#7: SNL Musical Guests: The Good, The Bad and The Kanye
The most jaw-dropping SNL performances from over the years based on how chaotic or cool they were. plus, find out what your school's most-listened to songs are.
hi welcome back to music & beans! we are back FOR REAL this time. it was never my intention to go on a two month long hiatus. but to put it bluntly: some of us just need time to sort our sh*t out. some updates: i’ve made an executive decision to publish this newsletter on a bi-weekly schedule, rather than weekly. this gives me more time to research, draft and edit the newsletter while i juggle the responsibilities at my new job and settle into a new city. thanks for being patient with me, and i can’t wait to get back into dissecting everything music-related with you!
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Since its inception, SNL has been a coveted gig for up-and-coming artists. In many cases, SNL was what really broke out artists from indie to mainstream. It also gives established artists a chance to perform a more intimate set, complete with personally-curated creative decisions. It lets us peer into the personality of our favorite pop and rock stars, while also putting their talent on display. It’s one of my favorite parts of the show.
I also can’t stop thinking about the Feb 6. show, when Phoebe Bridgers took the Studio 8H stage for the first time. She got a lot of shit for her performance. She sang two songs from her Grammy-nominated album Punisher: the uptempo rock ballad “Kyoto” and her apocalyptic closer “I Know The End.” Bridgers went all out at the end of her last song and started smashing her electric guitar on the stage, which I have to give her credit for, did not look easy. Despite male artists doing this for years and prepping the SNL crew ahead of time (they even gave her an $80 guitar from Walmart to smash into a fake amp) she still seemed to be an immense topic of discussion on Twitter the next day. I for one simply appreciated the commitment to the bit that it took.
The buzzy non-controversy that surrounded the whole event got me thinking about all the actual shocking performances worth getting up in arms about on SNL over the years. So this week I’m ranking some of the more memorable late-night sets that I’ve seen.
This list is really heavily skewed to performances I can recall off the top of my head, which means most of them will be fairly recent. I’m only 23 so please don’t yell at me about missing anyone from before my time (actually, please DM me if you think of anything spectacular that I missed!! I need to be cultured too, you know)
The criteria for this list are pretty loose. I guess I would say it had to be jaw-dropping on some level: good or bad. Something that I think is actually worth people talking about the next day. And with another long-winded disclaimer out of the way, here…we…..go
1. Billie Eilish - bad guy (2019)
this was one of the coolest things i’ve ever seen. she killed it. the fact that she turned this idea from rotating a tissue box on her bedroom floor to a gravity-defying optical illusion is so impressive. i had to watch the behind-the-scenes video of how they set up the stage for this like 20 times, and i still don’t really understand it. several points for creativity and for literally, turning the stage upside down.
2: Kanye West - Runaway (2010)
Love him or hate him, this list would not be complete without Kanye’s fourth SNL performance. It was tough to sift through all seven of Kanye’s SNL appearances, (don’t worry, we’ll get to that one later) but I ended up choosing Runaway because of how stark in contrast it is to his other performances. It wasn’t the all-encompassing spectacle that Kanye has relied on in recent years. It was the perfect balance of extravagance, and even humility. The opening piano notes hang in the air as an ensemble of ballet dancers stand perfectly still, poised in position until West starts sound-mixing right there on stage. An all-white background envelopes him, and it was clear he was there to get lost in the music, just as the rest of the world did. Three years later, he’d return to the stage as Yeezus with his amped-up banger Black Skinhead that is arguably worthy of being on this list (and no, dressing up as sparkling water bottles with Lil Pump isn’t the same kind of worthy). Anyway, couldn’t find the official version so if you wanna watch it on this bootleg site here you go
3: Katy Perry - ‘Swish Swish’
This performance keeps me up at night. It haunts me. It’s almost as cursed as Perry’s deranged music video for her song “Bon Appetit” which will make you wish you’ve never been born. Not an exaggeration. But we as a society gained so much from her earlier performance “Swish, Swish”. Backpack kid made his introduction to the world. And to the best of my research abilities, I legitimately believe this might have been one of the first widely-recognized flossing performances. God, there is just too much to unpack here, go watch it for yourself.
4: Harry Styles - Sign of the Times (2017)
You all should have seen this coming, but gotta give credit where credit’s due. SNL was the stage where Styles made a name for himself as a solo artist. Fresh out of One Direction, no one had heard what a solo Styles was capable of. He really said “go big or go home,” debuting with his five-minute piano ballad “Sign of The Times.” It was the kind of performance that gives you goosebumps. Something happened that night after he left the stage, undoubtedly for the better, but he really cemented himself as a serious solo artist here.
Flash forward three years and Styles returns to the stage as an accomplished solo artist. His second studio album, Fine Line was doing numbers. He used SNL, like so many other artists do, to introduce us to new singles and promote the album. But after hosting the show for the first time and absolutely crushing it, it was mesmerizing to see him in his actual element. He could’ve fooled everyone that it wasn’t acting.
