Modern Day Grendel

So, there are many answers to the question of who would be considered a modern day Beowulf, but in order to complete the series, we must find a modern day Grendel as well. Contrary to popular belief, Grendel was not just a bloodthirsty killing machine by nature; he had an ulterior motive which gave him what he believed to be a reason to kill. However, in the process of trying to change the face of things and the ideas of people in the place which he lived, many could say he ended up making it worse. The act of him worsening the situation in which the people were in was more than likely unintentional, however, the bad things occurred nonetheless. With that being said, on a very far-fetched scale, I believe that some modern day “artists: as the so commonly tend to be referred could be considered Grendel-like people. Many new artists were advertising “good music” when they first began and some have quickly deviated from this ultimate goal due to the influences of the “reality” of what is around them. “Artists” such as Kanye West are pretty good examples. When Kanye West really and seriously first began his pursuit in hip hop music, he wanted to, like 90% of all other people in existence that make music, change the face of the music in which he specialized. Some of his earlier songs such as “Jesus Walks” and “All Falls Down” did not necessarily have a positive view on the world, but it was more so portraying a transition in which he may have gone from seeing the world as peaches and cream to the reality of which it was. However, I don’t believe that when this music was made, he was fully on the “dark side”, but just had time in his life which he came to several realizations. Now, looking at the music which he has recently been featured in or that he has written, there is a strong sense of vulgarity and anger and many bad and dark things found in the words which he uses. So, I compare Kanye West to Grendel because in the end, from all of his “realizations” and influences from other hip hop artists, he began to demean and tear down and “kill” the face of hip hop along with many other people. Now, I won’t go into too much depth about his modern songs because I try to sway away from listening to them as I am not very fond of certain songs by him, but the gradual and bitter turn that his music took could be in comparison to Grendel’s mindset and outlook on life.