I do buy the argument that the majority of the shift is due to AI bots / agents. Just looking at the robots.txt I had to implement just to try to keep the majority of bots off my websites is insane (literally 160+ lines of user agents).

But there are some other factors, such as the seemingly steady migration of users from Windows to Linux. I don’t buy the Valve hardware argument as much since the majority of those will be used for gaming on Steam, and not likely to be seen by StatCounter or Cloudflare.

StatCounter itself has flagged the possibility that some of the new Linux activity could be bot-related, including traffic generated by AI agents and other automated workloads, which would make the jump appear much larger than a shift driven entirely by human users.

Oh, it’s because of AI alright. Because Windows users are tired of it being shoved down their f***ing throats.

(I’m just being sarcastic for the fun of it…)

Partch might give you that same curiosity. Here’s an example: Sonata Dementia (1950) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZybJAEPu18

One of the arguments I made in my blog post is that there is a very long history of alternate tunings and microtonality in music. Another composer to get into his Harry Partch, who came up with at 43 tone scale in the 1950s, and had to build his own instruments for an ensemble to perform his compositions.

I’m surprised you didn’t include King Gizzard in your list – especially Flying Microtonal Banana.

So, there are good explanations as to why they are popular, and not a joke even slightly.

What AdP have done is combined:

• Pop rock using looping tech and really tight percussion / guitar work
• Some very technical playing, especially using microtonal instruments with a 24 tone scale
• A dada-esque aesthetic to make themselves standout
• Created a lore that allows them to preserve some privacy

So, no, the music is not a joke. It’s real music, made by musicians that have been performing together since they were ~13 years old (over a decade at this point). If you listened with a critical ear you might realize that many of their pieces are actually satirizing the clichés of pop-rock music. The aesthetic is made to be fun and get attention.

I’ve written a bit more about them here: The Summer of Angine de Poitrine.

Oh, and FYI—if this is a joke, it’s one of the most successful jokes in nearly 20 years. They smashed the attendance record set by Stevie Wonder in 2009 for the Montreal Jazz Festival.

Yup, didn’t even think about that when I was writing. Of course, we don’t typically think of them as microtonal since we’re heavily invested in 12TET in the west, and typically use those instruments in a way consistent with 12TET music.

Yeah, I saw several clips from the show… Just amazing to see.

Depends on what you mean by “popular and lasting”. Rush came up in a different period. The definition of success was quite different because there was no internet, there wasn’t the concept of virality, there weren’t as many opportunities to attract and build an audience.

Look at Phish today. They built their following on the internet, they rose to a reasonable level of popularity, but only have one real traditional radio airplay hit song. And yet here they are 30+ years on, able to play the Vegas Sphere, and MSG. The prototype for a self-built audience was The Grateful Dead. They built their audience, they sold records, and had only a few radio airplay songs like Casey Jones and Touch of Gray.

The definition of success can be very different depending on how you look at it. Today more than ever success isn’t defined in the same manner that it used to be. Streaming plays, live performance, etc. have replaced the traditional measures that Rush and The Grateful Dead came up under. Today, Angine de Poitrine can be more like Phish with a dedicated audience that will follow them.

And, as for them being instrumental, I’ll defer to the (excellent) list @[email protected] provided below.

Honestly - it’s too fucking late. Anyone who had an account with OpenAI and used that garbage is already an abbetor and/or accomplice to anything that is done by Hegseth and his henchmen.