Since when is it up to top blog sites to report on "fun" live shows? The shittiest of pop music could be fun in the right context (i.e. old shitty cock rock singalongs at your local pub, etc). Why does Skrillex need defending? Travis Stewart was at SXSW, he makes amazing fucking music behind a laptop that you can listen to at home and his shows are way more dynamic, complex, exciting, unpredictable and so much more transformative than any brostep stuff. Let's write more about compelling electronic acts who can bring it on all fronts.
Another old guy decrying the internet! Weeeeeeee. Can't I listen to Bon Iver and like Omega Deathspell or something. Fuck off and stop projecting your laziness.
Someone asked a question she didn't take as seriously as all these responses so she just shot off what came to mind without any pretext or agenda. She didn't write a blog or press release. It's pointless to praise or damn her as if she's making a statement. She's not and she's not trying to. That said, she's right, but who cares? In any case, if you're not down with Bikini Kill, wtf are you doing here?
Everyone writing things off as "entertainment," regardless of how things are intended they have an affect on what the public does and thinks. Not saying that Tyler's fan's aren't smart enough to understand he might be joking and just having fun, but as T&S's essay shows, some people take him seriously. I sort of agree with T&S (and his response isn't funny despite it being totally in character), but on the flip side Tyler calls himself a "faggot" on a couple OF tracks, so there you go I guess.
Thanks for writing this. I've had a lot of the same thoughts since it dropped. It's definitely a great record. But the critical element got super out of hand I thought. Your point of non-hip-hop listeners gravitating to it, is def an important one. In the end I felt like without Kanye's public persona/twitter account/drama antics, this would be a great little hip-hop effort. But with a well produced album and one of the most publicly accessible personas, it's suddenly a masterpiece of confessional music. I wouldn't go as far as saying the record is soulless, but Runaway, for example, is a pretty emotionally manipulative song. It's shallow contemplations laid over a dramatic production. I think the bottom line, is MBDTF isn't going to change the game, despite the 10.0s and A+s, etc. And there are much more interesting and uniquely personified "confessional" hip-hop records out there: Mobb Deep's The Infamous, Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein, etc.
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