The Wisdom of the Illiterati


	moratorium I've stopped listening to Kanye West. Well, no, that's not exactly true. I haven't stopped listening to Kanye, and I doubt I ever will. But I have stopped listening to leaks from 808s and Heartbreak, which have been coming with ever greater frequency the last two weeks or so. When he first leaked "Love Lockdown" on his blog a little over six weeks ago, after performing it on the Video Music Awards, I thought that was great. It was obviously unfinished (it's been remixed and remastered a couple of times now, even after it's official release on iTunes), and I took it as an experiment in audience reaction, even a sort of--pardon a very tired term--interactive way of creating a focus group and pre-testing the record before release. I also like the song--a lot--and was happy to have it. Then, a couple of weeks later, came "Heartless", which Kanye put up on his blog, he said, because somebody else had leaked it, even though it wasn't close to finished (it was officially released this week). Then, about a week after that, came "Coldest Winter". Again, the leak was apparently not Kanye's idea, but it was a good song. The album was shaping up, to me at least, as something different from anything West had done before, and possibly the best thing he had ever done, autotune haters be damned. I couldn't wait for it to come out. With a little less than two weeks to go, I still can't. But now the leaks are coming hot and heavy, and I've decided to stop listening. Partly out of respect for Kanye, who has authorized none of them, and partly because I don't want my first experience of the album to be ruined. As eager as I am to hear the music, I want to hear it as part of the album first, not as individual tracks thrown out in random order on blogs and torrent sites. I would even prefer that the official releases, "Lockdown" and "Heartless", not be included on the album, so that my first listen will be totally unprejudiced by the deeper impression those songs have already made on me. This is wishful thinking, I know. It may be even worse than wishful thinking, it may well be nothing but crass sentimentality--the selfish desire to remain unsullied before the official release brings my mind's 808s and Heartbreak virginity to an end. For someone who believes, as I do, that the current reign of the single is a good thing, and that the album as art piece, as major statement, and especially as force-fed marketing ploy, deserves a long and much needed break, this may seem contradictory. But, if you believe, as I do, that in an ideal pop universe each release serves as a form of conversation with an artist's audience, with simple statements in the form of singles building up to major statements in the form of albums (and if an artist is lucky, even greater pronouncements in the form of entire careers), it makes perfect sense. In this world, unapproved leaks are the equivalent of the guy who, everytime you start to tell somebody else a joke, yells out the next line, or even the punchline, before you have a chance to finish. If you cut the guy off soon enough, you might still be able to make your intended audience laugh, but if you let him go on, at a certain point the joke becomes not only unfunny, but meaningless. A joke depends on timing and suspense. In the pop universe, a record's impact depends on much the same thing. Premiering "Love Lockdown" on the VMA's, Kanye was able to pick his moment and start the conversation leading to 808s and Heartbreak in exactly the way he wanted. Since then, however, the process has slid out of his control, to the point where the whole reason for the conversation, the release of the album itself, can only be an anti-climax, no matter how good it is. Just think of Tha Carter III, an album that, no matter what qualities it may possess on its own, was completely overshadowed by the mix-tapes and leaks that preceded it. I admit that if this was anyone else but Kanye, I probably wouldn't care as much as I do. It doesn't bother me, for instance, that the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift each released a single a week for a full month before their albums came out, and that other pop artists will probably soon be following suit. All that is, after all, is a reversal of what the majors used to do--instead of bleeding an album after release by designating four to six tracks as singles, now they release all the singles first, as a form of frontloaded advertising, and hope for huge first week sales of the LP. The difference is that I don't expect major artistic statements from Swift or the Jonases, and would be perfectly happy if they didn't release albums at all (a single every six weeks or so, followed by some fetishistically packaged compilation every year and a half should be more than enough to keep their fans, and their labels, happy). But from Kanye I do expect something major, and so do the leakers, which is why, of course, they're giving him so much attention. So there's the paradox. The same reason why I refuse to listen to the leaks is why the stuff is being leaked to begin with--because we're all expecting something great, and we can't wait to hear it. Maybe I'm just more patient, or more respectful, or less selfish. Or maybe I'm just an old LP sentimentalist. At any rate, for a week and a half I can wait. It will be an exercise in self-discipline, like not scouring your parent's closet or going through their drawers the week before Christmas. \| [Archives] Search entries:		top ten 1966 top ten OTHER OCCASIONAL RAMBLINGS Hail Blogoslavia! ~~100~~ 45 or so things about JSM The Saga of the Lone Biscuit OTHER BLOGS Blogroll Me

moratorium

I've stopped listening to Kanye West.

