Spectacle Can Go Wrong
I admit it. I don’t typically tune in to the Grammy awards these days. I think the last time I tried to watch the Grammies was the year that Outkast performed Hey Ya! with Andre 3000 in a green Hollywood-Indian outfit and No Doubt performed “Hey Baby” with acrobats on trapezes. It was quite possibly the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen onstage. Not the most painful – I’ve watched a lot of amateur theatre – but definitely the ugliest. My general experience with the Grammies has been an excess of spectacle that detracts from – rather than celebrating – the music it is supposed to honor. I’ve seen numbers from them that just seemed like an experiment in how much money could be put on stage rather than any valid artistic or aesthetic statement.
So I don’t know what to make of this scene that I caught today on sci-fi blog io9. For those who would otherwise be lost, allow me to explain what you’re about to see.
This is a Grammy performance of the song “Stronger,” by Kanye West. In recording “Stronger,” Kanye West sampled from techno duo Daft Punk’s song “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” On Grammy night, however, West performed the song with Daft Punk backing him up live.
The mythology of Daft Punk [by the way – it should be noted that I love bands with mythologies] is that at 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, the two were working on a track when their sampler exploded. They awakened from the blast to discover that they had been transformed into robots. Their stage act – which has never been televised before – involves the duo wearing face-obscuring, Tron-inspired robot suits as they mix their music live on touch-screen synthesizers.
And here we have my indecision. Well, first, go ahead and check out the video.
Honestly, a number like this requires spectacle because the mythology and stage show of the band is spectacle. I can’t help feeling as I watch this video, however, that the revelation of Daft Punk mixing in the background is somehow overshadowed. For most of the number, Kanye West raps in front of a bright, neon backdrop. Then as Daft Punk shift to the forefront of the song, the neon pyramid slides apart to reveal… two dark figures rimmed in very dim red light working at green touchscreens. Their outfits are literally outshone by the neon going on around them, and it isn’t until a close-up obscures everything except the performers that it becomes clear how they’re dressed and what they’re doing – and as for the audience, the touch screen is a really neat bit of truly musical spectacle – but the audience doesn’t get to see it unless they’re watching at home.
So, for once, it seems to me that the Grammies got the spectacle in the right place – it was just executed poorly.
I have to admit, however, that it did make me want to see more of Daft Punk’s live act.