Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

• Linkin Park: were the first, riding the nu-metal band wagon for all it was worth they combined irresistible hooks with agnsty lyrics designed to entice teenagers the world over. They were a huge success commercially, but artistically they've never shown any real merit, and, like so many of the 21st Centuries young upstarts, they've become a act of diminishing returns. Still popular, still satisfying, but sadly, still uninspired.
• Rammstein: The German industrial rock gods set the ball rolling in the mid nineties but only really came to festival headlining prominence in the 2000s. Full of bluster and possessing one of the greatest stages shows one earth they earned the right to top the bill at Sonisphere last year, but despite their fearsomeness live show, their sonic limitations and one dimensional industrial metal bluster will always hold them back from true relevance.
• My Chemical Romance: Catchy hooks, impeccable looks, and an army of teenage fans is always a sure root to world domination. Unfortunately for MCR they also happen to be one of the most divisive bands walking the face of the earth. The "emo" tag may be fading, but for the time being, they are too hated to provide the unifying, generation defining moments that we crave.

It has only been three days since the release of Kanye West fifth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the world’s critics and music writers are already at each others throats. The second Pitchfork doled out their first 10.00/10.00 score for a new recording since Radiohead’s Kid A the entire music world appeared sit up and take notice.

The Guardian reacted stronger than most throwing out two blogs in two days both decrying, not West’s album as such, but Pitchfork and Drowned in Sound's overwhelming positive reaction to it. Dorian Lynskey’s Guardian Music Blog really kicked the debate into the next gear when he told the world “it’s always worth pausing for breath when hyperbolic music spawns hyperbolic prose.” The reaction was predictably furious. Over two blogs and one review Kanye has already racked up a remarkable 500 comments with every expert The Guardian has to offer, from dupstep and grime lover Rosie Swash to indie Neanderthal Tim Jonze, throwing in their own two cents.

But while this largely facile debate about whether Kanye’s ...Dark Fantasy is a 10 out of 10 or a 4/5 continues, something truly special has been going on in the background. People of all persuasions, of all genres, have begun debating on and off line. From the hipster forums and pop gossip sites to your local bus stop; the arguments have been intense, underlined by great passion. What makes these debates and arguments so special is that for the first time, in what feels like an eternity, people are arguing about music on serious intellectual and emotional level.

Rather than talking about Gaga’s latest outfit or the latest in a seemingly endless array of top 100 lists, people are engaging in serious musical discussions and critical dissections. In the last week alone I’ve had huge arguments about everything from production credits to the proper use of Auto-tune. The latter, rather than being dismissed as a pop gimmick used by hated artists, is being discussed seriously. Questions have come thick and fast; when, where and how should it be used? Is Kanye just playing around with a new toy for the sake of it or is he creating a rich nightmarish landscape or his egotistic ramblings? Should he auto tune a voice choir or let their voices soar naturally? Is Auto-tune unduly hated? Is it not as credible and revolutionary to vocals as distortion, effects and sustain pedals were to guitar playing?

Elsewhere hip hop purists are waging war on seemingly everyone.; decrying Kanye’s lack of values. He raps about himself, his ego, his cars, his bitches. They argue hip hop should be about having a positive message, that it should be about storytelling and strife, and that his ridiculous self indulgence is just the latest horrid mutation in hip hop’s depressing devolution. While others, myself included, have argued that My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is a grandiose look into a world of excess; a glimpse into the mind of a paranoid egomaniac who despite his fame still struggles with the most basic emotions of dejection and jealously.

This is just a mere grain of sand in the Sarah Desert of a debate that this album has stirred. As, despite what Kanye’s hip hop critics may want to believe, Kanye West has transcended that genre; he sits alongside Lady Gaga as one of the world’s two biggest pop stars. And in making an album so shamelessly self centred and so shamelessly ambitious he has unified every corner of the musical spectrum in discussion on a deep level. Beyond “Ooooh...look at what she’s wearing”, or ugh...what did that dick head just say? Kanye has forced the world to listen to his record, even if their only reaction was to say; “so this is what all the fuss was about?”