Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn (born 1968) fronted Blur through the Britpop wars of the 1990s, then built Gorillaz — the virtual band that presciently played with synthetic identity — into a global act, alongside operas, film scores and the supergroup The Good, the Bad & the Queen. Few living musicians have experimented more restlessly with technology in music.

Absurdity, silence, and soul

Which makes his verdict on generative AI striking. In 2023 he dismissed viral AI voice-swap music as “absurd,” telling The Sun that anyone spending their time singing songs through celebrity voice filters was wasting it. On the Beatles’ AI-assisted “Now and Then” he was ambivalent, musing to journalists that “there could be hundreds of my songs released after my death, including songs that I would never have wanted to release.”

In February 2025 he became one of the most prominent contributors to Is This What We Want?, the silent album by over 1,000 UK artists — organized by Ed Newton-Rex, alongside Kate Bush and New Order — whose track titles spell out “The British Government Must Not Legalise Music Theft To Benefit AI Companies.”

In 2026, discussing his score for Luca Guadagnino’s film Artificial — about OpenAI’s founders — he told The Needle Drop he did not think it was possible for AI to make soulful music, and that big corporations had had “a foolish moment” believing AI would make their lives easier and more profitable.