Grammys 2025: The Beatles win ‘Best Rock Performance’ for ‘Now and Then’
The Beatles have claimed their 14th Grammy Award win after taking home the prize for ‘Best Rock Performance’ for ‘Now and Then’.
The band have a longstanding history with music’s most prestigious ceremony. If you include special honours, singular awards and Grammy Hall Of Fame awards, the total trophies they have taken home over the years now shoots up to 30. Although only six of the awards were won while Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were still active as a group.
Their latest win for ‘Best Rock Performance’ saw them triumph over The Black Keys, Green Day, Idles, Pearl Jam and St Vincent in a hotly contested category. However, their win does not come without controversy.
‘Now and Then’ was initially a demo which Lennon had made shortly before his death. His widow, Yoko Ono, later gave the recording to the surviving members of The Beatles, who first attempted to record the track in 1995 as a trio when they made ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ for the Anthology project.
Due to technology issues, the surviving Beatles were unable to get ‘Now and Then’ up to an acceptable standard. However, thanks to advancements, McCartney and Ringo Starr have now been able to bring all four members back together for one final effort.
The release, therefore, proved controversial owing to the fact that AI was used to help bring it to fruition. In an age where AI threatens both jobs and the integrity of the creative industry, the song’s subsequent Grammy nomination has proved equally divisive, with some arguing that it shows how new technology can be embraced in an artistic fashion and others claiming it sets a dangerous precedence.
In fact, McCartney has even recently spoken out about the issue of AI in art. In a recent interview with the BBC’s Sunday, McCartney discussed potential changes in AI copyright law, enabling AI services to circumvent usual copyright policies.
He said, “When we were kids in Liverpool, we found a job that we loved, but it also paid the bills.” He then warned that the proposal could remove the incentive for artists, creating a “loss of creativity.”
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