Can AI be used to create an early Beatles tune?

Cafe Society
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1

If so, how easy or hard is it?

I’ve been ranting and raving over here about the formulaic quality of the early Beatles’ hits, but I don’t know much about AI or ChatGPT. Has it advanced enough to write a full set of lyrics in the Beatles’ early style?

For example, I maintain that their early music follows a very strict formula, almost cynically drawing the attention of young teenage girls to fantasize about a personal relationship with one or all of the slightly-older singers and performers in the group.

These songs contain a very high proportion of personal pronouns, “From Me to You” "She Loves You,’ “I want to hold your hand” etc., all projecting some sort of relationship between the singer and the audience. The theme of unconsummated love is constant, ideals of everlasting love are repeated, certain rhymes (“hand” and “understand” or “kiss” and “miss” etc.) recur–there are enough commonalities that I think some program could do it. Has anyone tried writing a song that fulfills this formula?

2

This is an old example, so I doubt the coding it used was anywhere near as advanced as what is being employed today. I am rather partial to this tune, though. Also, apparently this is not a fully AI-generated song; it had a lot of help from humans.

I am by no means a Beatles expert, but it sounds reasonably like an early Beatles song to me.

3

Neil Innis proved your point nearly 50 years ago with no help from AI.

4

“She Loves You” isn’t about “some sort of relationship between the singer and the audience” but between the guy (presumably) that the singer is addressing and a third person “she.” And while it’s hardly profound, poetic, or cliche-free, I do think it’s better lyrically than it’s often given credit for.

5

Well, it’s being used to create commercials for various things hosted by such people as Donald Trump, so I wouldn’t say it should be too hard.

6

I think mimicking the lyrics would be pretty easy. The music, not so much, unless we limit it to their most basic compositions. Reference Alan Pollard’s work if you’re interested in a scholarly dissection of their work. Even their early stuff is musically pretty sophisticated.

7

Yes, of course. They wrote all sorts of variations on the theme, but always so a young female could identify herself in it, and fantasize about a relationship with a Beatle. It was quite ingenious. I suspect that teenaged girls would fantasize that one Beatle was singing it to another Beatle about the love that “she” (the teenager) had for the second Beatle and, if he didn’t recognize it, the first one would swoop in and take her away. In any case, this was just a part of the formula, though a crucial part.

8

Yes, this is the really challenging part. They were quite inventive and original in some of their musical concepts.

9

I suspect you could say something similar about pretty much any boy band (or male singer or group) that has been wildly popular with a young female audience.

10

Yeah, they just did it first, and most unrelentingly, and tunefully, and successfully. I’m sure later boy bands tried their best to copy the model, and some were pretty good at it. The Beatles were geniuses at it, and incredibly prolific.

11

Maybe a song like “Help” which deviated slightly from a lot of their other hits. Very fast tempo with no let up at any point and aggressive vocals from start to finish.

12

Yes, “Help” (and “I’m A Loser” and other tunes) clearly mark the start of their second period of songwriting. I’d like to concentrate on the first, which seems simpler, clearer, more more easy to define as a type of formula.

13

Maybe we can identify some of the traits we want the CHATGPT to include

  1. “Yeah, yeah”,
  2. pronoun proliferation, particularly “you” and “me”
  3. vows of everlasting, never-ending love

what else?

14

I’ll tell you right now that ChatGPT is still pretty bad at lyric or poetic writing. It may be fun as idle amusement, but don’t expect anything that could pass for the Beatles.

15

I have fooled people into believing that they were listening to a Beatles tune they had never come across before…and more than one said that they had heard that Beatles tune before.

16

sample?

17

Many a Rutles tune, especially the second album, passed the test: Hold My Hand (2006 Remaster) - YouTube

18

I don’t know who you played that for, but it sounds nothing like the Beatles, in fact, nothing much like anything.

19

I asked ChatGPT to write such a song and here’s what it produced. I don’t think it’s a very close approximation to the Beatles’ style but maybe it could be improved with some prompting.

(Verse 1)
Underneath the sun, a bright and joyful day,
Let’s journey back, let the old melodies play.
With simplicity and words that make hearts soar,
We’ll embrace the spirit of that time once more.

(Chorus)
Hey, love, won’t you hold my hand,
We’ll dance through the streets, just like we planned.
Oh, darling, I wanna be by your side,
In this timeless style, let love be our guide.

(Verse 2)
Down familiar streets where memories reside,
Whistling tunes, feeling the love inside.
In black and white, we’ll capture the innocence,
With every note, relive those moments so intense.

(Chorus)
Hey, love, won’t you hold my hand,
We’ll dance through the streets, just like we planned.
Oh, darling, I wanna be by your side,
In this timeless style, let love be our guide.

(Bridge)
We’ll twist and shout, make the world come alive,
Harmonies soaring, together we’ll survive.
From a city of dreams, a musical revolution,
Four souls united, spreading love’s contribution.

(Verse 3)
In a painted canvas, let’s set sail and roam,
Across the universe, our hearts will find a home.
Strumming guitars, melodies carried by the breeze,
We’ll sing to the stars, a love that never frees.

(Chorus)
Hey, love, won’t you hold my hand,
We’ll dance through the streets, just like we planned.
Oh, darling, I wanna be by your side,
In this timeless style, let love be our guide.

(Outro)
So come along, my love, let’s embrace the past,
Where melodies and joy forever will last.
With each strum, with every joyful refrain,
We’ll keep the spirit alive, love’s eternal flame.

20

I feel like anytime you ask chat AI to write something with meter, whether it’s a poem or song, it concocts the worst doggerel…. it reminds me of crap I wrote in high school English when forced to write a narrative poem.

I’m sure that will get better, I’m just not sure how much better.