Wednesday, October 28, 2015

R.R. 10/28

Define late style and explain what kind of understanding is reached through reading Donuts through this concept/phenomenon. To ask the question in the style of Nick Carr: how does late style help Jordan Ferguson to give "actual meaning" to Donuts "latent meaning?"

23 comments:

  1. Late style refers to when an artist releases one or two pieces of work towards the end of their life. Late style gives actual meaning to Donuts because knowing that you pick up on the presence of death throughout the album. The album was Dilla's way of finishing is art towards his final demise. I think that it can be seen in the weird beats. If I was dying and I was an artist then I would do whatever I wanted with my music regardless of whether I thought people were doing to like it. It is freeing because this album was Dilla's last chance to try something he wanted too and it didn't matter what everyone else thought.

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  2. Late style is the style an artist coming to the end of their career tends to go to. The review says that this can go two ways. The artist try to bring all of their ideas and mastery together to bring their career to a full conclusion. The other way is the author deviates from their normal way and leads the audience to be confused by what the meaning of it was. Late style helps show the reason for the change of the artists sound. He took all the things that he was impressed by in the hip-hop world and put his own twist on it. Without the idea of late style the album would just seem out of place, whereas with it, it makes more sense. He is trying to bring all of the things from his career together.

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  3. Late style is an artist's "going out" style, if you will. It does not necessarily mean that the artist is dying, but it is the style that they employ at the end of their musical life and career. The big idea about late style is that it says something profound about the end: whether that be a realization reached, or an understanding achieved. Donuts is the end of J Dilla's musical career, and so people expect some sort of late style. The album definitely stands out and is more profound than his other albums, but it doesn't explain anything or bring us to some shining understanding. Donuts contradicts what we all think about late style by showing that maybe, perhaps, the end doesn't provide any more clarity than the beginning. It produces something, that's for sure. But that something might not be what we had been waiting for.

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  4. "Late Style" occurs when an artist is old, at the tail end of their career. Their style changes, whether that be on purpose or subconsciously; the structure of their music changes. Typically late style comes about as an artist is faced with a disability. Late style has a psychological and physical effect on Dilla's album; Ferguson says that this helps the listener understand that Dilla is pulling from hip hop artists that inspired him throughout his career, building on what they had already established.

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  5. Late style has to do with artists late in their lives that bring about the gruesome reality that they're dying soon, they're late in their lives and the fact that Nick Carr intertwines this idea throughout the review really brings about the true meaning of Donuts. When listening to the song now, I hear the manny different sonic elements of late style, and when reading the article, I can see why it makes sense. It's not as depressing as death is, but it's different and unlike anything that anybody can really put their finger on. It's fragmented, nostalgic, just like Carr describes. You can feel the artist dwindling away, as though the song is the exit portal to the afterlife.

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  6. Late style is considered the general style of an artists last work just before the end of their music career. Edward Said states that this style comes in one of two forms, either a "creative final summation" or works that suggest "difficulty or unresolved contradiction." Ferguson believes Donuts is done in the latter form, this helps Ferguson give actual meaning to the work because he is then able to discuss the contradictions in the album. He also is able to compare the album with themes of death even though all of the songs aren't necessarily about that he looks at how albums change before the "death" of an artist like how people change before their actual deaths.

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  7. Late style is the way in which an artist composes their work at the end of their career. Whether this be due to death or simply they will no longer be producing, it encompasses the work that is their last. Late style can either be a culmination of the creative process that has been achieved of the artist so far, or it can be something totally new, different, and crazy compared to the artist's previous work. Donuts is an album that followed the latter example in that it was very experimental and far from J Dilla's other albums. It was said that since J Dilla knew that this would be his last album, he knew he had this last chance to make something meaningful. Therefore, he went out of the box to create Donuts.

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  8. Late style is the type of art released by an artist right before their passing. It is defined as often being a sort of huge creative finish to the artists career, or sometimes having an unresolved, difficult feel/theme to it. Describing Donuts as late style gives an album that seems, as Ferguson says "very weird", some meaning. So instead of Donuts just being an album full of weird songs, it is regarded as the huge creative finish style of Dilla's late style.

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  9. Late style is the style that an artist takes on later in their life, or later in their musical career. According to Ferguson, this style has transcended eras of music. J Dilla, as well as artists like Beethoven, seem to take on a distinct style of music preceding their death or career end. Thinking about this while listening to the album greatly affects how we perceive it. Since we know that this was J Dilla's last album, it seems to have a distinct sound to it. However, I think that this could just be a fictional construction of style in our minds. Our brains are primed to listen for "late style". Would Ferguson have known that this was J Dilla's last album just from listening to it? Probably not. But thinking about this while listening makes it seem nostalgic, and suddenly the album has so much more meaning than it did previously. Thinking about late style gives actual meaning to the latent meaning of the album.

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  10. Late style is a theory where by the end of an artists life they create their works in one of two styles. Later on in the reading, I see a part where they say the J Dilla is just doing the best that he can. I think with something like late style it can be easy to say that this album is just some weird final album that was made as another album in his chain. He was trying to take what inspired him and put it into his own space, but it ended up creating something else.