Well, no, that's not exactly true. I haven't stopped listening to Kanye, and I doubt I ever will. But I have stopped listening to leaks from 808s and Heartbreak, which have been coming with ever greater frequency the last two weeks or so. When he first leaked "Love Lockdown" on his blog a little over six weeks ago, after performing it on the Video Music Awards, I thought that was great. It was obviously unfinished (it's been remixed and remastered a couple of times now, even after it's official release on iTunes), and I took it as an experiment in audience reaction, even a sort of--pardon a very tired term--interactive way of creating a focus group and pre-testing the record before release. I also like the song--a lot--and was happy to have it.

Then, a couple of weeks later, came "Heartless", which Kanye put up on his blog, he said, because somebody else had leaked it, even though it wasn't close to finished (it was officially released this week). Then, about a week after that, came "Coldest Winter". Again, the leak was apparently not Kanye's idea, but it was a good song. The album was shaping up, to me at least, as something different from anything West had done before, and possibly the best thing he had ever done, autotune haters be damned. I couldn't wait for it to come out. With a little less than two weeks to go, I still can't.

But now the leaks are coming hot and heavy, and I've decided to stop listening. Partly out of respect for Kanye, who has authorized none of them, and partly because I don't want my first experience of the album to be ruined. As eager as I am to hear the music, I want to hear it as part of the album first, not as individual tracks thrown out in random order on blogs and torrent sites. I would even prefer that the official releases, "Lockdown" and "Heartless", not be included on the album, so that my first listen will be totally unprejudiced by the deeper impression those songs have already made on me. This is wishful thinking, I know. It may be even worse than wishful thinking, it may well be nothing but crass sentimentality--the selfish desire to remain unsullied before the official release brings my mind's 808s and Heartbreak virginity to an end.

For someone who believes, as I do, that the current reign of the single is a good thing, and that the album as art piece, as major statement, and especially as force-fed marketing ploy, deserves a long and much needed break, this may seem contradictory. But, if you believe, as I do, that in an ideal pop universe each release serves as a form of conversation with an artist's audience, with simple statements in the form of singles building up to major statements in the form of albums (and if an artist is lucky, even greater pronouncements in the form of entire careers), it makes perfect sense. In this world, unapproved leaks are the equivalent of the guy who, everytime you start to tell somebody else a joke, yells out the next line, or even the punchline, before you have a chance to finish. If you cut the guy off soon enough, you might still be able to make your intended audience laugh, but if you let him go on, at a certain point the joke becomes not only unfunny, but meaningless.

A joke depends on timing and suspense. In the pop universe, a record's impact depends on much the same thing. Premiering "Love Lockdown" on the VMA's, Kanye was able to pick his moment and start the conversation leading to 808s and Heartbreak in exactly the way he wanted. Since then, however, the process has slid out of his control, to the point where the whole reason for the conversation, the release of the album itself, can only be an anti-climax, no matter how good it is. Just think of Tha Carter III, an album that, no matter what qualities it may possess on its own, was completely overshadowed by the mix-tapes and leaks that preceded it.

I admit that if this was anyone else but Kanye, I probably wouldn't care as much as I do. It doesn't bother me, for instance, that the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift each released a single a week for a full month before their albums came out, and that other pop artists will probably soon be following suit. All that is, after all, is a reversal of what the majors used to do--instead of bleeding an album after release by designating four to six tracks as singles, now they release all the singles first, as a form of frontloaded advertising, and hope for huge first week sales of the LP.

The difference is that I don't expect major artistic statements from Swift or the Jonases, and would be perfectly happy if they didn't release albums at all (a single every six weeks or so, followed by some fetishistically packaged compilation every year and a half should be more than enough to keep their fans, and their labels, happy). But from Kanye I do expect something major, and so do the leakers, which is why, of course, they're giving him so much attention. So there's the paradox. The same reason why I refuse to listen to the leaks is why the stuff is being leaked to begin with--because we're all expecting something great, and we can't wait to hear it. Maybe I'm just more patient, or more respectful, or less selfish. Or maybe I'm just an old LP sentimentalist. At any rate, for a week and a half I can wait. It will be an exercise in self-discipline, like not scouring your parent's closet or going through their drawers the week before Christmas.