5: Lorde "- Green Light/Liability
as we all patiently wait for the next Lorde album to drop and cure us of coronavirus and our crippling anxiety & depression, we at least have this performance to look back on.
Who could forget Lorde’s erratic dance moves? The iconic headdress that made her look like the Bride of the Pope? The raw power that a stripped-down version of Liability has is honestly too great for this world.
6. Sia - Elastic Heart (2015)
If you’ve never seen this you are in for a treat. If you are actively still trying to forget this one, then I’m sorry. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my entire life. Also, a genuine question, who are Sia’s fans? Can you reveal yourself please? Or are you also hiding behind giant fake hair? It’s common knowledge now that Sia has attached herself to Abby Lee’s favorite Maddie Ziegler and has tapped her in for almost all her big creative projects (including her ableist decision to cast Zeigler in her upcoming film about neurodivergent people). So it really wasn’t a shock to see Ziegler back in the nude leotard that started it all when the stage was set for Elastic Heart. What was unsettling was an equally nude-leotard-clad adult version of Zeigler joining the stage. I’m all for artistic liberties but this one was just fucking bizarre.
7. Megan Thee Stallion - Savage Remix (2020)
“The most disrespected, unprotected, and neglected person in America is the black woman.” - Malcolm X.
Protect Black Women. The three words that lit up the SNL stage when Megan Thee Stallion absolutely crushed her performance of Savage.
In a more recent performance, first-time musical guest Megan Thee Stallion stole the show with her performances of Savage. Malcolm X’s 1962 “Who Taught You To Hate Yourself” speech blares in the background as Stallion (is that her last name? there’s no AP Stylebook entry on this) and her backup dancers smash their fists in the air, and you can feel the illusion of breaking a glass ceiling. She also used her spotlight to bring attention to the death of Breonna Taylor — and the immensely unjust and tragic police investigation that followed, — calling out Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron for his role in the case. To me - this deserved all the attention it got and more in the days and weeks after it aired.
8. Sinead O’Connor - Bob Marley’s War (1992)
She makes this list for being a fucking badass. In a completely acapella version of Bob Marley’s song “War,” O’Connor stares dead into the camera for the entirety of the song, and ends by ripping a photo of the Pope on stage while declaring “Fight the real enemy.” This was one of the most notorious scandals in SNL’s history, and though a 2021 performance like this probably would’ve been praised by fans and critics alike, O’Connor experienced a massive backlash. The network received over 4,000 phone calls complaining about her performance. SNL ended up banning her from the show for life. The following week, the actor Joe Pesci maliciously joked about “smacking her” in his monologue, which was met with tons of applause.
9: Paul Simon and George Harrison - Here Comes the Sun (1976)
The top Youtube comment under this video is “imagine Da Vinci and Michaelangelo collaborating on a work of art” and while kind of pretentious, I couldn’t agree more. The crossover episode of the 20th century for music nerds, there’s just a tranquil, unplugged, studio session kind of vibe that washes over you when you listen. And also who doesn’t have a soft spot for Here Comes the Sun? Oh, and not sure how true this is, but one of the other Youtube comments mentions that Lorne had to cut a three min skit because of all the applause Harrison received when he walked on stage. Because duh.
10: Kanye West -Seventh Time (2018)
No SNL list of batshit musical performances would be complete without Kanye’s infamous MAGA rant at the end of the show in 2018. West performed a record of three songs that night, an unusual switch to the steady formula SNL has of two musical intermissions. The cast and crew stood around him, silent and awkward, as West spiraled into a rant about being bullied for his MAGA hat and abolishing the 13th amendment. So my question for the guys bullying Phoebe Bridgers for wrecking her guitar and disrespecting the stage, where were you during this?
Rec Corner
bits and bops from the archive + the internet
what are the sounds of your school?
My friend recently sent us this TikTok of a bunch of Spotify playlists that were created based on the most-listened-to songs in the towns around the U.S.’s major universities. Can’t help but think my friends and I heavily contributed to Sammy Adams’ All Night Longer topping Mizzou’s playlist. Find your school’s here.
pinegrove movie
I’m not going to lie. My first few thoughts watching this were “what in the Wes Anderson bullshit is this.” But then it really grew on me. Visual albums are pretty dope and not something you see a ton anymore. Admittedly, I didn’t get through the whole thing because it’s 1:20 mins long lol. But the syncing of colors to different melodies and instruments and the whimsical tall tales told throughout the album makes even five mins of this video worth your while.
song of the week - 23 by Wallice
The special kind of quarter-life crisis that comes in your early 20s is hard to properly articulate, yet everyone feels it in their own way. It’s the first time in your life that your peers really start to verge down different paths. it’s dizzying, hard-to-process and naturally causes a ton of overthinking. should I be taking a gap year to travel and dick around before I start a full-time job? or should I be engaged and at home with a puppy right now? Wallice doesn’t have the answer either, but knowing we both miss our Ohio fake IDs is comforting enough.
that’s it for this week! thanks for coming along. as always, if you have any burning thoughts or questions about this week’s newsletter, feel free to reply directly to this email to get in touch!