Talk:Power (Kanye West song)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Power (Kanye West song) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Power (Kanye West song) has been listed as one of the Music good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
November 30, 2012	Good article nominee	Listed

Songs

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SongsWikipedia:WikiProject SongsTemplate:WikiProject Songssong articles

Hip hop Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Hip hop, a collaborative effort to build a useful resource for and improve the coverage of hip hop on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.Hip hopWikipedia:WikiProject Hip hopTemplate:WikiProject Hip hopHip hop articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

5000 hours claim

This kind of seems impossible. 5000 hours of work equates to 210 continuous days. For one song? Maybe this was a misquote or something. Racro 16 (talk) 04:45, 25 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Cover

Kanye West posted a cover art for the 'Power' on his new blog (kanyewest.com). Could someone put into this page, please? Don't know how to do it.

S1

Why is there so much crap about S1? like anyone really cares. STAT -Verse 05:52, 19 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For your information there is a Singer on this track doing the Chant throughout the song by the Name of Alvin Fields. For reference you should check the following web page: http://www.protoolsmixing.com/credits.html

or contact Def Jam Records exec: Ian Allen for accurate label credit information. Fact: The Actual Continent Number 6 sample was never cleared by the producer, Jean Louis Detry, so Def Jam records contacted the original singer Alvin Fields, Lead and Backround Vocalist on  the original "Afromerica" track, and contracted him to re-record the Chant for "Power" so's that the song could be released for commercial sale. (talk) 05:43, 6 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Power (Kanye West song)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Kiefer.Wolfowitz (talk · contribs) 11:25, 5 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the speedy review. Bruce Campbell (talk) 13:18, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the delay. I'll do it this week. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 13:20, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I copy-edited the lead, which should be the best written part of the article. The first criterion requires that the article be "well written". I corrected English problems of word choice ("propositioned" rather than "positioned", etc.), dangling participle(s), vagaries, and over-linking. Please go through the rest of the article and make similar copy edits: Now, after two weeks of my not reviewing this, you probably can read the article with fresh eyes, again, and improve the prose! ;D

Alternatively, you may request help from the guild of copy editors. A good article need not have brilliant or even professional prose, but it should be a bit better.

My general impression is that the article is well referenced, well structured, neutral, and interesting. Its prose is good enough that it can be quickly improved to meet the GA article expectation of being well written, I trust.

Sincerely, Kiefer.Wolfowitz 13:49, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I like that the article has a 30-second sample (which I suppose is the limit of fair use...?). However, for an article about a piece of music, it should have more discussion of the song/lyrics, rather than merely critical judgments. Surely when critics have made an analysis, they have quoted lyrics, which you can quote also. I really don't understand the statement that the song is built around the "21st Century Schizoid Man" sample: Could you flesh that out more? What does that mean? Kiefer.Wolfowitz 20:59, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I watched the video and read the lyrics a few time. I had forgotten that it began with a "21st Century" line and ended with the King Crimson sample, again. You might look at the discussion of this song in Eric Tamm's book on Robert Fripp, or two others I haven't read (Sid Smith and Andrew Keeling). Tamm's book came out 20 years after the song, so I suppose it is unreasonable to expect that academics have published analyses of Power just yet. Did you look on JSTOR in case there was any discussion? Perhaps there are academic papers on researchers' home pages that discuss the structure of the song? Kiefer.Wolfowitz 22:36, 22 September 2012 (UTC) I looked at other GA articles (and some FA articles) on pop songs, and this seems to have the least quotations of text and discussion of song structure of any of them. Even Gorgeous had more discussion. Please try to find some discussion/analysis of structure and lyrics. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 19:36, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a list of composers. Can you source the material in the infobox?Kiefer.Wolfowitz 23:11, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Another point: Kanye West is a rapper with a life. The narrator of the song is a character/author, who need not be the same as West. This article blurs the biography of West with the narrator/author. (C.f.: I, the KW account, am the author of this sentence. There is a real-world person behind the account.) Kiefer.Wolfowitz 19:40, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Shit, I'm working on a new draft with superior prose as we speak. Won't be long. I caught up with my FAC. Bruce Campbell (talk) 02:44, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Your prose can change in a phonebooth into its superior outfit anytime. :) Kiefer.Wolfowitz 09:18, 8 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, whew, thank god that FAC failed so I now have time again. Ok so I know it's taken 100000000000000 million years, but with this edit, I have added more commentary on the lyrical traits of the song, adding some context to it with his prior work. I added more discussion on the themes of the song as per your requests, and went through some of the more poorly written.

