While serving as the creative director at the 2018 Pornhub Awards, Kanye West premiered the music video for his new song “I Love It” featuring Lil Pump and comedian Adele Givens. The music video gained over 76 million views globally within its first week surpassing This Is America by Childish Gambino as the biggest opening week on YouTube for a hip-hop video and has currently been streamed over 155 million times globally.
The music video and lyrics for the song show a lot of characteristics from Jenkins et al’s notion of spreadability and Gladwell’s notion of stickiness.
First of all, the entire thing is a marketing masterpiece. Kanye West is the most polarizing artist of all time, you either love him or hate him. Spreadability is “the potential for audiences to share content for their own purposes”, everyone wants to see what Kanye is doing or saying next. The music video itself is very spreadable. Kanye and Lil Pump are shown wearing ridiculous, oversized, blocky outfits. Still images from the music video instantly became a meme because of their outfits, some comparing it to the Lego-like character designs in the online video game Roblox. Spreadability is to “motivate […] fans and enthusiasts to “spread” the word”, this video follows that definition since people want to share it because of the absurdity and randomness of the video. In participatory culture, the audience acts more as a contributor to the popularity of something rather than as the consumer. The audience that kept sharing the music video greatly helped its success.
Aside from the music video, the very explicit lyrics to “I Love It” left many in shock, repeating the lyrics “You’re such a fu**in’ ho*, I love it” and other similar lyrics. Stickiness is “the need to create content that attracts audience attention and engagement.” Those lyrics did a really good job at attracting an audience using shock value.
Kanye West’s “I Love It” is proof that for media to succeed, you need stickiness, spreadability, and participatory culture. You need something that will grab the attention of the audience, a reason for them to share it and the people to share it.
Bibliography
DeVille, Chris. “The Success Of ‘I Love It’ Puts A Perfectly Perverse Bow On Kanye West’s Batshit Year.” Stereogum, 13 Sept. 2018, www.stereogum.com/2013746/kanye-west-lil-pump-i-love-it/franchises/the-week-in-pop/.
Jabar, Cynthia. “Sticky Vs Spreadable: If It Doesn’t Spread, It’s Dead by Henry Jenkins.” TransmediaKids.com: Multi Platform Storytelling, 1 Jan. 1970, www.transmediakids.com/2011/09/sticky-vs-spreadable-if-it-doesnt.html.
Jenkins, Henry. “Spreadable.media..Creating.value.and.Meaning.in.a.networked.culture.postmillennial.pop.by.henry.jenkins.sam.Ford.and.Joshua.green.” Scribd, Scribd, www.scribd.com/document/229207156/Spreadable-media-Creating-value-and-Meaning-in-a-networked-culture-postmillennial-pop-by-henry-jenkins-sam-Ford-and-Joshua-green.
“Kanye West & Lil Pump’s ‘I Love It’ Video Shatters YouTube Record.” Razor Tie Artery Foundation Announce New Joint Venture Recordings | Razor & Tie, Rovi Corporation, web.archive.org/web/20180918143445/https://hypebeast.com/2018/9/kanye-west-lil-pump-i-love-it-video-breaks-youtube-record.
Shaffer, Claire. “The Absurdity of Kanye West and Lil Pump’s ‘I Love It’ Video Is Deeper Than You Think.” Billboard, Billboard, 11 Sept. 2018, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8474498/kanye-west-lil-pump-i-love-it-absurd-videos-ludacris.