Music has been around for thousands of years and has influenced everyone’s lives. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen some of the greatest artists come to the spotlight and influence generations of people and music. We’ve also seen the power held by music and the artist. There are countless genres of music and here will talk of a few.
Kanye West
Kanye West is undeniably one of the most influential artists of the 21st century, after surviving an almost tragic car accident he would go on to make one of the most famous albums, The College Dropout, released February 10th of 2009, tells the story of him embracing who he is and diverting from the path he was told to follow. Kanye has never been afraid of embracing who is and speaking his mind which is one of the reasons he is considered one of the most controversial artists.
He has revolutionized the music industry, starting as a beatmaker he now goes on to make world hits landing him 2 dozen Grammys. With his later albums late registration and graduation, he transformed and pushed the boundaries of Hip-Hop. He was later making albums 808, Heartbreak, and one of his best My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
He made more albums towards the end of the 2010s such as The Life of Pablo and Ye then released Jesus Is King. This is when we start to see Kanye put more of his political opinions into his music, embedding his personality in his songs. Even despite all of the controversy he still managed to hit the tops of the charts and still be one of the most listened-to artists. Currently, Ye has released Vultures 1 working with Ty Dolla $ign with the 2nd on the way.
Nirvana
Nirvana is a band known very well around the world and has influenced many people’s lives. In 1991, they revolutionized popular music by introducing alternative types of rock music through their 2nd album ever, Nevermind. After it was released, it brought many more listeners and was no longer being sold in corner record stores and was only getting more popular as time went on. Kurt Cobain, the lead guitarist and vocalist, met Chris Novoselic, bass guitarist, in 1985 in Aberdeen, Washington. They met through working together in a band called Fecal Matter and because they both shared a liking for rock music and connected through feeling alienated from the redneck population of Aberdeen, they both decided to start a band called the Stiff Woodies. After a couple of years and many name changes, in 1987, they found that Cobain would be best as guitarist and vocalist while Novoselic would stay on bass, they then met their new drummer Chad Channing with their new and forever name, Nirvana. In December of 1988, they released their first single called Love Buzz, which was a cover of Shocking Blue. While Love Buzz was popular among people, things started rolling when they released their debut album in June of 1989 called Bleach. Over time, the album had sold around 35,000 copies and was considered a favorite of college radio. Sometime around June 1991, Nirvana finished recording their second album called Nevermind which sold over 100,000 copies and still to this day people listen to. We all still thank Nirvana for their music and their influence on music.
MF DOOM
Daniel Dumile never started as MF DOOM, he had many personas, originally making music with his brother creating a group called Kausing Much Damage or KMD before he passed away in a car accident. This affected Dumile deeply turning his anger into pain to create his new persona which included a man resembling the character Dr.Doom. Later his official look was inspired by the 200 film Gladiator marking the birth of MF DOOM. His character is a sympathetic villain, which is when he gains major traction. He creates music that is unique to himself, even without his voice you still get the sense of the vibe he brings. In his album Operation: Doomsday he makes several remarks like in his song Rhymes Like Dimes where he critiques the capitalistic lifestyle that we are trapped in as workers. We see this when he says “Only in America you could you find a way to earn a healthy buck/ And still keep your attitude on self-destruct”. This could also represent the people in society who make large amounts of money and still
Tyler The Creator
Tyler The Creator born in Hawthorn first started his music career in a group called Odd Future, resembling the Wu-Tang Clan in many ways. The group was originally made up of Tyler the Creator, Earl Sweatshirt, Mike G, Left Brain, and Hodgy Beats. They made music rapping about gore and drugs. In the 2011 album 12 Odd Future Songs, Tyler makes a song called Bastard where he is in a therapy session and talks about being a black kid with no father and the hatred he has for him. He also explains how he has these evil thoughts calling himself “Satan’s son” describes how he is the product of his situation and says why he created OF. He would go on to make his music, his first album being Goblin released in 2011, and WOLF in 2013. The albums Bastard, Goblin, and WOLF all tell the story of 3 different therapy sessions explaining their thoughts and experiences, we later learn that all the sessions were his various personalities and was his therapist. The story starts with Bastard where we meet his therapist Dr.TC. This album builds off his feeling of being alone and shows how mentally unstable the character is. In Wold, he is sent to Camp Flog Gnaw, in the album we see the alter ego, Wolf. Here he meets Sam who he doesn’t get along with. Wolf later meets Salem, Sam’s girlfriend, with who he starts to flirt, Sam finds out which causes him to want to kill Wolf. This leads to Goblin where a voice in his head tells him to do bad things and sometimes he does, the voice is named Tron Cat. At the end when he is having a breakdown, Dr. TC also says “Im Tron Cat, I Ace, I Wolf Haley, im, me” revealing that this is all in his head. His creative storytelling through music, along with his unique style is what makes him a considerably influential artist.