December 15th, 2008 11:10am
Kanye West on SNL
A guest performance on SNL is very often the first time I hear various pop artists’ new material– and this past episode’s Kanye West appearance was no exception. I had heard, of course, that he was doing something “different” on this new record, and it seemed to be a very divisive “different,” too, from what I could gather.
Marathonpacks pretty much summed up my reaction to it,
“On Saturday Night Live last night, Kanye looked like a guy who’d just bumrushed a karaoke stage. Incredibly excited, irritatingly off-key, plagued by what sounded like technical glitches (which were no doubt planned), fucking up the lyrics and trying to stay on the beat.”
Kanye West – “Love Lockdown”
But whereas I can’t get past “irritatingly off-key, plagued by what sounded like technical glitches, fucking up the lyrics and trying to stay on the beat,” both Maura and MPacks feel that there’s something much greater at work there– a sort of larger, post-modern performance art statement. MPacks:
“He’s using stardom as practice, writing songs in the manner of conversation fragments and flustered, late-night voicemail messages… “Love Lockdown” is a terrifying song in many regards, but it’s made infinitely more uncomfortable by Kanye’s grotesque performance of prolix, technologized amateurism”
Maura:
“[B]oth performances were compelling, with Kanye seemingly becoming possessed by the tracks as he sang them. The struggle between his imperfect voice and the trying-its-damndest-to-fix-it Autotune was uncomfortable, but that was in many ways the point; hey, heartbreak ain’t a pretty thing, even when you have the newest creature comforts (pills! fancy couches! beautiful women! luxury brands!) to “make it all better.”
Kanye West – “Heartless / Pinocchio Story”
I think Maura, Eric, and others will perpetuate some good dialogue out there re: this. As for me, I honestly can’t tell who those performances are closer to — William Hung, Andy Kaufman, Shooby Taylor, Jandek, T-Pain, or John Cage.
Still. I just can’t get past “irritatingly off-key, plagued by what sounded like technical glitches, fucking up the lyrics and trying to stay on the beat.“
12/15/08 11:33 am
nebel says:Sometimes you just have to accept something being bad for no other reason than being bad.
12/15/08 12:12 pm
tyler says:seems to me that this was at least as painful for Kanye as it was for us — for my money I can’t think of a more emotionally raw SNL performance. to me, it was like watching a breakdown, like he was struggling to let himself cry or something.
12/15/08 1:34 pm
jaron says:I give Kanye credit for experimenting. Thing with trying new things is sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. For me this doesn’t work for the most part. To often we through praise at mediocre music/artist just because they were trying something different. Kanye West isn’t a horrible artist but let’s not boost his ego anymore than it already is by throwing unwarranted praise on an effort that if made by another artist would be harshly criticized and panned.
12/15/08 1:35 pm
jaron says:through should be throw* oops