Kanye Concert Summary

Controversial continues to be the adjective that defines Kanye Omari West. On his Saint Pablo tour in San Jose Last week, Kanye proclaimed that if he had voted he would have voted for Donald Trump. The large rectangular stage he stands on is suspended from the ceiling and is at the center of a Colosseum style stadium. The lights casts a reddish/orange hue on the stage, a stark contrast against the blacked out crowd. The design of Kanye’s concert is very much a metaphor for how he is viewed in popular culture. Always at the center of attention, an eccentric figure who constantly wishes to shine the spotlight on himself and his worldview. The significance of Kanye as an icon in popular culture and black culture gives him a power that few figures …show more content…
Cluster analysis works by identifying key terms in an artifact through frequency of appearance or intensity, charting the terms that cluster around those key terms, and using the clustering terms to discover the rhetor’s worldview and an explanation for it. The video is ~17 minutes long, this analysis is from the first two minutes of the video, in which Kanye says he would have voted for Trump and then elaborates. The key terms in the cluster analysis were color, noise, politics and Kanye being Kanye. Politics and Kanye being Kanye were more significant because of their intensity and color are noise were more significant because of their frequency. The frequency themed key terms are important because the nuance the framing of the artifact. Looking at this clusters in comparison, the links between the darkness and the source of crowd noise/energy and the red lighting and Ye’s voice are very clear. Also in terms of screen area, the red stage on which Kanye stands is all but swallowed up by the darkness - the lone light in the dark room. Kanye is the at the center of attention but is relatively small within the frame, and all of this framing puts added attention on his