Four musicians clad in suits and denim, were photographed marching in single file on a zebra crossing close to their recording studio in London on a cloudless day in 1969, and the world of contemporary music was never the same again.
The imagery alone is sufficient to register in one’s mind, the iconic album cover of the most influential band of all time; The Beatles.
Revolutionizing contemporary music and influencing a mass movement in the 1960s counterculture by inspiring individualism, free expression, and the appreciation of music as an art form, The Beatles will be immortal for pioneering a unique sound that would go on to shape music and artists for centuries.
An English rock band from Liverpool, band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr produced records embedded with the influence of skiffle, beat and 1950s rock’n’ roll, harmoniously synchronized into chart-topping numbers worldwide. The four artists each possessed astounding levels of musical and creative genius, ideating music by experimenting with Indian classical music, hard rock, and psychedelia.
Trailblazers of the era’s youth and society, The Beatles reached international stardom in 1964 and were branded as a symbol of Britain’s cultural reawakening by entering the United States pop market with force.
The Beatles are the most successful act in the world, with sales of 600 million units estimated worldwide. The infamous rock band hold records on the US Billboard Chart and the UK Albums Chart for surpassing any other artist, band or act ever to exist by securing the most number-one albums (UK chart), most number-one hits (US Billboard hot 100 chart) and most singles sold in the UK (21.9million)
Bagging seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, one Academy Award for Best Original Song Score, and multiple other accolades under the band’s belt, The Beatles went from a British pop culture force to reckon with, to a household name in every nook and cranny in the world.
With songs such as “Let It Be” and “Here Comes the Sun” The Beatles propelled to unprecedented heights, etching nostalgic memories into every individual’s heart to last a lifetime.
The Beatles have long since disbanded, going their separate ways as solo artists in 1970. The world has witnessed the passing away of two members, John Lennon and George Harrison at the hands of brutal murder and ill health, respectively.
Almost 54 years after their last song, ‘The End’ as a four-member band in 1969, The Beatles will be back with one final song to be released later this year.
How does one produce a song when the band’s lead vocalist is, not among the living?
As bizarre as the question sounds, a certain new technology, making news headline rounds as a powerful tool to be handled with care, seems to be the answer.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic of much debate lately, but it was what Sir Paul McCartney, former Beatles member, had to turn to, in order to bring his bandmate back to life.
According to Paul McCartney, John Lennon’s voice was extracted from an old demo to complete an unfinished song that has been in the works for decades.
Though the song title remains unnamed, predictions have been made that it could be a 1978 Lennon composition called “Now and Then”.
The song has been reworked amidst several unsuccessful attempts to rerecord it, adding a backing track and filtering the pure voice from the snippets that John Lennon had left for Paul before his shocking murder.
The use of AI for creating high-quality fake versions of artists including Drake, Kanye West, and theWeeknd has recently been under fire. Expressing his concern for the fraudulent aspects of Al Sir Paul McCartney said, “I’m not on the internet that much but people will say to me: ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a track where John’s singing one of my songs,’ and it’s just AI … it’s kind of scary but exciting because it’s the future. We’ll just have to see where that leads.”
