Pop Music

Paragogy Case Study: Pop Music

Is pop music a suitable case study in Paragogy? Absolutely. Start by taking a look at the artists who collaborated on Kanye West's 2010 "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" album: Kid Cudi, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz, The RZA, Rick Ross, John Legend, Bon Iver and more. The same year Kanye contributed to 'Blazin' a stellar track from Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" record. Within 5 months of "Friday's" release Nicki was featured on 'Til the World Ends' a sensational dance number from Ms. Britney Spears's "Femme Fatalle". And we haven't even gotten started with Rhianna.

So, you get the idea. There is a lot of collaboration going on amongst the upper echelon of pop stars. I would hesitate to call Kanye a "peer" of Nicki or Britney given he's, IMHO, one of the leading figures of the non-underground music avant garde, which includes Radiohead and Animal Collective. He himself might view himself as peerless if we trust this quote from his "La Dolce Vita" essay

"I'm one of the few celebrities that are on the same wave of consciousness as all the behind-the-scene journalists, photographers, stylists, publicists, filmmakers, poets, painters, graphic artists and so on. I am the voice of the dreamers. I am the creative dream come true, and I refuse to wake up."

That established for the purposes of this piece let's call them all peers. Certainly none are teachers/students in a Pedagogical sense and nobody's working in an Andralogical vacuum.

So. They are all peers who are willing to work together to make better music and money. And that's cool. What can we learn? Let's start with Nicki, the least famous of the trio. I would never of heard her music on my favorite station, Chicago's B96, if not for the fact Britney brought her on for 'Til the World Ends'. Similarly, her "Pink Friday" album likely would be less played on radio if it didn't have a track featuring Kanye. So, what did Nicki get from her Paragogical experience? Beyond the immeasurable learning about what to/not do she assuredly got watching Kanye and Britney work she got more people listening to her music (i.e. me) and more record sales (don't have data, but its a safe assumption).

If she is the padowan of the group, Kanye is certainly the master. Perhaps I shouldn't be mixing analogies here, but you follow. What did Kanye get? From his appearance on Nicki's record probably not too much. But you need to remember, Kanye didn't come from nowhere. On his "Fantasy" Jay-Z contributed and Kanye himself refers to Jay as his "big brother" and on his debut record "College Dropout" tells the story of how Jay helped him make it big. Within this context, Kanye was taking care of the next generation of Pop stars the same way the previous one did for him.

What does all of this have to do with you and Paragogy? These are some of the biggest names with complimentary sized egos in the music industry and they are willing to work and learn together, sharing credit. How often does this happen in your workplace? When a project comes along do you seek out the best people to work with you and then are you eager to give them credit? Possibly, but my experiences in the professional world dictate that is not typically the case.

Or, how about in academia? How many papers do you see with multiple authors? Typically the lead one being the most famous?

I guess the best Paragogical lesson we can draw from these artists is that when you are trying to learn something new or ambiguous, i.e. how to make a top 40 pop song, you are served well by collaborating with peers who are more accomplished than you. Once you do accomplish your goal, don't forget to help new learners on their way to the mountain top.