Slop Till You Drop: A Peek at the iTunes U.S. Top 10

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AI-assisted music is no longer some far-off industry boogeyman lying in wait to write the next hit or steal a Grammy—it's already part of the daily chart picture.

Case in point: The Nov. 1 iTunes U.S. Top 10 shows four tracks seemingly made with at least some AI aid, including the post-Halloween #1.

Digital song sales represent a minuscule fraction of the music consumption now driven by streaming. But someone is clearly buying this stuff.

At the top of the chart is “Tell Me, How Is Heaven,” by May the Lord Studio, a faith-based project whose music has been identified as AI-assisted.

At #4, Shards of Art’s less-reverent-sounding “Fucking Shit, Holy Shit” is a choir-and-doo-wop-flavored novelty track that’s spawned multiple genre-specific remakes, including death metal, honky-tonk and melodic techno incarnations.

“Fuck the Ones,” by Rocky B, about whom there’s precious little information, comes in at #8.

Rounding out the quartet, at #10, is “Big Michael Michael,” by Looze Cannon, the Detroit performer whose viral Michael Jackson impersonations and freestyle videos helped inspire the single. For the record, Looze has denied accusations that he uses AI filters.

And these four tracks are hardly outliers.

The point isn't that they’ve displaced some beloved superstar from the top of the chart; indeed, human beings currently populating the tally include Jackson, at #2 with “Thriller,” Ella Langley, at #3 with “Choosin’ Texas,” Taylor Swift, at #6 with “Patient Zero,” Ray Parker Jr., #7 with the Ghostbusters theme, and Zach Bryan and Lana Del Rey, #9 with “Lies.”

But with the holiday season fast approaching, the next frontier may be a flood of synthetic seasonal cheer. Mariah, consider this a warning: The AI slop sleigh is just getting warmed up.