SAN DIEGO — People would have laughed and rolled their eyes if the 1977 movie smash “Star Wars” had even suggested that — one day in the future, in a galaxy far, far away — hit records would be created entirely by artificial intelligence. More laughter would have ensued at the mere intimation that algorithms would choose much of the music you listened to, relegating your ears and aesthetic preferences to near-bystander status.

Who’s laughing now?

In September, the independent record label Hallwood Media signed a multimillion-dollar contract with Xania Monet, an AI-generated singer and image.

Monet’s “Let Go, Let God” and the possibly apocryphally titled “How Was I Supposed To Know?” scored on Billboard’s Hot Gospel Songs and Adult R&B Airplay charts, respectively. Hallwood has signed deals with at least five other “AI artists,” specifically, Bleeding Verse, China Styles, Lone Star Lyric House, Drew Meadows and David Sven. It remains to be seen how much competition Monet may encounter from AI Christian artist Solomon Ray.

In October, the first single by “A.I.-native pop artist” TaTa Taktumi — “Glitch x Pulse” was released who scored a hit album on iTunes with the apparently irony-free titled “Faithful Soul.” In a not-irony-free twist, the video for “Glitch x Pulse” features a real-life human performer playing the role of TaTa.

With any luck, I am one of the few people to recall the 1991 album “The Look” by — ahem! — Barbie (as in the plastic Mattel doll). Alas, a promised concert tour by “Barbie and Ken” never materialized.

In November, “Walk My Walk” by Breaking Rust topped Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, despite — or perhaps because — the song and the performer are both entirely AI-generated. Given how synthetic-sounding too much “real” country music has become, it’s become increasingly difficult to determine what is or isn’t AI-generated.

Not to be outdone, the AI rock band Velvet Sundown rapidly released three albums. Its most popular song, the Southern-rock-influenced “Dust On The Wind,” has more than 2 million streams. Never mind that Velvet Sundown’s updated social media pages describe it as a “synthetic music project guided by human creative direction, and composed, voiced, and visualized with the support of artificial intelligence.”

Coming next, perhaps: “live” AI “concerts,” performed for AI “audiences” and “reviewed” by AI “music critics.”

The issue is not technology, which has long been an invaluable tool for creative artists. Rather, it’s the misuse of technology by talent-free poseurs and greedy opportunists. That might be — at least for someone even more cynical than me — an apt description of an outsized chunk of pop music since the 1950s heyday of such photogenic, talent-challenged teen-pop stars as Fabian and Bobby Rydell.

The day when recordings are labeled ” AI Generated,” “AI Assisted” or “AI-Free” may soon be looming.

But as genre-leaping music icon Herbie Hancock put it in our 2024 San Diego Union-Tribune interview, AI may be a manifestation of a far more daunting challenge: “We have to learn to become better human beings,” he said, “because the real problem is people, not AI.”

In the meantime, here are my favorite albums of the year.

So far as I can tell — and assuming my avatar isn’t writing this article — all of these albums were made the old-fashioned way by, you know, actual people.

Mavis Staples, “Sad and Beautiful World”

Still touring at 86, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Mavis Staples could easily rest on her laurels. Instead, the tireless gospel-music legend this year made one of the most stirring and rewarding albums of her storied career. Its title perfectly captures her ability to chronicle in song frustration and hope, despondency and transcendence, with soulful grace and grit.

Robert Plant & Saving Grace, featuring Suzi Dian, “Saving Grace”

Like Mavis Staples, former Led Zeppelin singer and veteran solo star Robert Plant seemingly has nothing left to prove. But his first album with the newest of his many post-Zep bands is a mesmerizing work that makes gospel, Celtic folk, Americana, psychedelia, blues and North African music sound like interlocking parts of one wondrous musical whole.

Theo Bleckmann, “Love and Anger”

An extraordinarily gifted singer, Theo Bleckmann has a wonderfully expressive and flexible voice. The reverence and daring with which he salutes and reimagines songs on “Love and Anger” by everyone from Kate Bush, The Beatles and Frank Ocean to Massive Attack, Henry Purcell and Labi Siffre is nothing sort of remarkable. And when he delivers a cascade of angelic vocal harmonies that suggest the apex of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, you may get goosebumps.

Geese, “Getting Killed”

Witty and wry, apprehensive and inviting, accomplished and proudly off-kilter, the fourth album by the young New York rock quartet Geese is delivered with a wink, a nod, and the triumphant sound of a rising, compromise-free young band taking off like never before.

Ches Smith, “Ches Smith Clone Row”

San Diego-born drummer and percussionist Ches Smith excels at way left-of-center rock, cutting-edge jazz, electronica, funk, experimental music and more. He expertly draws from all of them on “Clone Row” to create a wonderfully kinetic synthesis that at times suggests latter-day King Crimson at its thorniest, by way of avant-guitar shredder Sonny Sharrock. Better yet, on Smith’s first album with his superb Clone Row band, he showcases two of the most audaciously inventive guitarists currently playing, Mary Halvorson and Liberty Ellman.

Cécile McLorin Salvant, “Oh Snap”

Four years in the making, “Oh Snap” at times finds acclaimed young jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant channeling her inner Bjork and Kate Bush on 11 original songs and an ebullient take on The Commodores’ classic “Brick House.” No matter the style, Salvant is a one-off, as she demonstrated here with her absolutely stunning a cappella encore of Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” at the 2025 edition of SummerFest in La Jolla.

Clipse, “Let God Sort ‘Em Out”

On its first album since 2009, this Bay Area hip-hop duo returns with a renewed sense of purpose and passion, plus enough crafty wordplay to make all but the most gifted rap wordsmiths turn pea green with envy.

Bad Bunny, “Debì Tirar Màs Foto”

A musical valentine to his beloved Puerto Rican homeland and its rich musical traditions, Bad Bunny’s most ambitious album is also his most personal and affecting. You can expect to hear at least a few songs from it when he headlines the Super Bowl halftime show telecast on Feb. 8.

I’m With Her, “Wild and Clear and Blue”

When she’s not making solo albums or working with her longtime band, Nickel Creek, San Diego-bred singer, violinist, cellist and organist Sara Watkins teams up with fellow troubadours Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan in I’m With Her. The trio’s second album is a gem of incandescent vocal harmonies and finely calibrated songs that draw from folk, chamber-pop and bluegrass that sound both earthy and elegant.

Hayden Pedigo, “I’ll Be Waving As Your Drive Away”

Texas-bred acoustic guitarist Hayden Pedigo excels at crafting gently chiming six-string reveries that intimately evoke the expansive, largely uninhabited prairies of his home state.

Also recommended

Trio Da Kali, “Bagola”; Brandi Carlile, “Returning To Myself”; Annie and The Caldwells, “Can’t Lose My (Soul)”; Turnstile, “Never Enough”; Cynthia Erivo, “I Forgive You”; Bon Iver, “FABLE, Sable”; Sudan Archives, “The BPM”; Cate le Bon, “Michelangelo Dying”; Lucy Dacus, “Forever is a Feeling”; Viagra Boys, “Viagr Aboys”; Wet Leg, “Moisturizer”; Van Morrison, “Remembering Now”; and Horsegirl, “Phonetics On and On.”

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