{"id":423,"date":"2020-12-10T23:32:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T04:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus123\/?p=423"},"modified":"2020-12-11T00:00:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T05:00:13","slug":"kanye-wests-genius-in-the-modern-music-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus123\/2020\/12\/10\/kanye-wests-genius-in-the-modern-music-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye West’s Genius in the Modern Music Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the course of the semester, our class has been fortunate to gain insights into the ways in which musicians can depict characteristics such as gender, disability, and sexuality throughout their pieces in musical matters, including tempo, instrumentation, and pitch. Through our analyses this semester throughout these different units, I have come to realize that in the modern world, while these matters continue to be critical parameters for depicting these subject matters, artists have built upon these matters in an attempt to offer new perspectives and advance their respective genres into being a more progressive and better representation of the issues within themselves and prevalent throughout society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The rap genre is a fascinating case study to understand how quickly these changes can come about given the industry’s unparalleled growth throughout the past few decades. According to<\/span> Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>, hip hop was the most listened to genre in the United States, accounting for 24.7% of song consumption1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>Elias Leight, \u201cHip Hop Continued to Dominate the Music Business in 2018,\u201d in <\/span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/i>, January 3, 2019, https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/hip-hop-continued-to-dominate-the-music-business-in-2018-774422\/<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>