I checked for some book sources (I'm not sure if that link will show up to non-North American users), and not alot came up since the song is just over 2 years old. There's one book called The Kanye West Handbook - Everything You Need to Know about Kanye West which seems to mention something about it, but I can't access any information from it, and the fact it was published in November of the same year that the song came out, leads me to believe there's not much it could provide. Other than that there seems to a Vibe source which only talks briefly about the song.

The discussion of the lyrical themes of the song is stretched through the background section, the composition section, and the review section, to the point where I believe it's comprehensive. If the prose is still an issue or if the commentary if still too shallow, I could ping a buddy to go through it.

As for as the comments in the talk page about the sampling controversy, I could easily add that. I'm not sure where it would go exactly; sampling issues are common in hip-hop and usually aren't notable by themselves, but it was reported enough. I guess if anywhere it would go in the reception section, since it's not large enough of an issue to warrant its own section, and the sampling issue arose following its release. Not an issue either way, can be added in like 10 minutes. Bruce Campbell (talk) 04:34, 13 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: It's been over four weeks since the above comments and the article edits referred to in them. What's the status of this review, please? BlueMoonset (talk) 16:11, 11 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The reviewer's identification with the Wikipedia project has been updated following the civility-enforcement fiasco. I intend to complete the review, which requires spot checking sources, etc., in the next week (or so). Kiefer.Wolfowitz 16:36, 11 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm fine. No need to rush the review. I can still ping a buddy to copy-edit more thoroughly if necessary. Bruce Campbell (talk) 16:59, 11 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's been two and a half months... might as well fail the article because I've lost interest in waiting. Bruce Campbell (talk) 03:25, 25 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The writer addressed the reviewer's concerns, and since no more were added I'm passing this. Wizardman 00:20, 30 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sample Clearance?

I'm surprised the article makes no mention that there was controversy around the lack of clearance for the King Crimson sample, resulting in a protracted dispute. (See [1]) Is it relevant enough that it should be included in the article? JoeJJC (talk) 21:41, 7 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The article doesnt say anything about a controversy, just that the clearance was overdue after the song became viral, which doesnt seem illegal, as it wasnt an official release for profit anything like that. West and the dude eventually met. If it had become a notable issue, then the coverage wouldve probably been larger and would have been included in the article by now. It's just an interview by a prog rock artist. Dan56 (talk) 22:23, 7 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi JoeJJC,

I edited your comment, removing a short statement that violates WP:BLP, per WP:BLP.

For the record: Fripp has not "quit music": He has stopped earning his living as a professional musician, but plays publicly (often in churches) and with colleagues and in Guitar Craft. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 13:59, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that some mention should be made of the belated request and its being granted, which has been reported in reliable sources, like TFT. Kiefer.Wolfowitz 14:01, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

They ... who only stand and wait

    When I consider how my light is spent
      Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
      And that one talent which is death to hide,
    Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent
    To serve therewith my Maker, and present
      My true account, lest He, returning, chide;
      Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?
    I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent
    That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
      Either man's work, or His own gifts; who best
      Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state
    Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed,
      And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
      They also serve who only stand and wait.

— John Milton, On his blindness

Kiefer.Wolfowitz 14:08, 25 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

POWER (song)

Since this redirects here due to being the song most commonly stylized as "POWER", I have left a message at the top of the page appropriately for any confused browsers. --Kyle Peake (talk) 10:49, 12 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Marco Brambilla.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 22:07, 4 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]