“Speaking words of wisdom: Let it be.”
Those were the last words of one of the two ‘last’ songs The Beatles released in 1970 right after their break-up. Those words, if followed in letter and spirit, would not have helped them make history again—five decades after they officially disbanded. As it turns out, ‘Let it be’ may not quite be their last number, much to the dismay of a generation of college quizzers. (The other post-breakup release was ‘The long and winding road’.)
The ‘Fab Four’ from Liverpool have just won a Grammy after some technological manipulation that raises old questions on art and opens new frontiers of creativity. The use of artificial intelligence in music is something that makes yesterday’s art look like today’s menial work. The Beatles, with two of its members already departed, still speak to the world on how far creativity can go—when they get by with a little help from their technological friends.
Thanks to ever-changing technology, art is not what it used to be. You need to get used to the idea that you may have to rethink the very concept of art.
You can now ‘order’ a painting, not from an e-commerce app but from an AI app, and it will generate the image you want. I have seen one of Lord Murugan or Karthikeya, a favourite deity of Tamilians, in which he is portrayed as a little boy reclining in sleep on a tree with a baby peacock. It had AI written all over it, but seemed close to celebrated painter Raja Ravi Varma in its use of colour and sketching.
As for the Beatles, their song ‘Now and then’ is, in title and fame, pretty much a journey in time as it won a Grammy for the best rock performance. It was completed by the group’s living members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr last year, but features original vocals recorded by John Lennon before he was shot dead in 1980 by a deranged fan-turned-foe, Mark David Chapman, who was upset over the rock star’s lavish lifestyle and views that included a quote that the Beatles were “more famous than Jesus”.
Somewhat like Jesus, the Beatles have now had a second coming in a technology-assisted reverse swing.
In processing ‘Now and then’, engineers used advanced machine-learning software to isolate Lennon’s voice from the original piano track. The late George Harrison joined McCartney and Starr to work on the track over the years before the engineers took over. Picture it like an assembly line for music.
“Nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings—a process which has gone on for years,” McCartney said in answer to the legitimate question on whether this was art or fake.
Over the years, A R Rahman has also created an assembly-line approach to music, going beyond his predecessors in the use of technology. Asha Bhosle recalls how, long before he won an Oscar, Rahman made her record a song in isolation, without live backup musicians, who had already recorded their tracks before she stepped in. Such a mix-n-match approach, quite old by now, may be regarded by some as less than art.
Such questions aren’t new. There was a time when photography was questioned as an art form, because all it seemingly involved was a click on a machine. But then, along came great photographers who could make perception and imagination score much higher over mere skill on a machine and luck with timing. Skill is a part of art, not necessarily its core focus—though a lot of art is still about the deft use of an instrument, be it a pen, a paintbrush or a guitar. AI music has now joined a long queue of digital artforms that include digital photography, fractal art, vector art, pixel art and 3D animation.
‘Installation art’ first became popular in the 1970s after the previous two decades had seen artists creating events and spaces that focused on their ideas rather than for challenging or conforming to aesthetics. Now artists could employ a team, like the guilds or ateliers of yore, who would give shape to their vision. If aesthetics was a contested word, it became even more so. What is real is that AI will take us to new frontiers in visual arts, music and much else. It will cue in a new round of arguments between critics and commercial forces over what is art.
But there is little doubt that AI is an enabler—‘Now and then’ is described as ‘AI-assisted’. The real deal would be in the aesthetic impact and new kinds of use that display breathtaking or heart-moving imagination. The Beatles, long past their prime, may now be appealing in a mix of nostalgia and new-ageness; the future might bring us something else alogether. As The Carpenters sang: ‘We’ve only just begun’.
The creative mind stays creative, no matter what. Presumably, AI would involve the use of knowledge and skills whose importance cannot be underestimated in the pursuit of art. From “how to write a search string on Google” to “How to use AI for best aesthetic impact”, we may have come a long way. We may still find the balm for our angst in that original last song of The Beatles: “Let it be.”
(Views are personal)
(On X @madversity)
Madhavan Narayanan | Senior journalist