It didn’t strike me as something I would enjoy sober, I figured before I switched to something more soothing after only a few painful songs. The beats were heavy, the rap was fast and furious, and the lyrical content was abrasive, rife with the braggadocio that has become so commonplace in rap it transcends cliche. While I had to wait to see the visual extravaganza, the audible explosion I heard on $O$ and Ten$Ion came as advertised. Hell, I once listened to a good chunk of Metal Machine Musicjust to see what it was like. The South African trio Die Antwoord landed on the bill with a similar reputation: one of shock and awe visuals paired with a sound that brutalizes listeners into submission. I made sure to re-familiarize myself with his music, and despite the wave of depression that followed every listen I still managed to make it through Bastard, Goblin, and Wolf a few times each. His performances have a reputation for flirting the line between rowdy and violent, and I needed to see the live product for myself.
When Tyler, The Creator was named to the Sasquatch 2014 lineup I knew that his live performance was a must-see, but not necessarily due to the merits of his music. However, lately a number of musicians from Tyler, The Creator to Justin Bieber have explored these boundaries and encountered varying degrees of consequences, but they raise a greater question: where is the line? Or more accurately, is there a line at all? Performers have been pushing the boundaries of social tolerance and acceptability for generations and with every decade the bar is raised. Music holds an incredible power to move and influence the listener, taking control of the mind and body to initiate a beautiful reaction within us all, but as Die Antwoord taught me recently the input and output aren’t always beautiful.