ERIC Number: EJ1476312
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 44
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1545-4517
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Pedagogy of the Prompt: Music Education, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Tech Magic
adam patrick bell
Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, v24 n3 p202-245 2025
In this article I examine the generative AI music-making applications of Google called MusicFX DJ and Music AI Sandbox, as well as Udio, an end-to-end generative AI music system created by ex-Google employees. I frame these generative AI music systems designed by Big Tech as part of their neoliberal agenda, which involves influencing music education. Drawing on critical media theorists, I suggest that Big Tech, and in the context of this article, Google, present their generative AI music systems as "magic." I describe how these systems work by examining how algorithmic systems, such as search engines, operate more generally, and then, more specifically, how generative AI music systems function. I aim to make legible the "magic" of generative AI music systems and explain that Google's music-making tools, by design, appear to be agenda-less, but music educators should be wary of this illusion. I forward that Google's "pedagogy of the prompt" may not be explicit to users of their AI music-making applications, but nevertheless it is embedded into them because they are algorithmic systems, and more specifically, generative AI/machine learning-based systems. I suggest that in this present period in which music teachers and learners are using generative AI music systems, knowing how a musical output results from an input, musical or otherwise (e.g., text), is needed. [Note: The page range (202-244) shown in the citation is incorrect. The correct page range is 202-245.]
Descriptors: Music Education, Artificial Intelligence, Technology Uses in Education, Educational Technology, Music Activities, Algorithms, Music Teachers, Neoliberalism, Search Engines, Internet
MayDay Group. Brandon University School of Music, 270 18th Street, Brandon, Manitoba R7A 6A9, Canada. Tel: 204-571-8990; Fax: 204-727-7318; Web site: http://act.maydaygroup.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A