Video: Kanye West — “Heartless”

I was talk­ing to Mark this after­noon about the state of the music indus­try, some­thing we do from time to time, usu­al­ly when I’m cer­tain that it’s final­ly reached rock bot­tom. There’s some­thing fore­bod­ing in the Novem­ber release cal­en­dar. If this year is real­ly the music indus­try’s last gasp, then Novem­ber will be its death rattle.

Who isn’t releas­ing albums in Novem­ber? Justin Tim­ber­lake. He — and the tire­less Rihan­na — are the only major stars who come to mind that aren’t squeez­ing albums into 2008’s Q4. It’s shock­ing. I keep going back to Mau­ra’s post that sug­gest­ed that this could be a sign that the end is nigh for mul­ti­mil­lion­aire artists and the com­pa­nies that back them. Is this it?

If it is, there’s only one album that I’m even remote­ly curi­ous about in the hol­i­day glut of new releas­es. It’s Kanye West­’s 808s and Heart­break. Few artists have such a total­iz­ing aes­thet­ic. Mr. West syn­the­sizes cool ideas unlike any oth­er artist work­ing at his lev­el. Time and time again, I’ve looked for any rea­son to dis­miss his work as pas­tiche, but to do so would be a big mis­take. Kanye West bor­rows, steals, and co-opts styles unlike any­one since Madon­na, sniff­ing out trends and taboos and ele­vat­ing them to the mainstream.

Watch Kanye West­’s new video, “Heart­less.” His cool­ness is undeniable.