Kanye West’s return has been marked with an avalanche of controversy to say the least. The leadup to his eight album, ‘Ye’ has been rough to say the least in terms of public relations due to negative coverage he’s received. With a lot of pressure put on by himself, as well as the public, him choosing to livestream the listening party was beneficial to him in dealing with the negative media coverage.

First by use of livestream he removed the exclusivity of the listening party. Listening parties are for the most part exclusive events, open only to certain members within the entertainment industry. Just as he did with the Life of Pablo he showed that you don’t have to have industry credentials to be a part of the moment to enjoy his music. Music after all is a way for different parts of society to come together in a unifying moment, take for example national anthems which when played in an arena, members of different subcultures are joining in one accord for that one moment.

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Secondly, because of his recent controversies, there was a perception that fans would not listen to his album because of his association with President Trump, who some people still see as the ‘Great Evil’. To circumvent that he showed how several ‘important’ people in the industry are still willing to be around him. It was image after image of Kanye standing with famous and ‘important’ people, who are his peers, thereby subconsciously overloading us with proof of validity. Meaning that if celebrities such as Jonah Hill, Nas and Chris Rock are still okay with Kanye, then a sort of excuse is provided us music fans for still liking him. That’s because we the music fans are trusting in the judgement of those ‘important’ people who we placed as an authority in this matter.

How Kanye West’s new album is rated, is a subjective opinion that fans of music will have decide on by themselves. What was interesting though, is how he managed to change the perception around him by livestreaming the listening party. No longer was he the lone wolf speaking gibberish on twitter and in interviews, here he was, in his element with established cultural personalities around him, all joined in unison for the sole purpose of listening to his new music. By opening it up to the rest of the world to see he showed to his fans that it was still ok to listen to his music, it must be important because many celebrities went out of their way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to listen to it.