Postmodernism & Music

Artist: Kanye West

 Background
• Kanye Omari West  born June 8, 1977 is an
American rapper, singer, and record producer.
• At the start of his career, Kanye West's
production style often used pitched-up vocal
samples, usually from soul songs, with his
own drums and instruments.

Kanye West – Power

As you can see from the picture Kanye West is renowned for
doing things ‘Different’.
As you may know, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift receiving
an award at the MTV VMA awards, where he debated that
Beyonce had the best music video of the year and not Taylor.
Kanye wants to stand out, wants to be noticed and understood
for his work and is not afraid to show and tell what he believes it.
Clearly.
 Early Kanye West

Kanye West – Through The Wire

‘Through The Wire’ was one of the first of Kanye West’s songs from his career, it put him
on the scene of Rap and the song shows how he came about, from being shot, to then
being signed by Jay-Z’s record label. From the clip above we can see by the clothing, the
style of Kanye West is what we expect a Rap artist to look like; bling, baseball cap worn
back and scraggy clothes, not saying all Rap artists are meant to look like thugs. Also
from the sound, He raps all the way through, and is what rap was all about, whereas
today rap is portrayed differently.
 Early Kanye West cont.
West got his big break in the year 2000 however when he began to produce
for artists on Roc-a-Fella Records. He produced the well received Jay-Z song
"This Can't Be Life" off of the album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. West would
later state that to create the beat for "This Can't Be Life" he sped up the drum
beat from Dr.Dre's song "Xxplosive". After producing for Jay-Z earlier, West’s
sound was featured heavily on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint (2001).

Jay-Z : This Can’t Be Life Dr.Dre - Xxplosive

 Recent Kanye West
Kanye Wes’s most recent released album, called ‘My Beautiful
Dark Twisted Fantasy’ is believed to be the rebirth of Kanye West
from his earlier album ‘808’s & Heartbreak’ where Kanye used a
lot of auto tune in his music. On his most recent album, Kanye
has returned to good old rap, with the help of a huge variety of
artists, not just from the Rap Genre.
Kanye West – Monster
Kanye West – Heartless My Beautiful Dark
808’s & Heartbreak Twisted Fantasy
 Recent Kanye West Cont.

This is a postmodern song and music video of Kanye Wests, the way it is structured, mostly
containing words put together and not much action of the artist's involved, that in itself is
postmodern as you don't see many music videos with lack of artist involvement. The use of
colours and different fonts and sizes of the text is a unusual way which makes the music
video so effective. This music video actually has a health warning at the start for epilectic
people, Kanye West had to put this at the start of the music video due to many people
bringing it up.
The use of a variety of artists in the song. It was produced by West and features additional
vocals from several other recording artists, including John Legend, The-Dream, Elly Jackson,
Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John, and Rihanna, who is solely credited as a featured
artist on the single.
 His Album Artwork

The College Dropout 2004 Late Registration 2005 Graduation 2007

808’s & Heartbreak 2008 My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 2010

 Runaway
Runaway is a long music video/short movie,
collaborating a number of Kanye West’s songs
from the, at the time, upcoming Album ‘My
Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’.
The production lasts a staggering 34 minutes
22 seconds, and is one if not the mammoth
music video.

The Music video premiered on MTV on a

Fridays night, attracting millions world wide.
The production included a wide range of artists; from Rihanna, John Legend, Nicki Minaj,
Bon Iver etc.
During the film, there is a Michael Jackson tribute (picture below) which was performed
during the song “All of the Lights”.
Thanks for Listening