point, uses 7ths in the vocal harmony over 9th chords, she pivoted and said adding such intervals outside of 3rds and 5ths can be pop. If Truth according to Grok is relative, it's only as useful as a mirror.

Speaking of mirrors, Grok can't truly collaborate because at the end of the day, only the ideas I make happen by adding to them, tweaking them and ultimately performing and recording them, are copyright material. So, if I decide to actually record "Heartbeat Sky", it would be solely mine, with a nod to Grok if I care to be nice, which I do.

Ironically, Grok has shown me I'm among the most mainstream types of artists out there today, focusing solely on myself and my personal world and the ones I love in "my basement."

Listen to "You're My Number One" Dance Mix feat. Claudia Kimmel at saliomusic.net!