Williamsville, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Beatles continue to live on and cement themselves in music history as, on Thursday, they released their "final" song over 45 years in the making: "Now and Then".
And although half of the fearless four have passed on and the song was modified using new Artificial Intelligence tools which music lovers have mixed opinions of, their music lives on for eternity as both young and old continue to enjoy the band for who they are, what they represent and the quality of their vast catalogue of ear worms.
"They were always a step ahead of everyone else," says Phil Machemer, owner of Revolver Records Inc., a group of record stores in Western New York. "If you listen to albums they made in the late 60s, it sounds like a lot of the music from the 70s, and we can see that now. It was huge back in the day, but I feel like how much it resonated back then, will just always be that way. It's timeless. People are still using their music as an influence and it's ever present. It's like, the standard."
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"Every generation I'm sure tends to think that their music, the music they grew up on, was the greatest ever. However, I think this is really true in this case," says Bob The Record Guy, who owns a shop on Transit in Depew.
"You can look at the fact that the Beatles wrote songs, which makes them different from Elvis Presley or a lot of other people, they actually wrote songs which are recorded by other people. Frank Sinatra wasn't a fan of rock and roll, but he ended up recording Beatles songs. So there's the the music itself, which was high quality, extremely high quality, the performance was extremely high quality. However, the Beatles also came at a time that there were a lot of changes in society, and a lot of changes in culture."
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Most of the record store owners say they will have the single in stock for this Friday. The single comes pressed on a cool blue vinyl, for those Beatles and music collectors who are looking.
Speaking of collecting, record stores continue to prosper in the Western New York area, with vinyl being a music medium that has been around for over 100 years. RCA Victor launched the first commercial vinyl long-playing record in 1930 and the medium continues to remain steady. In recent years, records have started to outsell compact discs, a medium that was most prevalent when they came out in early 80s and remained the music-buying medium of choice in the 90s and early 2000s.
Now, even though an overwhelming majority of music now is predominantly streamed through the internet or your smartphone, it's not uncommon to see the new musical artists releasing limited edition collectible vinyl pressings of their albums and people buying or breaking out their old turntables to hear it.
"Digital is probably 95% or 90% of the market. Records are tiny compared to that. However, they are selling and you look at all major stores like Walmart and Target and they all carry records. Why? That's a good question. I think people who love music, want a tangible artifact that they can hold in their hands that they can play for their friends, and they can enjoy the process of taking it out, putting it on, maybe they clean their records before they play them," says Bob.
"Some people collect records because of the audio quality and they want that. They think it's way superior to CD and tape and everything else. But I just feel like it is the ultimate form of owning the music that you love, and I think that that is how it's represented in our culture. I'm choosing to have this item, I love it so much that I will have it take up space in my home, and it will take up an amount of my money. It means something," notes Machemer.
Both Bob and Machemer note that it's cool to see people of all ages enjoy both new and old music, which both record store owners hold in varying capacities. A lot of people look for records that they used to own and some look for the newest releases from their favorite artists but many do a combination of both.
"Every single collector collects differently," says Machemer. "New music typically does bring the younger folks into the store. But then while you're here, it's like, 'Oh, man, my mom has this on CD. You know, it'd be cool to have that in my collection, because I listened to it when I was a kid.' It does crossover."