Kanye West failed faith healer

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Matata

If you don't think Kanye is a towering genius, then you don't understand music production. The mans body of work defines an era, he's constantly developed his sound to keep himself on the forefront of hip hop music production for a decade. Music production is an insanely competitive field, where genius is required just to have a prayer of making a career out of it. Kanye has far outclassed what the average genius in his field is capable of.

This is what usually turns me off of music debates. I love music, always have, play many instruments. I always think music debates will be interesting and exciting, but it seems too often that statement gets made and just makes the discussion/debate stupid.

Music is subjective, more so than almost anything on earth. And while many aspects of music are quantifiable in some ways, it just annoys the hell out of me that you almost always end up seeing "If you believe/don't believe X then you don't understand music", in every debate.

That's a checkout comment for me, every time. Music smugness, bleh!

[jayswin]

Like if someone said "The guitarist is the guy who sits behind the drummy looking things" then sure, "You don't understand what a guitarist is" would make sense.

But the old "If you don't think this guy is a genius then you don't understand music production" is just silly and such a conversation killer".

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by flameswin

This is what usually turns me off of music debates. I love music, always have, play many instruments. I always think music debates will be interesting and exciting, but it seems too often that statement gets made and just makes the discussion/debate stupid.

Music is subjective, more so than almost anything on earth. And while many aspects of music are quantifiable in some ways, it just annoys the hell out of me that you almost always end up seeing "If you believe/don't believe X then you don't understand music", in every debate.

That's a checkout comment for me, every time. Music smugness, bleh!

Great post. Out of thanks today, thanks to the sexism debate. Maybe I'll remember to come by tomorrow and thank you. But maybe I wont, lol.

And yeah, if people wanna call him a genius, then fine. I disagree and have argued why, pretty well I think. But as I said, it's art, and we can disagree, and that doesn't bug me at all.

It's the degradation of the debate to, 'well then, you just don't get it/understand it/are smart about it,' that's not that fun.

Regarding SCD's comment about two rock songs hitting number #1 since 2001, I find that very hard to believe. But I do believe it, you're not the type of poster to say something like that without being able to back it up. I just mean, it's very shocking to me and while I did understand the trends and reasons behind it before, the fact that's it's only two is very surprising to me.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Like if someone said "The guitarist is the guy who sits behind the drummy looking things" then sure, "You don't understand what a guitarist is" would make sense.

But the old "If you don't think this guy is a genius then you don't understand music production" is just silly and such a conversation killer".

It's right up there with people that make statements like "Britney Spears / Justin Bieber / Destinies Child writes his/her/their own music!!" and "Whitney Houstons super bowl performance was the most amazing ever!" Yeah most amazing lip sync job ever.

Musical Genius gets thrown around a lot. Well the musical genius is a very elite group, and if you are going to talk about musical geniuses in popular/modern music, you are pretty much starting at Prince, then moving up from there. Prince has more frikkin genius/ability in his creepy wirey mustache, than Kanye West will ever have.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Regarding SCD's comment about two rock songs hitting number #1 since 2001, I find that very hard to believe. But I do believe it, you're not the type of poster to say something like that without being able to back it up. I just mean, it's very shocking to me and while I did understand the trends and reasons behind it before, the fact that's it's only two is very surprising to me.

I use to follow the Billboard charts a lot more when I was younger, but I remember when "Hey There Delilah" got to #1 on the Hot 100 and the article mentioned it was the first "rock" (and you really have to use that term lightly for that song) to get to #1 since "How You Remind Me". Since then I believe only "We Are Young" (itself a rather horrible song) is the only "rock" song to get there. Other songs have come close (other Nickelback songs, "Pumped Up Kicks" off the top of my head), but none to #1.

For comparisons sake, Beck's "Loser" once was a top 10 hit way back in 1994. I seriously doubt a song like that could even chart in the top 100 now.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Matata

What's your point? You don't believe that a lynch pin position in a billion dollar industry would attract top talent?

Just your use of the word genius doesn't seem correct to me. Not a big deal honestly. Just a nitpick. "Average genius" doesn't really make sense in my mind. It's like saying very unique.