The Rolling Stones have returned to their heyday.
For months, the iconic rock band — which now only includes surviving members Mick Jagger, 82, Keith Richards, 82, and Ronnie Wood, 78 — has teased a new album. Foreign Tongues, The Rolling Stones‘ twenty-fifth record, will arrive on July 10, and the lead single In the Stars dropped earlier this month.
However, no one was expecting their shocking music video for the track, which uses AI to transform them into their younger selves. Directed by François Rousselet, the video digitally de-ages the trio by about five decades using deepfake technology from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s AI company Deep Voodoo. However, instead of evoking nostalgia, it has only seemed to inspire ickiness among viewers.
In the music video, the band rocks out in a warehouse as a crowd of fans dances around them, and several other musicians join in. At one point, Odessa A’zion licks Jagger’s digitally de-aged face.
“Are you kidding me? It’s my dream,” A’zion said of starring in a Rolling Stones music video (per The Hollywood Reporter). “The first record that I ever got that I listened to from start to finish was Tattoo You. I’m obsessed with the Rolling Stones. This is in my bucket list for sure.”
However, while some fans praised The Rolling Stones’ AI experiment, others mocked them on social media, accusing them of being unable to come to terms with old age. One fan has even branded them “The Rolling Bones.”
Fans shared their brutal views of the music video after the group posted a clip on Instagram on May 14. One person questioned, “WTF is this??” Another bashed, “Creepy AF,” as a third simply raged, “This is c—.” Yet another criticized, “Nice song. S— video.”
On X, fans were similarly displeased, including one who penned, “I love the Rolling Stones, and this song is good. But, using Ai for the video is so disappointing and cringe.”
Another added, “I’ve lived long enough to see the Rolling Stones overwhelmed by AI slop. Hooray?” A third slammed, “I really, really like the new Rolling Stones single. I also really, really dislike AI and deepfakes.”
Another fumed that the late Rolling Stones member Charlie Watts and saxophonist Bobby Keys weren’t pictured in the music video. Neither was former member Bill Wyman, who left the band in 1993.
The fan wrote, “Where the F are Charlie Watts and Bobby Keys??? If you’re going to use AI let’s have some respect for the folks that helped make the Rolling Stones the greatest band in the world.”
A music industry insider told Radar Online of the music video, “A lot of people found the video unintentionally depressing because the Rolling Stones built their entire image around rebellion, authenticity and refusing to conform, yet now they’re digitally airbrushing decades off themselves like insecure influencers terrified of aging.
“Some fans genuinely think they should just embrace being older rock legends instead of trying to artificially recreate their youth through AI.”
The source added, “Critics feel the video almost crosses into self-parody because audiences already know Mick, Keith and Ronnie are elderly men.
“They’ve earned iconic status precisely because they survived the excesses of rock’n’roll and kept performing into their eighties. Some people online were basically saying: ‘Just accept you’re a bunch of walking skeletons… and own it.'”
Another source close to the music video’s production insisted the band viewed it as playful experimentation, not an attempt to cling to their youth.
The insider said, “The Stones were never trying to fool anyone into believing they still physically look 30 years old. The whole point was to visually reconnect with different eras of their career and celebrate the band’s longevity through modern technology. Mick and Keith are fascinated by new creative tools and didn’t see this as vanity – they saw it as performance art.”
Another entertainment insider said about the Stones’ use of the technology, “The irony is that The Rolling Stones became icons partly because they always looked real – even when they looked rough, dangerous or exhausted.
“That lived-in quality was central to their mythology. So when audiences suddenly see these uncanny AI versions of them looking smooth-skinned and youthful again, it creates a strange disconnect that some fans find fascinating and others find almost grotesque.”
Richards previously defended AI’s growing role in entertainment, saying, “AI is like anything else. It can be either a tool or a toy. But it’s like how you use it.”
Jagger has also expressed his enthusiasm about the tech. In 2022, he said, “We’re already in an AI world of doing this stuff, and you can do a lot of musical stuff with not very complicated computerization as well.”
In the Stars launched on one Billboard ranking in the U.S., the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. The tally focuses on the country’s bestselling rock songs, per Forbes.
This week, In the Stars has narrowly managed to become a top 10 success as it kicked off its time in tenth place on the purchase-only roster.
Upon its arrival, The Rolling Stones scored a milestone fifteenth placement on the Rock Digital Song Sales chart. Under half of those songs, seven in total, have reached the top 10.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.the-express.com ’
