STEM
STEM
Now and Then:
JJ BREEN How AI could change music forever
incomplete demos. After the mixing and re-recording of two of the songs had been complete, all that was left to do was finish ‘Now and Then’. The only problem was the vocals were too quiet compared to the piano on the old tape recording. Unless they completely removed John Lennon from the song, they would not be able to finish it. Unfortunately, the Ex-Beatles could not reach a satisfactory solution as to how to solve their issue, and so the song remained unreleased. They vowed to return to it in the future when the technology became available to do the song justice.
George Harrison, guitarist of The Beatles, passed away on the 29th of November 2001. Due to this unexpected loss, they would not go back to ‘Now and Then’ until 2022. At this point, they now had the technology to work around the challenges presented to them by the song due to an algorithm created by director Peter Jackson. In 2021, Jackson released a documentary on The Beatles, using archival footage from the recording sessions for their 12th and final album ‘Let it Be’. In order to improve the clarity of speech from this footage, Peter Jackson utilised AI to separate the voices from the background noise. Paul McCartney took an interest in this technology and wished to use it to finally finish ‘Now and Then’. With the rising presence of AI in day- to-day life, people have begun to discuss the ethics of using such technologies. Recently, the Writers’ Guild of America went on strike to try and guarantee that AI would not be used to replace them as studios latch onto this increasingly profitable market. Artists have had similar qualms about AI as software
such as DALL-E train from real works of art so as to generate its own content. The spotlight now falls on music. The Beatles have used AI as a tool rather than as a replacement for the creative act of writing music. That isn’t to say that songs couldn’t utilise AI in a more ‘unethical’ way. AI writing software could be used to write lyrics and AI designers could create album art, taking away a major creative process of the craft. So far, no songs have seriously utilised AI to replace the human process. However, given such a mainstream band like The Beatles have used the technology, it is very likely that other popular groups will begin to use it. Then, only time will tell what will happen to the industry. If people follow in The Beatles’ footsteps then the production of music will be changed for arguably the better as this will simply be a new technique to further musicianship. However, if a more malicious side of it surfaces, there is no doubt that we could see the face of music change forever.
On the 5th of October, 1962, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr released their first single ‘Love me Do’ as the group ‘The Beatles’. Over 60 years later, and almost 50 years after they broke up, they would release their final song ‘Now and Then’. This song was due to come out in 1995, along with two other songs ‘Free as a bird’ and ‘Real love’. These three songs had been found in the apartment of John Lennon by his wife Yoko Ono. The three Ex-Beatles that were still alive at the time wished to honour the legacy of John Lennon by finishing his
8
9
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online