Who is Breaking Rust? And why are country music fans so upset after they topped a Billboard chart?
“Walk My Walk,” by Breaking Rust, hit No. 1 this week on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, a list of the most-downloaded tracks in the U.S. The artist sounds like an outlaw country singer with “mud on my jeans” and “a worn-out hat and a six-string strap.”
“Ain’t slowing down, I was born to rise. So kick them rocks if you don’t like how I talk. I’m going to keep on talking and walk my walk,” the lyrics continue.
But it’s fake. The artist is an artificial intelligence creation, releasing an EP of AI songs last month that have taken off online. Even the images of “Breaking Rust” are computer-generated, showing a man with a cowboy hat, bandana and a chiseled jawline.
Yet Breaking Rust has become popular, averaging 2.3 million monthly listeners on Spotify with additional songs like “Livin’ on Borrowed Time,” “Whiskey Don’t Talk Back” and “Kicking Back at the Ground.” And “he” isn’t the only one: The Tennessean points out “Don’t Tread On Me” by Cain Walker, another AI artist, is No. 3 on the Billboard Country Digital Song Sales chart.
Some fans are upset, including those who originally thought Breaking Rust was a real person or band. Others called it soulless, “slop music.”
“When I first listened to this song I was really into it, and then when I found out it was AI-generated, I felt a little bit ashamed,” Whiskey Riff editor Aaron Ryan told NPR.
“It’s up to us to refuse to click on slop music,“ an X user wrote. ”If we click on it out of curiosity we feed the algorithms, make slop songs hits, then this becomes “the new norm.’”
“AI is already coming for all our jobs, plz let’s be serious,” another said. “Walk My Walk is NOT a banger, it sounds like someone dragged a country song through gravel and then turned the voice distortion to 11. There is hope for humans yet!!!!
“Breaking Rust ‘Walk My Walk’ is everything wrong with country music and AI in one ‘song.’ The fact that it topped the charts explains why country and pop are both garbage formats these days,” a third tweeted. “It sounds like it was written by a prompt like this: ‘write a country song that sounds like a Gen Z TikTok influencer and a rapper had a baby and have it sung by feminist with a 30 year smoker’s vocal chords.’ It’s terrible. If for no other reason then it’s obvious that it’s AI because there’s no space between words. Humans have to breath at least some of the time between words, people. Good Lord.”
But music fans also noted that the song reaching No. 1 doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a widespread “hit.” Morgan Wallen’s “I Got Better” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs and Country Streaming charts, Wallen’s album is No. 1 on the Country Albums chart, and Chase Matthew’s “Darlin’” is No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.
“A revealing and under-reported detail about the AI song topping Country Digital Song Sales charts last week: ‘Walk My Walk’ only sold about 3K copies (per Billboard),“ an X user wrote. ”That’s more of a sign of this chart’s irrelevance than it is any sort of AI takeover.”
But it’s far from the only AI music that’s popular. X-rated, AI-generated country songs like “Country Girls Make Do” are going viral online; the fake rock band The Velvet Sundown has millions of streams; country legend Randy Travis used AI for new music after losing his voice due to a stroke, and hip-hop/pop producer Timbaland created an AI entertainment company with AI singer “TaTa” as its first artist.
“You gotta remember — it’s still me,” Timbaland told Variety in September. “You still need the human element. I just use AI to add other elements to my music. It’s 80-85% human.”
“I think people did misunderstand that — like, I don’t use chat, but I know that if you don’t ask it the right questions, if you don’t know how to talk to it, you’re not going to get the right answer. It’s the same thing with music: If you don’t know music — and you don’t know a quarter note, third note, a break, a bridge — you’re not going to get what you’re looking for, and your taste is key. If you don’t have great taste, you’re going to get what they call ‘AI slop.’ But if [it’s used by someone] great, you’re going to know the difference. You have to use [AI] as a collaborator, not as a creator.”
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