The Beatles were a transcendent band that featured some of the most highly regarded songs to date.
It is undeniable that The Beatles have been pioneers in many aspects of music, from embracing the use of new technologies in their music to completely shaping the sound of their era. The Beatles have kept embracing these revolutionary ideas until the current times. With the release of “Now And Then” and the use of AI, it is clear that innovation is yet to be over for this band.
The Beatles being paired with Artificial Intelligence is not exactly a new thing. Esteemed writer and director of The Lord of the Rings series, Peter Jackson, first used an AI software in a Beatles work back in November 25, 2021 in the documentary The Beatles: Get Back. Said AI powered software was solely created for the purpose of cleanly isolating The Beatles’ vocals in order to mix them for the documentary. This AI would then be used for the latest remix of their legendary album Revolver in 2022, and most recently, for the last song of the band.
The technological landscape changed and advanced, and so did music. New ways of making music were made to facilitate the creative process for the artists. As the years pass, we are met with more technology and even more ways to implement it into music.
“The Beatles demand new technology, and that’s what we’ve done here,” Giles Martin, record producer involved in the mixing and production of “Now and Then,” said in an interview with Virgin Radio UK.
The revolutionary and innovative nature of The Beatles keeps echoing in their present works. AI being heavily embraced by the remaining band members only tells us one thing: they are not afraid of taking risks and using new technologies.
“We were able to use that kind of thing when Peter Jackson did the film ‘Get Back’ where it was us making the Let It Be album,” Paul McCartney, member of The Beatles, said in an interview with BBC Radio when talking about AI.”So when we came to make what will be the last Beatles record – it was a demo that John had – that we worked on and we just finished it up.”
For many fans, the use of AI wasn’t very exciting. When the song was officially announced, multiple fans thought John Lennon’s vocals were going to be faked by AI. Said claims were later clarified by the remaining members of the band.
“And he [Peter Jackson] was able to extricate John’s voice from a ropey little bit of cassette where it had John’s voice and a piano – he could separate them with AI. They tell the machine ‘that is a voice, this is a guitar, lose the guitar. And he did that,” McCartney told BBC Radio.
Despite the commotion of the fans “Now And Then” debuted at number one in the US Billboard charts, and later went number one in the UK singles chart. “Now And Then” became their first top one UK single since their 1969 song “The Ballad of John and Yoko.”
