The Beatles Earn First Grammy Nomination in History for an AI-Assisted Song

[Vinson]

I think the Beatles were the greatest or one of the greatest bands.

The Beatles have earned the first nomination in history for a Grammy award for an AI-assisted song after the release of the celebrated band’s last tune, “Now and Then.”

At the end of 2023, the two remaining band mates, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, collaborated to release the song that features all four of the famed “Fab Four” band members even though two, John Lennon and George Harrison, had long since passed away. Now the song has earned a Grammy nomination, according to Billboard.

When it was first released late in 2023, rumors abound that AI was used to actually recreate Lennon’s voice, or Harrison’s guitar work, but it was later revealed that this was not the case. AI was only used to clean up old recordings.

The song was cobbled together using an AI program called “stem separation” which allows operators to separate vocals or instruments from background noise. Using stem separation, the technicians were able to get a clear separation of John Lennon’s voice from a crude demo track he recorded years ago in his living room. Once Lennon’s singing was separated and cleaned up, McCartney and Starr added some prerecorded guitar licks by George Harrison, then added their own bits to the recording to complete it.

If the Beatles win a Grammy for the song, it will be the first song to win such an award after being developed using AI technology.

While the achievement with “Now and Then” was amazing for many, the use of AI is still a controversial one.

Prominent film directors including James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, and Tim Burton have all condemned or issued dire prognostications about AI.

AI also featured as one of the main concerns during the 2023 actor’s strike. The issue came up yet again this year when video game actors threatened a strike over the use of AI.

The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ Makes History As First AI-Assisted Song to Earn Grammy Nomination

The Beatles' "Now and Then" earned a record of the year nomination, making it the first AI-assisted song to be nominated for a Grammy in history.

www.billboard.com

 

[unassuming]

I think the Beatles were the greatest or one of the greatest bands.

The GOAT band ever, end of discussion!

 

[shack]

The GOAT band ever, end of discussion!

And the most influential ever.

 

[shack]

The Beatles have earned the first nomination in history for a Grammy award for an AI-assisted song after the release of the celebrated band’s last tune, “Now and Then.”

It seems appropriate that they have another "1st".

 

[JeanGary Diablo]

It's often said the Beatles never won a Grammy, but this is not true -- they took the Album of the Year award at the 1968 Grammys for Sgt Pepper.

Still, love them or not, they're still the greatest band that ever existed.

 

[shack]

It's often said the Beatles never won a Grammy, but this is not true -- they took the Album of the Year award at the 1968 Grammys for Sgt Pepper.

Still, love them or not, they're still the greatest band that ever existed.

The problem is that they were too far ahead of mainstream music, which is what the Grannies are all about. The Beatles set the trends while Granny winners follow them and profit from them.

 

[Insidious Von]

It was claimed in a previous list that The Beatles were the sixth best rock band. It's appropriate since they stopped being a conventional band after Rubber Soul. They started expanding into all manners of music, even polka. Or so I thought, this song is derived from Nigerian folk music.

 

[shack]

Or so I thought, this song is derived from Nigerian folk music.

Interesting. Did not know that at all. And would have never guessed. It just sounded like a silly pop tune. Sort of like the Police, Da doo doo, da doo da da, is all I wanted to say to you. A couple of throw away songs.

Do you recall where you picked up this info?

 

[The Oracle]

Interesting. Did not know that at all. And would have never guessed. It just sounded like a silly pop tune. Sort of like the Police, Da doo doo, da doo da da, is all I wanted to say to you. A couple of throw away songs.

Do you recall where you picked up this info?

'' McCartney wrote "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in a cod Jamaican ska style and appropriated a phrase popularised by Jimmy Scott, a London-based Nigerian musician, for the song's title and chorus ''

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ptp]

It's often said the Beatles never won a Grammy, but this is not true -- they took the Album of the Year award at the 1968 Grammys for Sgt Pepper.

