“NOW AND THEN”: THE BEATLES NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY IN 2024
BY CHARLOTTE HASS
With the nominations for the upcoming 2025 Grammy awards recently announced, music lovers have been quick to voice their opinions on who is deserving of recognition and who is an affront to their respective categories. Swifties are fighting to defend Taylor Swift’s recurring Album of the Year nominations, especially after a year of pop excellence from artists like Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as incredible bodies of work from seasoned artists Beyoncé and Billie Eilish. Fans of indie folk-pop artist Hozier struggle to understand his lack of nominations for smash-hit Too Sweet off the extended version of his masterful Dante’s Inferno pastiche, Unreal Unearth, while Ariana Grande fans feel similarly cheated after Eternal Sunshine’s arguably underwhelming string of nominations, none of which are for any of the Big Four Categories, of which she was eligible for three: Album, Record, and Song of the Year. However, among such contention in the pop music sphere, there is a nomination many Grammys viewers find perplexing. That is, The Beatles’s nomination for their partly-posthumously released soft-rock record, “Now and Then.”
The song, which embodies the nostalgic, “classic” Beatles sound found on songs like “All You Need is Love,” “Penny Lane,” and “Hey Jude,” is in the running for Record of the Year, a category that awards a song’s producers and sound engineers as well as the vocalist. This nomination is (contentiously) historic: never before has an AI-assisted song been nominated for a Grammy Award, a feat many music connoisseurs consider an affront to music and the Grammys at large. While this nomination might spell terror for artists concerned about artificial intelligence overtaking their roles in the music industry, it’s important to note that AI was used to isolate each band member’s vocals, not to generate new vocal takes. However, awarding a song that used AI in its production with a Grammy, regardless of the capacity in which it was used, would inevitably open a floodgate, setting a new precedent for what is considered original, creative work worthy of the highest honor in music, especially since Record of the Year emphasizes the production of the track. In this case, the production of “Now and Then” is not entirely man-made.
The Last Beatles Song, as some are affectionately calling it, faces stiff competition in its respective category. “Now and Then” is nominated alongside the following: Taylor Swift’s
“Fortnight” featuring Post Malone; Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather”; Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us”; Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”; Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”; Charli XCX’s “360”; and Beyoncé’s “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM”.
PHOTO BY ALERIE MACON
The case for a Beatles win in 2025 rests largely on honoring the legacy of one of the most formative pop bands in music history, the impetus of the 1960s British Invasion, and the group many established artists credit for inspiring their own careers. In less than fifteen years and with thirteen studio albums, The Beatles established themselves as a deified institution in pop culture. The academy might feel obligated to pay their respects to the beloved band, especially to deceased members George Harrison and John Lenon, though valid arguments for awarding “Now and Then” the Grammy end there. The song itself, while solid and reminiscent of a simpler time in the pop music sphere, is hardly representational of the 2020s zeitgeist. For many, giving “Now and Then” the Grammy would be a lazy cop-out, especially when so many of this year’s formative records are up for the award.
Record of the Year is typically awarded to a song that made a significant cultural impact. For reference, in 2019, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” won the award, a song which facetiously and profoundly represented the country’s current political landscape. In 2020, Billie Eilish’s first number-one hit—and arguably the catalyst that propelled her seismic career—“Bad Guy” took the prize. Most recently, Miley Cyrus won the award for her hit song “Flowers,” which, despite mixed reception, received ample radio play and, as such, earned its “flowers” during the last Grammy cycle.
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER POLK
To stay on trend, the academy should honor a song that is both skillfully made and has earned its place in the pop culture landscape. With this criteria in mind, top contenders for Record of the Year should be “Good Luck Babe!,” and “Not Like Us.” Chappell Roan’s hit song sparked a resurgence of 80s-inspired pop and skyrocketed the Best New Artist nominated singer to superstardom. “Not Like Us” impacted the cultural landscape in its own right, denoting the most sincere and engaging rap feud in recent memory. There is also a case to be made for “Espresso,” which, like Roan’s “Good Luck Babe,” cemented Sabrina Carpenter in the pop music scene, and “TEXAS HOLD ‘EM,” which challenged current country music conventions and contributed to a body of work that honored the genre’s roots in Black culture. Simply put, “Now and Then” is a song entrenched in spectacle with very few justifying arguments in favor of its victory. Only time will tell. The 67th Grammy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 2, 2025, when the academy will deem one song among the previously mentioned nominees worthy of Record of the Year.
