I prefer the Kanye West model in which every 8 months or so you promise to release an album on a specific date. Then that date comes and you go completely MIA, and pretend you never even announced the album. Then a few weeks later once all the hype has turned to dismay you quietly release the album and the dismay turns back into hype. Maybe that model only works if you're Kanye though.
Kanye West is a singular being. He is a human work of art, this generation’s Warhol. Perhaps even more fascinating than Warhol, if less self-aware. I’m a huge fan of his brilliant public trajectory, yet I despise his music.
I used to be on your side of the camp, but now I'm both sides.
The guy just struggles with some mental health issues and isn't that great at talking to the public outside of his music. I disagree with him on some things, and he definitely has his issues, but I think he means well for the most part.
The problem is that if you're a nobody, you can say stupid things but mean well. If you're a global celebrity, when you say stupid things, there are consequences.
I struggle to find anything that Kanye has ever done, in or outside of the studio, that will be held as artistically relevant or meaningful in any way in twenty years. His music isn’t groundbreaking or innovative, and anyone can be an asshole to people.
At least Warhol had interesting and relevant things to say.
Agreed. I really don't understand what people find on Kanye. All I see is someone who is clearly only focused on selling as much as possible. I am yet to find a Kanye song that felt really unique in some way. Comparing him to Warhol feels almost offensive.
Kanye West was the first big artist I know to really utilize The new release model to break out of the old formula of releasing an album and then it’s done.
It was fascinating when Life of Pablo was released on Spotify and over the next few months was given continuous updates and patches, like it had been software.
Really proves the old proverb that great art never is finished, it’s abandoned...
I wonder if being able to update albums has been a good thing. It may encourage people to release "MVP"s because they can always improve them later. It doesn't quite fit because reviewers will review the first version.
For me personally, it has been a negative, because I really loved Tame Impala's Borderline, which was switcheroo'd with a song I don't feel for when the album came out. They even took out the single version from Spotify and YouTube (the official channel), so we're stuck with the album version. A comment from unofficial YouTube version sums it up:
"I understand him wanting to make a version with the vision he originally intended for the song but the fact that he removed the other version when it already was presented and existed to other is what is infuriating and upsetting. The single version clearly held a special place in people's hearts and to lose that is hard to swallow."
There is a very scary thing about digital art where platforms at any time can remove things or silently release a new version. It makes me uncomfortable in the same way as when newspapers online make updates to their articles with no transparent revision history of what was changed and when.
The technology just makes it easier though. The Foundations have been trying to erase the original Colin Young version of Build me up Buttercup that I love in favor of Clem Curtis rerecordings since long before Internet was a thing, as an example.
So just aggressively back up versions you like as they are released. If you don't save it for yourself, you can't guarantee it won't eventually disappear.
