Performance. For far too long it has been neglected or accepted as a given following the innovations that had been wrought by some of the 60's and 70's leading innovators in the art of the musical performance. The Who, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osbourne etc... To compile a thorough list is a job for another time, but suffice it to say that since the mid-80's due perhaps to the standardization of sound and performances featured in music videos and rap music as a new genre, the musical performance itself has, at least to this writer, felt and appeared to be rather sterile and meant for reproduction over and over.
Rock music has had the luxury of the 'Jam' or the 'Freestyle' in Hip-hop; that is to say nominal musical ad-lib during a live performance to serve in a guise as a brand new gift to the crowd to provide a sense of innovative creation. This element, however, usually adds little to nothing to the overall musical aesthetic if it doesn't negate from the overall production as a contrived superfluity. Musical aesthetic is a term that refers to the visual aspects of a musical performance (i.e. wardrobe, style of performance, colors and their symbolic importance as they relate to lyrics and the tenor of each song/set, background visuals/movements, and most importantly source of sound) and their emotional contribution to the overall musical performance.
Kanye West as an impetus; an impetus of change and evolution in musical aestheticism. After viewing his recent performances on the MTV Music Video Awards and on the October 2nd episode of SNL it's apparent that the movement begun by the Philadelphia based live instrumental Hip-hop collective known as the Roots, picked up by Mr. West beginning with is 'Late Registration' that witnessed a live orchestra performance has culminated in the complete deconstruction of the musical performance. A deconstruction not only in regards to Hip-hop, but as Linkin Park is also intimating at with their own deconstructed theatrical performances of our contemporary musical zeitgeist if you will.
In the language of the culinary sciences, a food properly deconstructed will maintain the essence of whatever food that is being deconstructed (e.g. taste and flavor levels) but will present the cuisine in a totally different manner often utilizing subterfuge in an attempt to psychologically manipulate onlookers expectations and palate. The pinnacle achievement of a truly great deconstructed food is to elicit an even greater emotional response from the taster; a feat synonymous with the creation of an even higher level of refinement and overall product.
The recent performances of Mr. West's are the epitome and, at the least, most contemporary if not only example of live musical deconstruction. Specifically speaking on behalf of Hip-hop, aside from the previously enumerated examples and the hackneyed DJ, Hip-hop performance has been similar to Georgian Architecture in the sense it has tried to hide all production from view and has kept the focal point on the performers only. The Roots brought the instruments back along with Mr. West's Orchestral arrangement, but his recent performances featured perhaps the very electronic beat machine used to create the song being performed, something that hitherto has remained in the production studio hidden during actual performances, with a twist.
At the beginning for "Runawayz" Mr. West seemingly punches in the ambient piano echos that loop over followed by the pre-selected bass-line and other complementing sounds. During the performance beautiful ballerinas pulsate and contort to the various tenors and pitches of the song re-creating what the electronic visualizations seen in Windows Media Player and more successfully in Apple Itunes. He also had fun with censorship and instead of either omitting the word in question or substituting an alternative word, he punched on stage a key with pre-record "'Hey!' in addition to adding new sound levels by superseding the DJ hitting with varying rapidity and frequency a few other pre-recorded sayings such as "Look at you!"
The red suit with gold accouterment, symbolizing the bleeding heart of musical royalty convulsing over an all white stage is powerful visual imagery serving to reinforce the base-emotion and raw essence that his new songs are implying. His movements on stage carry the same implications, contorting his body like the emotion he has experienced over the course of the past few years that twisted his psyche and soul. Mr. West has stripped all of the superfluities and ostentatious display for displays sake away from the performance, leaving only raw symbolic emotions and a deconstructed performance coalescing into a new pinnacle of musical aesthetic.
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