Rolling Stones mocked as they use AI to de-age in new | Music News

The Rolling Stones have returned to their heyday.

For months, the long-lasting rock band — which now only contains surviving members Mick Jagger, 82, Keith Richards, 82, and Ronnie Wood, 78 — has teased a new album. Foreign Tongues, The Rolling Stones‘ twenty-fifth document, will arrive on July 10, and the lead single In the Stars dropped earlier this month.

However, no one was anticipating their stunning music video for the observe, which makes use of AI to rework them into their youthful selves. Directed by François Rousselet, the video digitally de-ages the trio by about 5 many years utilizing deepfake technology from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s AI company Deep Voodoo. However, instead of evoking nostalgia, it has only appeared to inspire ickiness among viewers.

In the music video, the band rocks out in a warehouse as a crowd of followers dances around them, and a number of other musicians be a part of in. At one level, Odessa A’zion licks Jagger’s digitally de-aged face.

“Are you kidding me? It’s my dream,” A’zion said of starring in a Rolling Stones music video (per The Hollywood Reporter). “The first record that I ever got that I listened to from start to finish was Tattoo You. I’m obsessed with the Rolling Stones. This is in my bucket list for sure.”

However, while some followers praised The Rolling Stones’ AI experiment, others mocked them on social media, accusing them of being unable to come to phrases with previous age. One fan has even branded them “The Rolling Bones.”

Fans shared their brutal views of the music video after the group posted a clip on Instagram on May 14. One individual questioned, “WTF is this??” Another bashed, “Creepy AF,” as a third merely raged, “This is c—.” Yet another criticized, “Nice song. S— video.”

On X, followers have been equally displeased, including one who penned, “I love the Rolling Stones, and this song is good. But, using Ai for the video is so disappointing and cringe.”

Another added, “I’ve lived long enough to see the Rolling Stones overwhelmed by AI slop. Hooray?” A 3rd slammed, “I really, really like the new Rolling Stones single. I also really, really dislike AI and deepfakes.”

Another fumed that the late Rolling Stones member Charlie Watts and saxophonist Bobby Keys weren’t pictured in the music video. Neither was former member Bill Wyman, who left the band in 1993.

The fan wrote, “Where the F are Charlie Watts and Bobby Keys??? If you’re going to use AI let’s have some respect for the folks that helped make the Rolling Stones the greatest band in the world.”

A music industry insider told Radar Online of the music video, “A lot of people found the video unintentionally depressing because the Rolling Stones built their entire image around rebellion, authenticity and refusing to conform, yet now they’re digitally airbrushing decades off themselves like insecure influencers terrified of aging.

“Some followers genuinely suppose they ought to just embrace being older rock legends instead of attempting to artificially recreate their youth through AI.”

The source added, “Critics really feel the video virtually crosses into self-parody because audiences already know Mick, Keith and Ronnie are aged males.

“They’ve earned iconic status precisely because they survived the excesses of rock’n’roll and kept performing into their eighties. Some people online were basically saying: ‘Just accept you’re a bunch of walking skeletons… and own it.'”

Another source close to the music video’s manufacturing insisted the band seen it as playful experimentation, not an attempt to cling to their youth.

The insider said, “The Stones were never trying to fool anyone into believing they still physically look 30 years old. The whole point was to visually reconnect with different eras of their career and celebrate the band’s longevity through modern technology. Mick and Keith are fascinated by new creative tools and didn’t see this as vanity – they saw it as performance art.”

Another leisure insider said about the Stones’ use of the technology, “The irony is that The Rolling Stones became icons partly because they always looked real – even when they looked rough, dangerous or exhausted.

“That lived-in high quality was central to their mythology. So when audiences all of the sudden see these uncanny AI variations of them wanting smooth-skinned and youthful again, it creates a unusual disconnect that some followers discover fascinating and others discover virtually grotesque.”

Richards previously defended AI’s growing role in entertainment, saying, “AI is like the rest. It could be either a device or a toy. But it is like how you use it.”

Jagger has also expressed his enthusiasm about the tech. In 2022, he said, “We’re already in an AI world of doing this stuff, and you are able to do a lot of musical stuff with not very sophisticated computerization as effectively.”

In the Stars launched on one Billboard rating in the U.S., the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. The tally focuses on the nation’s bestselling rock songs, per Forbes.

This week, In the Stars has narrowly managed to turn into a top 10 success as it kicked off its time in tenth place on the purchase-only roster.

Upon its arrival, The Rolling Stones scored a milestone fifteenth placement on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. Under half of those songs, seven in whole, have reached the top 10.