This much is known: “Walk My Walk,” a song by an artist called Breaking Rust, entered its second week Wednesday as the top song on Billboard’s country music digital sales chart.
After that, everything about Breaking Rust — the artist’s identity, whether Breaking Rust’s songs were created by artificial intelligence, and whether the songs’ popularity has been artificially inflated — quickly devolves into uncertainty. Is the song entirely AI? Partially AI? Maybe even a song meant to sound like AI? And who is behind Breaking Rust?
There’s few definitive answers. A request for comment sent by NBC News to the Instagram account of Breaking Rust went unanswered. The artist has virtually no other footprint outside of its Instagram, Spotify and YouTube pages.
The mystery has caused a stir in a music industry already wrestling with its future, as some artists openly embrace AI and others vehemently oppose it. Last week, Billboard reported that at least one AI artist has debuted in each of its past six chart weeks — and acknowledged the figure could be even higher since “it’s become increasingly difficult to tell who or what is powered by AI — and to what extent.” Although Billboard has described Breaking Rust and a similar sounding artist, Cain Walker as AI, neither of their Instagram or Spotify pages indicate that is so. Walker did not respond to a request for comment made through the artist’s Instagram account.
Still, their emergence has drawn criticism from some in the country music community.
“It feels like the ultimate shortcut to stardom: no late nights in smoky bars, no raw vulnerability poured into lyrics, just algorithms crunching data to mimic the twang of authenticity,” Leslie Fram, founder of FEMco, a Nashville-based creative consulting group, said in an email.
Breaking Rust adds to a growing list of artists either found to be or suspected to be fueled by generative AI, which has evolved rapidly in recent years including in its ability to create realistic if generic music.
This year, Masters of Prophecy, an AI-backed power-pop-metal artist, became one of YouTube’s fastest-growing accounts, and today tallies 35.9 million subscribers. Unlike Breaking Rust or Cain Walker, its creator, James Baker, an engineer and father living in Ohio, has openly discussed his project and how it has gained a following.
“For every critic, there’s 20 positive comments,” Baker told NBC News. “There was definitely a wave of AI music hate that was tough psychologically to make it through. But for the most part people have started adapting to it.”
Breaking Rust’s most popular song on YouTube, “Livin’ On Borrowed Time,” now has 4.6 million views. Commenters there seem unbothered — or unaware — of its AI nature.
“This guy is SOOOOOOO underrated bro i love your music please release MOREEEE,” the top comment reads.
And in July, an indie band called The Velvet Sundown suddenly drew hundreds of thousands of listeners on Spotify amid similar speculation that the band was an AI creation.
Along with speculation around the origin of Breaking Rust is some skepticism over whether his music’s popularity is similarly inorganic. While no concrete evidence has yet emerged showing Breaking Rust’s listening totals have been artificially inflated, on Wednesday, French-owned music streaming site Deezer reported the problem has become widespread among fully AI-generated tracks.
This summer, Michael Lewan, the head of Music Fights Fraud Alliance, a pro-artist group, called artificial streaming — that is, “fake” or bot-powered listens, which often tend to accompany AI-generated music — a bigger threat to music’s integrity than AI itself.
“It’s imperative for the industry to take a more serious approach to addressing some of the incentives that go behind music consumption, and shoring up vulnerabilities,” Lewan told NBC News. He added: “A system that is not protecting organic engagement and authentic listenership will be more prone to attacks by people making a quick buck off of the royalty pool.”
The success of Breaking Rust and Cain Walker does have its limitations. According to Luminate, which compiles sales data for Billboard, it only took about 2,500 digital downloads for “Walk My Walk” to debut at the top country digital sales chart. The broader Billboard Hot Country chart remains dominated by human artists, namely superstar Morgan Wallen, who occupies the top four slots.
On his blog SavingCountryMusic.com, Kyle Coroneos wrote that however they ended up on Billboard’s sales charts, the ability of artists like Breaking Rust to land on a Billboard chart represents a harbinger not only for country music but an entire industry that seems to increasingly struggle to break new artists — and may be leaning into AI to resolve the issue.
“Why are no artists breaking out? One reason is likely because many record labels are heavily investing in AI themselves as opposed to spending that effort and capital to break actual, human artists,” Coroneos said.