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  11. Late style, to my understanding, is music that was created near the end of an artist's life as death is right around the corner. Through reading Donuts in relation to this concept, Jordan Ferguson points out that late style deals with the artist near the end of their life whether they know it or not. Thus, the album demonstrates that late style can often be less about as Ferguson puts it "anticipating death" and more about the present reality and the life that is still occurring. Donuts gives insight into death and late style by contradicting the genre in general and diverging from the typical characteristics of late style, which is more meaningful to the theme in general since we all experience death differently anyways.

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  12. Late style is a style of music where the album or song is written towards the end of an artist's career. Ferguson states that late style doesn't necessarily mean that the artist is expecting death and therefore created one last piece, but instead the artist's life has changed from the time when they started creating music. This idea of late style helps give "actual meaning" to Donuts because Ferguson describes Donuts as a weird album, which makes sense when you consider that Dilla could have been experiencing a weird time in their own life.

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  13. Late style is when an artist writes/ records an album with their imminent fall in mind. It is a style that is not defined by bounds but as Ferguson stated, it definitely is an organizational aspect of music. Reading this review with that concept in mind, the album is interpretted much differentlt than it would be otherwise. In a way, it adds a melancholy feel to the review, as if saying that this was a farewell to his career. But it also allows the album to be seen as a work of art and experimentation, instead of music with the intent to please an audience. If this were analyzed by its latent meaning, it would be seen as a strange addition to his history of albums. It would've been an abstract album with the intent to influence the future of hip-hop. Instead Ferguson lets us see it as the final show of his talent.

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  14. Late style is when you make music knowing that death and the end is always coming. You can't stop it, and you shouldn't have to worry about it. It's like living on the idea that our time is limited, so make the most of every moment. I think analyzing Donuts in late style allows you to critique the album in a casual way. So if the artist is dying, then their last album is probably their final opportunity to say something to the world.

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  15. Late style can be defined as when an artist has a work come out as they are close to dying or have recently battled death. Reading Donuts with the concept of late style in mind gives a totally different meaning to Donuts.This concept gives us the idea that this is what Dilla wants to be his "final masterpiece" and is what he wants the world to think of him after he has passed.

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  16. To be completely honest here, this reading kind of went over my head. I think that late style refers to the music that artists produce later in their lives. This music can come across in two ways. Ferguson says in either " a sort of creative final summation, or works that suggest not". In the end of the reading Ferguson says that Donuts is still considered a late work because it chalenges new listeners. These listeners often find contradictions within the music.

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  17. Late style is style that is attained through time spent in the business. Artists that achieve late style have had experience and success over the years and turn that into a piece of their most current work, normally near the end of their life or career. This concept gives actual meaning to Donuts because of the ever present theme of death. Through weird beats and original concepts, Dilla is able to show that because it is the end of his career, he can almost do what he wants.

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  18. Late style is essentially they way an artist's work comes across at the end of their life. Some artists have a late style in their last works that is basically a culmination of all of their great work and brings it all together, while other artists have a somewhat dysfunctional sound that is contradictory to their previous works and kind of a strange sound. Jordan Ferguson suggests that J Dilla's "Donuts" embodied the second approach to late sound and described it as "weird."

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  19. Late style is when a person goes on to make music or songs close to their death bed. By listening to something with the idea of late style in mind, you consciously pick up on ideas and trends that relate to them being close to dying. I'm not really sure if that is right at all though so...

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  20. Late style is the reimagining of an artists later works in terms of his or her career as a whole. Ferguson mentions and connects Donuts to Beethoven, and how the later in his career and life he got, the more detail and skill are actually at work. Donuts is, as Ferguson says, is intended to frustrate listeners because it doesn't tell us what we want to hear, a style Dilla has developed over his career.

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  21. Late style pertains to the kind of works artists produce later in the their life. It is more about the psychological impact of knowing the end is near, but not knowing exactly when that end is. This helps Jordan Ferguson give "actual meaning" to Donuts "latent meaning" by acknowledging is attempt to question if death is real. Donuts tries to bring insight to morality as a whole.

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  22. Late style is when you put out something of your work around the end of your career. It gives meaning to Donuts because there is an obvious change of style in the album. You can find differences in this album because it is the last thing an artist will put out, and there is no reason not to try new things. This late work can be a summation of the artist, which could be the biggest thing they've done despite being at the end of the career.

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  23. Late style is art that is a creative, introspective, sweeping summation that happens before the end of an artist's life. Reading Donuts through this concept reveals its depth and contemplative nature because it exposes its layers of sentimentality, nostalgia, and profound reflection. It brings "actual meaning" to Donuts's "latent meaning" by transforming Donuts into an all-inclusive masterpiece and giving it a sense of finality and importance. The fact that it is done in late style gives it an definitiveness that enhances the meaning behind the art because it is the ultimate piece.

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