Dispatch Number six: will music survive technology?
Join us for Salon de Résistance on November 20th at Black Iris for a conversation about the future of music and it’s ability to survive the AI revolution, featuring John Campbell from Lamb of God and Tyler Williams of the Head and the Heart. Presented in partnership with MSE Properties, Plan 9 Music and Medora Laser.
Event page HERE.
Music has been essential to human development, an artistic practice dating back at least 40,000 years. Some anthropologists believe that music even preceded the evolution of spoken language. Because of this, musicians, and the art they create, form an indispensable part of our emotional, intellectual, and spiritual vocabulary. Without this language, every society, every community, would lose an essential element of our shared humanity.
But that evolution is now taking a radical turn, as machines attempt to replace musicians and the inspiration driving our creativity gives way to artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms and platforms.
Within the next few years, the global market for music generated by AI is projected to reach nearly $40 billion. Tools designed to “assist” in music creation will account for another $8.4 billion. Unfortunately, that growth comes directly at the expense, experience, and imagination of flesh-and-blood musicians who have been the backbone of our cultural lives for generations.
This is no longer hypothetical. In just the past few months, a rack of AI artists have already been spotted on the Billboard rankings across all genres. And with AI platforms like Suno gaining popularity, the lines between what’s real and what’s coded are blurring art and technology faster than ever.
The same is true across all creative industries, but the loss of music raises deeper, more philosophical questions. How do we thrive as a culture when our sense of joy and pain is outsourced to platforms built solely for financial gain? If tech processes replace creative ones, what does that signal about our underlying humanity? Will musicians still be driven to push new creative boundaries when shortcuts are only a double-click away?
Or, perhaps, a backlash is coming.
We need to talk about it
Salon de Résistance is honored to host two of Virginia’s most prolific musicians to help us unravel this conversation: John Campbell, one of the founding members and bassist of Grammy-nominated metal band Lamb of God; and Tyler Williams drummer and founding member of the platinum indie-folk band The Head and The Heart.
Together, we’ll explore the philosophical, ethical, and creative dimensions of making music and art in the age of AI, and ask the fundamental question: Can music survive technology?
Our Guests
John Campbell is the bassist and a founding member of the Grammy-nominated band Lamb of God, one of modern metal’s most powerfully enduring acts. Co-founding the group at VCU in 1994, Campbell has achieved significant global success, including 11 studio albums, multiple multiple Grammy nominations, and critical phrase for genre defining albums like Ashes of the Wake, Sacrament, and As the Palaces Burn, along with a platinum selling DVD for Killadelphia. Known for his intricate bass lines, he has been instrumental in shaping the band’s incendiary sound and has been a core architect of the New Wave of American heavy metal, headlining and performing on countless international tours and festivals. Their last album Omens was released in 2022.
Tyler Williams is the drummer and a co-founder of the band The Head And The Heart. He started playing music in Fredericksburg until moving to Richmond in 2005. Immediately, he fell in with various local bands at the time like Prabir and The Substitutes and Silent Film Star (alongside THATH peer Jonathan Russell). After moving to Seattle to help start The Head And The Heart, the band quickly signed to Sub Pop records and released their debut album, which went on to sell over a million copies. Tyler moved back to Richmond in 2011. While still continuing to tour and record with The Head and The Heart, he also been a champion of local Richmond made music, having helped manage the rises of Lucy Dacus and Illiterate Light. Their last album Aperture was released in May of this year.
Your Host
Landon Shroder, is the co-publisher and editor-at-large of RVA Magazine; he is also a foreign policy professional, journalist, and filmmaker whose career has spanned more than twenty years across the Middle East, Africa, and Europe in the energy, defense, and security sectors. A former producer and journalist for VICE, he has also written extensively on conflict, culture, and politics for outlets including Fair Observer, War on the Rocks, World Policy Journal, Chatham House, and of course, RVA Magazine.
The salon
Salon de Résistance unfolds in three movements: a convergence to begin, a conversation to spark, and a reflection to carry the ideas forward.
6:00pm: Convergence
Drinks and shared conversation, set to vinyl flips from Le Cachet Dulcet.
7:00–8:30pm: Conversation
A live interview with Tyler Williams and John Campbell, opening into questions and exchange with the room.
8:30pm: Reflection
Space to connect with our guests, develop perspectives, and imagine what comes next, set to more vinyl flips from Le Cachet Dulcet.
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