Andrea Ibanez Terrazas: Whose Music Is It?

Andrea Ibanez Terrazas shares about her experience with A.I. generated music.

Yesterday, on the train, I was listening to music on shuffle when something felt off. Robotic textures and sudden synthetic shifts seemed to imitate a perfect pitch. As a music business major who studies alongside musicians, I wondered what happens to the human stories behind music when a machine can generate a song?

Growing up in Bolivia, I heard folklore and cumbias in the streets, morenada and caporales at celebrations, and cuecas at weddings. It was everyday life. Moving to the US made me realize how precious that connection to my roots was. As immigrants, we sometimes feel pressure to blend in: hide our accents, stop practicing traditions or feel ashamed when the music we love isn’t on the Billboard charts. 

I know what it’s like to be in a room where everyone sings a song I’m not familiar with while I wonder, am I supposed to know the lyrics? This isn’t about rejecting American music, but about not being ashamed of the songs that connect us to who we are. Our parents shape our musical identity by sharing the songs they grew up with. 

But if AI-generated music becomes so common that the next generation sees it as normal, could it reduce creativity and lead future musicians to create less diverse music? AI risks deteriorating our musical identity when standardized sounds overshadow human expression. 

The music industry keeps asking, “What is authentic?” Maybe, we should ask what we’re afraid to share about who we are. For me, it’s the music I grew up with in Bolivia. For you, it might be a song your parents played at home or a dance from your culture.

Maybe authenticity isn’t just knowing who made a song, but knowing what made you. A machine can generate a song, but only humans can pass down the music that raised them, letting future generations hear it, live it and make it their own. That’s something an algorithm can never manufacture. With a Perspective, I’m Andrea Ibanez Terrazas.

Andrea Ibanez Terrazas is a college student majoring in music industry studies and is passionate about marketing and research.