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''Graduation'' is the third studio album by American hip hop recording artist and producer Kanye West. It was released on September 11, 2007 on Roc-A-Fella Records. Recording sessions for the album took place during 2005 to 2007 at Chung King Studios and Sony Music Studios in New York City and at Chalice Studios and The Record Plant in Los Angeles. It was primarily produced by West and DJ Toomp and features guest contributions from artists including Mos Def, Dwele, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, and Chris Martin of Coldplay. The album's cover artwork was designed by Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. West was inspired by Irish rock band U2 and other musical groups to make more inspirational, anthemic hip-hop music that would function well while he was performing in front of tens of thousands in large arenas, so he incorporated synthesizer sounds into his production and dabbled with electronic music, while sampling a wider spectrum of musical genres. Lyrically, ''Graduation'' is more introspective in comparison to its predecessors, as West dedicated much of the album towards analyzing himself and conveying his ambivalent outlook on his newfound fame. It continues the education theme of West's previous two studio albums, ''The College Dropout'' (2004) and ''Late Registration'' (2005). The album debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 957,000 copies in its first week. It produced five singles, including the international hits "Can't Tell Me Nothing", "Stronger", and "Good Life". The coinciding release dates of ''Graduation'' and rapper 50 Cent's ''Curtis'' generated much publicity over the idea of a sales competition, resulting in record-breaking sales performances by both albums. The outcome of the competition marks a turning point in hip-hop culture, when the dominance of gangsta rap in mainstream hip-hop was brought to an end. ''Graduation'' received positive reviews from most critics and earned West several accolades, including his third Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The album has sold 2,700,000 copies in the US and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. == Background == ''Graduation'' is the third installment of Kanye West's planned tetralogy of education-themed studio albums, which West subsequently later deviated from due to the events surrounding the conception of his fourth studio album, ''808s & Heartbreak''. The album demonstrates yet another distinctive progression in West's musical style and approach to production. After spending the previous year touring the world with Irish rock band U2 on their Vertigo Tour, West became inspired by watching Bono open the stadium tours every night to incredible ovations and sought out to compose anthemic rap songs that could operate more efficiently in large stadiums and arenas.〔 In West's attempt to accomplish this "stadium-status" endeavor, West incorporated layered electronic synthesizers into his hip-hop production, which also finds him utilizing slower tempos, being influenced by the music of the 1980s, and experimenting with electronic music.〔 Kanye West was particularly influenced by house music, a subgenre of electronic dance music that first originated in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois in the early 1980s.〔 West has stated that growing up, he would listen to hip-hop music at home or in his car, but when he felt like dancing, he would attend a house club. While he rarely listened to house at home, he still felt it was an important part of his culture and background. West further broadened his musical palette on ''Graduation'' by not limiting himself to his customary use of samples and interpolation from classic soul records and instead drew influences from a far more eclectic range of music genres. Along with house music, ''Graduation'' contains samples and music elements of euro-disco, hard rock, electronica, lounge, progressive rock, synth-pop, electro, krautrock, dub, reggae, and dancehall.〔〔Powers, Ann. 2007-09-10. (Hip-hop's Man of Two Minds ). ''Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved on 2009-10-06.〕 Also, for much of the third studio album, Kanye West modified his style of rapping and adopted a dilatory, exuberant flow in emulation of Bono's operatic vocal stylings.〔 West altered his vocabulary, he utilized less of the percussive, rhythmic consonants in favor of the more smoother, melodic vowel sounds. In addition to U2, West drew inspiration from other arena rock bands such as The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin for the melodies and chord progressions of his songs. In terms of lyricism, he simplifies some of his rhymes after touring with The Rolling Stones on their A Bigger Bang concert tour and discovering he could not electrify the audience as well with his most complex lyrical themes.〔 West made a conscious decision to abstain from the widespread recording practice of excessive rap albums saturated with skits and filler and instead comprised ''Graduation'' with significantly fewer tracks.〔 He also chose to scale back on the guest appearances, limiting himself to just one single guest rap verse on the entire studio album.〔 The stylistic divergence and desire for a leaner, more economical studio album was a creative reaction that was brought on by the alternative rock and indie-rock that West had been listening to around the time of the recording of his third studio album.〔 West cites the rock bands The Killers, Keane, Modest Mouse, and indie-pop singer-songwriter Feist, whom he also looked towards for songwriting inspiration, for being among his favorite musicians and having considerably profound influence on the sound of ''Graduation''.〔〔 Largely due to all this and the inclusion of the layered electronic synthesizers, West believed that his record took hip-hop in a different direction. But he also acknowledged the fact that the differences did not right away and without a doubt make ''Graduation'' a good album. However, he felt it was a representation of the music he was listening to at that time.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Graduation (album)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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