I don’t know who greenlit the idea of the Tilly Norwood music video “Take the Lead.” Still, whoever they are, they proved everyone right: AI creates soulless, cringe-worthy schlock more akin to digital toilet paper than anything considered art.
Tilly has been labeled the first AI actor, and Particle6 Group had to know “Take the Lead” is absolute garbage. It sounds like a shitty Disney princess song written by the worst, most on-the-nose turd peddlers on the digital streets. If there was ever a case against the usage of AI, this song is it. It makes Rebecca Black’s “Friday” sound like Queen’s A Night at the Opera. Just imagine Freddie Mercury crawling from the grave to tap dance on a pile of Disney Channel B-movie scripts.
The lyrics to “Take the Lead” feel like an overly optimistic 8th grader wrote them. Hollywood is safe for the time being if this is the bar. The bar is in hell. Tilly Norwood is no Sabrina Carpenter.
Where did Tilly Even Come From?
Particle6 Group is a London-based production company that owns the rights to the Tilly Norwood character and has been leading the charge for AI to join the ranks of Hollywood actors as a form of experiential content. They dropped the video just before the Oscars, likely hoping it would spark conversation about what an AI actor is capable of.
Honestly, yikes.
Particle6 has been pushing the idea of “AI actors,” synthetic performers designed to appear in films, advertising, and music videos without the logistical headaches of human talent.
I’m not anti-AI. I think it’s a useful tool for creators. Notice I said “tool,” not “creative engine”. Making a dumb little piece of digital slop to share with friends as an inside joke is harmless fun. I use AI to check ideas or flesh out concepts, which saves time. What I do not condone is the full creation of very bad, cornball content. Whatever thought process led Particle6 to believe anyone would take this song seriously is absolutely bananas. Despite some awareness of Tilly Norwood, most people aren’t in love with the idea of an AI actor. Her YouTube page has only about 4,000 followers. I’m pretty sure some local garden centers have more than that.
I mean, people do love a good gardening tip.
Who Even Asked for This
Elvis. Nina Simone. Amy Winehouse. The goddamn Frozen soundtrack. Those exist. Who needed this?
With lyrics claiming that Tilly Norwood and the AI actors carry “a human spark,” “Take the Lead” sounds like a very bad version of the Moana hit “How Far I’ll Go.” The difference is humans wrote that song, and the gap is stark. We have a century of artistic brilliance, and someone decided this should be added to the history books.
Even bad music made by clueless humans can be entertaining. Bad music made by a robot is something else entirely. Not even Futurama predicted this level of cultural despair. When Bender or the Robot Devil played a song, it was fun and sounded like a musical trash compactor.
This is just trash.
They had to know the song was bad, and the reaction would be little more than a collective puke emoji. The video even notes that 18 real humans worked on the production. 18 people collaborated on a project about replacing people. How does a team larger than a baseball lineup agree that this is worth releasing?
The real issue isn’t that the song is bad. (It’s horrible.) The issue is that studios are actively experimenting with replacing performers entirely. The video throws in random flamingos and cheeky Hollywood “star” moments while the lyrics proudly declare that AI actors carry “a human spark,” a line so painfully literal it feels like it was generated by a motivational poster. “Create the spark, plant the seed” is another lyrical crime scene.
What is The Future of Art?
The comment section is far more entertaining than the video.
One viewer wrote:
“I genuinely can’t tell whether this is serious or some kind of dystopian satire.”
Another commenter added:
“I once worked on a TV show filming surgeons in ERs operating on horrifically bloody injuries, and I could only make it a minute into this before I wanted to pull my own eyeballs out and fill my ears with cement.”
If that doesn’t make you want to hate-watch, what will?
If those reactions are the bar for what Tilly Norwood and the AI actor concept inspire, then human creatives are safe for now. When something is undeniably good, there’s no argument to be had. You can debate Sabrina Carpenter’s brand of cute horniness, but you can’t deny she’s talented.
That’s the difference.
“Take the Lead” isn’t a conversation about the future of art. It’s a piece of cringe dropped into the public’s lap, announcing its arrival without anyone asking it to sit down.
Sabrina would never.
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