Kanye West, Meet John Cage
Avant-garde composer John Cage and pop superstar Kanye West may be two of most polarizing figures in contemporary American music. It amazes me how many people - particularly musicians - hate John Cage ("Parlour games" is how one music professor we know describes Cage's music). And Kanye West? For awhile the criticism leveled at West was almost frightening in its relentlessness. Cage is referred to as a "clown" and West as "that kid" and yet each man has done groundbreaking work in their respective creative fields. As artists, they have more in common than either one of them might imagine.
Kanye: Tune in, turn on, drop out ... bear.
Sound like a stretch? With 2011 marking the 100th anniversary of Cage's birth and last month bringing the release of West's opus My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, we give you five points to consider:
1. To hell with the critics.
"Screams from the haters / Got a nice ring to it..." Kanye West
A value judgment, once it's made, exists only within the mind of the one who made it. Cage and West have endured and enjoyed equal amounts of criticism and praise while aspiring (although not without struggle) to remain above it all. Bored by Cage playing an amplified cactus with a feather? That's you choosing to be bored. You think West can't sing his way out of a wet paper bag? Here's 808s and Heartbreak, an album with the singing all done with Auto Tune. Who said singing was on West's agenda in the first place?
2. Bring The Noise
Like your music to be in tune and in a specific key? You want it tonal? Well, what about bitonal? Or (my favorite) tritonal? What about "noise"?
In both Cage and West's music, SOUND creates an experience where the ear follows multiple layers of notes and noise not to a resolution, but to an aural representation of the world as we truly hear it. In music school, they call it "superimposition." Cage called it "musicircus." The RZA might say it's "dope."
Check out 0:00 to 0:45 of West's video for "Runaway." The sound of those watery piano notes and the hurried footsteps of the ballet dancers getting into position...the track hasn't even dropped but it could be the beginning of Cage's 0'00".
Speaking of that piece, check this out...
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