Still, love them or not, they're still the greatest band that ever existed.

Trying to think , did they ever have a bad song .

 

[JeanGary Diablo]

Trying to think , did they ever have a bad song .

The Beatles had throw-away songs that would have been big hits for other bands of the day. "Hey Bulldog", "Got to Get You Into My Life", "Taxman" and "Rain" are some examples.

From Rubber Soul onwards, every one of their albums is rock-solid, in my opinion. Even Let it Be, which is pretty average for them, is a great LP.

If you look at their contemporaries, like the Rolling Stones or the Kinks, those bands had great albums, but on a 12-track LP, you probably had three great songs, a couple of good songs and the rest mostly mediocre. Led Zeppelin, one of my favourite bands, released eight LPs, but I'd only say four of their records -- LZ1, LZ2, LZ4 and Physical Graffiti -- would be absolute rock-solid must-haves.

 

[ogibowt]

as a young teen i grew up in the Beatlemania era.........and i had zero interest intheir music.....sacriligious, I know to many of the posters on this topic...........however i became aware of their early stuff and their covers of original songs done primarily by black artists,,,,Please Mr Postman by the Marvellettes comes to mind.........anyway this led me to seek out the originals and to my great discovery i said "holy flying frigg" this stuff is vastly superior to the versions put out by the Beatles...........and a life long love of Soul/R&B resulted.........i realize that the Beatles evolved from just a boy band to something greater.........but forgive me if i dont get ga ga over their music..lol.......everyone has a different set of ears and certain types of music affects how the feel..............but the Beatles. regardless of their talent were just not for me

 

[ogibowt]

one quick example and then i will stop lol

 

[ogibowt]

 

[shack]

i realize that the Beatles evolved from just a boy band to something greater.........but forgive me if i dont get ga ga over their music..lol.......everyone has a different set of ears and certain types of music affects how the feel..............but the Beatles. regardless of their talent were just not for me

For sure it wasn't the music. They were barely out of their teens. And at 8-15 year olds, we didn't know music either.

But what it was, was they were new, unique, charismatic, set styles. It was their persona/vibe. Beyond Sinatra, beyond Elvis, they were OUR heroes. Our generation. They represented US. They belonged to US.

The fact that they became musical geniuses was totally coincidental. We didn't know that was going to happen. We liked them because they cute and cool. These are the same immature things that attract current teeny-boppers to their musical heroes.

 

[shack]

And even if they were musical naifs, they were still able to open our eyes and ears to great black artists and their songs that we didn't know existed. They were leaders in that way to our generation.

 

[shack]

 

[shack]

 

[eddie kerr]

as a young teen i grew up in the Beatlemania era.........and i had zero interest intheir music.....sacriligious, I know to many of the posters on this topic...........however i became aware of their early stuff and their covers of original songs done primarily by black artists,,,,Please Mr Postman by the Marvellettes comes to mind.........anyway this led me to seek out the originals and to my great discovery i said "holy flying frigg" this stuff is vastly superior to the versions put out by the Beatles...........and a life long love of Soul/R&B resulted.........i realize that the Beatles evolved from just a boy band to something greater.........but forgive me if i dont get ga ga over their music..lol.......everyone has a different set of ears and certain types of music affects how the feel..............but the Beatles. regardless of their talent were just not for me

As for me, I also grew up in that timeframe and I thought the Beatles were the greatest band on the planet. Bought many of their albums, my favourite was Rubber Soul. I thought George Harrison was a great guitarist. Paul McCartney wrote most of their songs and John Lennon was a great singer. And Ringo Starr was the lucky one as he replaced drummer George Best who quit the band in their early days.

 

[ogibowt]

And even if they were musical naifs, they were still able to open our eyes and ears to great black artists and their songs that we didn't know existed. They were leaders in that way to our generation.

those leaders included British Groups.. Rolling Stones, Animals and to a smaller extent Manfred Mann