Kanye West vs The Rolling Stones

My generation has not been a great one. Well at least according to popular opinion. We are the first generation to look back at our parents and decide that they were cooler. Our parents had to deal with the fact that their parents were more hard working and braver having lived through WWII and The Great Depression, but my guess is that they never for a second bought into the fact that their parents were cooler. There were no big band t-shirts, there were no cars designed to look like Dick Tracy's. They were concerned about the future. They had the Beatles and Woodstock. My generation appears to be completely consumed with the past. You can walk into almost any clothing store in the country and find Ramones and Led Zeppelin t-shirts on sale. The Beatles are in advertisements for Apple. It seems that the best way to be cool, the true mark of good taste is having an appreciation of things that were relevant long before you were born.

I am of the opinion that most art, most manners of taste are subjective. Culture did not reach a peak in the 60's and 70's, that's just the bill of goods we've been sold by our parents. We are a culture raised with television. Every generation tries to sell their kids on their likes and dislikes, but while our parent's parents were working on a one on one basis our parents generation had television. The addition of cable television in the 80's and the exponential expansion of entertainment into our everyday lives gave our parent's generation a distinct advantage. Now, the artist of their generation could go to work creating programming, advertisements, and fashion all dedicated to the glorification of their ways and time. No longer were we able to just ignore and rebel against our parents because even if we did we ran right to the teachings of their contemporaries. Culture turned in on itself.

With this assertion I would like to consider this. Who is more culturally relevant to the youth of today, Kanye West or The Rolling Stones? This might seem like a peculiar premise at first glance. Kanye West has been a relevant artist for less than a decade. He is not for your parents, he is for our generation. He aspires to make the most culturally dominant genre of music, hip hop, something more. He seems to be constantly trying to take his art in new directions. I don't think anyone would argue that he is of this generation. The Rolling Stones, on the other hand, were conceived in the 60's. They have been steadily putting out albums for five decades. Your parents are much more likely than you to have seen a Rolling Stones concert. At first glance you would think that if you were in your teen's or twenties today Kanye is yours and the Stones are your parents. Is that the case?

Both artists released albums in 2010. Kanye West put out My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy his fifth. The Rolling Stones re-released Exile On Mainstreet they're classic album from 1972. Both albums went platinum. Both albums premiered at number 1 on the Billboard Top 200. How is this possible? The Rolling Stones are old enough to be grand parents, they strut around in tight pants, and they are corporate sponsored. The last thing they should be is cool. They didn't even make a new album they re-released their most critically acclaimed album that any true fan of the band should already own. Kanye West on the other hand put out a new album with experimental elements and basically tied them. Jimmy Fallon dedicated an entire week of his show to the re-release of Exile. Kanye West did an interview on mtv.com. It would appear that The Rolling Stones are winning. What does this say about my generation?

There might still be hope, soundtracks. When a popular film needs a song to fit the mood of a scene or to compliment there trailer they need music. This music can shape the way you see the film and the song. The two forever become intertwined and if the movie has a big enough impact the two elements could become eternally part of the fabric of our society and culture. This is where I think Kanye could win. Both are used extensively in film. The Rolling Stones were in The Fallen (Time Is On My Side), The Devil's Advocate (Painted Black), and most importantly they are laced through most if not all of Martin Scorsese's films. It is Scorsese's love of the band that is the most interesting, especially in this argument.  Kanye's music was in Jarhead (Jesus Walks), The Hangover (Can't Tell Me Nothing), and most importantly The Social Network (Power). I say The Social Network is most important because it is quite possible that that film could become the defining movie of our generation. Also, the film's director, David Fincher, is possible our generation's answer to Scorsese. If we allow him he could define our generation in the same way that Scorsese defined the previous one. The Social Network represents what are generation has been known to be, a cold, distant generation, obsessed with social status, and the acquiring of power, but at the same time still needing the same things that all of the generations before us, love, affection, acceptance. The use of Kanye's song clearly defined what the movie was about and also made it feel like something new. I also wonder if the chorus of the song isn't a movie reference itself. The line "No one man should have all that power," in conjunction to the staccato clapping known as "the power clap," I feel is a reference to the movie Malcolm X. There is a scene in Malcolm X where Malcolm X is able to control an entire mob with the simple raising of his hand and pointing of his finger a situation that causes Peter Boyle's character to say "that too much power for one man" while the members of The Nation of Islam march away in a militaristic manner. If I'm right and that is a movie reference turned into a song, we might truly be seeing the voice of a generation in Kanye West. Kanye has taken the cultural currency of our time, references, and turned them into art that has the ability to be the anthem of a generation.

In conclusion, I say these things not to disparage past generations, but rather to boost my own. If we are constantly looking back how can we ever truly create. I believe that every generation should feel some sort of competition with the one that proceeded it. How else are we to evolve and adapt? That's how we improve as a culture. Otherwise, we'll just be known for twitter and the Kardashians.