The images that artificial intelligence creates for songs about places

An experiment with the lyrics of several songs in different languages

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Since I am a big music fan, I came up with a little experiment to answer this question: How does artificial intelligence interpret the lyrics of a song? I chose several songs in different languages, from different places, some real, some fictional. For this test I used the website Openart.ai, which allows you to make some customizations. I tested each song several times and finally saved the image of each song.

JRR Tolkien, “The Old Wandering Song”

I told you about this Tolkien poem here six years ago. It is my favorite poem by this author, so it was logical to start with this topic. Bilbo sings this poem as he begins his journey to Rivendella poem about roads and what awaits you on them. I inserted the entire version that appears in The Fellowship of the Ring and the artificial intelligence interpreted it that way. I really liked the result. It seems as if a Nazgûl on a black horse will appear at any moment.

John Denver, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”

Now for a classic of country music by John Denver, his famous song about West Virginia. I have attached the first two versesso as not to overwhelm the artificial intelligence with too many details. I've never been there, so I'll leave it up to you to judge.

AC/DC, “Highway to Hell”

From a country classic, we move on to a hard rock classic, the most famous AC/DC song. The artificial intelligence returned several images that best reflect the concept of the road. I chose this one. I think the artificial intelligence understood that the best way to escape hell is to drive the wrong way in the right lane of an American highwayhehe.

The lemons, 'Ferrol'

As a Galician, I couldn't miss this beautiful song by Los Limones from 1992, dedicated to the city of Ferrol. a song that makes many Galicians nostalgic. The result didn't really convince me… I haven't been to Ferrol for a few years, but I don't remember it exactly like that. 🤔

Los Secretos, “La calle del olvido”

We continue with Spanish pop, in this case with a sad song by Los Secretos from 1989, sung by the late Enrique UrquijoOf all the images I obtained from this artificial intelligence experiment, this is one of the most fascinating.

Rosalía de Castro, “Paseniño, paseniño”

Now let's move on to a song in Galician, a poem by Rosalía de Castro, set to music by Amancio Prada. A song that I really like, about a woman who walks alone and sad at nightfall, watching the moon rise in the sky. The woman walks towards the parish of Bastavalesin Brión (La Coruña). The interpretation of artificial intelligence seemed curious to me.

Mina, “Leaving the City”

I really liked Italian pop music from the 1960s and I couldn't fail in this experiment. He performed a song by the singer Mina, “Città vuota” (Vacant City). Habla about a woman who wandered from a city outside, but until her absence Because it has to be just one person addressing his beloved man. I was curious that the artificial intelligence had to give me a white and black picture. Why did he write a song from the decade of 1960?

JRR Tolkien, “Treebeard’s Song”

Now let us return to Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. One of his poems that I like best is Treebeard's Song, in which he speaks with nostalgia about the places he visited in the pastany time of year, when the sea has not yet swallowed up the lands of Beleriand. I tried this song twice, as it is about different places and different times of year. The Tolkien Ensemble did an excellent version of this song with Christopher Lee on vocals. Above these lines you can see the image of Dorthonion in winter.

And here you can see the part about summer in Ossiriand. Since I liked both of them very much, I did a third test.

This time we see the picture alludes to the last part of the song, which talks about Fangorn ForestTreebeard's home during the events told in The Lord of the Rings. I had a hard time choosing between the four generated images as they were all very good.

JRR Tolkien, “In Durin’s Day”

We continue with Tolkien's work, but this time with a song about dwarves, “In Durin's Day”, which I have already told you about here. It is one of my favorite songs from the album of Tolkien's poems published by Brocelïande in 1996. The artificial intelligence's interpretation is impressive.

JRR Tolkien, “The Misty Mountains”

Another dwarven song from Tolkien's work, this time from The Hobbit. Peter Jackson included a very good version in his trilogy on this work. Artificial intelligence provided me with four very good images and I chose this one.

JRR Tolkien, “The Song of Gondor”

Another Tolkien poem, published in The Lord of the Rings, about the city of Minas Tirith, the capital of the Kingdom of Gondor. The Tolkien Ensemble composed a musical version that I really like. The artificial intelligence could only give me a picture with a white tree (the others showed golden trees). I liked it, although the tree should have been inside the walls.

Naomi Shemer, “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav”

Let's turn to a Hebrew song that I told you about here. It was written in 1967 by Naomi Shemer and I particularly like it. It is a beautiful description of the city of Jerusalem. Artificial intelligence had it easy in this case.

Ultravox, “Vienna”

To finish, a famous song by Ultravox, Midge Ure's band. It was released in 1980 and is about the Austrian capital in winter. Artificial intelligence has made a very literal interpretation.