UCLA Department of Musicology presents
“Being the Cowboy: Mitski’s Rewriting of Gender
Roles in Indie Rock”
Jenna Ure
“
Waitress
! Equalitea and Pie, Please”
Irena Huang
“A Possible Resolution for the Complicated
Feelings Revolving Around Tyler, the Creator”
Isabel Nakoud
“Dissonant Ones: The Harmony of Lou Reed and
John Cale”
Gabriel Deibel
“Boy Band: Intersecting Gender, Age, Sexuality,
and Capitalism”
Grace Li
“Writing About Music”
Winter 2020
Vol. 1, No. 1
MUSE
An Undergraduate Research Journal
2 3
UCLA Department of Musicology presents
Editor-in-Chief
Matthew Gilbert
Managing Editor
Alana Chester
Review Editor
Karen Thantrakul
Technical Editors
J.W. Clark
Liv Slaby
Gabriel Deibel
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Elisabeth Le Guin
Volume 1, Number 1
Winter 2020
MUSE
Introduction from the Editors
Being the Cowboy: Mitski’s Rewriting of Gender Roles in Indie
Rock
Jenna Ure
Waitress
! Equalitea and Pie, Please
Irena Huang
Dissonant Ones: The Harmony of Lou Reed and John Cale
Gabriel Deibel
Boy Band: Intersecting Gender, Age, Sexuality, and Capitalism
Grace Li
A Possible Resolution for the Complicated Feelings Revolving
Around Tyler, the Creator
Isabel Nakoud
Closing notes
An Undergraduate Research Journal
Contents
4
6
16
26
36
46
62
4 5
Li’s discussion of the exploitation of boy band One Direction, Gabriel
Deibel’s essay on the inuence of John Cale on the Velvet Underground’s
experimental sound, a feminist exploration by Irena Huang of the musical
Waitress (composed by a UCLA alumnus, Sara Bareilles), and a critique
of the music industry through indie singer Mitski’s music by Jenna Ure.
We’ve learned a lot through the process of starting an undergraduate
journal, most notably how much work goes into crafting something that’s
actually worth reading, and we’re of the opinion that we really did. We
wanted to do this because of something that we learned from a quarter of
active listening: if people are speaking, or writing, or singing, or playing––
we want to hear it. Every voice deserves an audience. There are obvious
benets to the authors for going through this process, and benets for us
in getting to practice our editing skills, but we believe there is a benet
for you as well. America has rapidly become a place where there’s a lot of
talking, a lot of arguing, but very little listening. Hopefully, this journal
will provide an opportunity for all of us to practice our listening skills.
We would like to thank our authors, Gabriel Deibel, Irena Huang,
Grace Li, Isabel Nakoud, and Jenna Ure; Professor Le Guin, for her
support and guidance in starting this journal; our editorial board, for
their committed work in preparing the articles; The event-planning team,
Torrey Bubien, Lori McMahan, and Liv Slaby for putting this together;
Professor Le Guin’s 12W, Writing About Music class for providing
their articles for our inaugural edition; and a special thanks to Amanda
Armstrong for her help in arranging meetings, scheduling and planning
this event, and generally keeping this school running. I would also like to
acknowledge JW Clark, a transfer musicology student, for providing the
initial spark to get this project started.
In conclusion, we would like to thank you all for coming out and
supporting this journal. This has been a learning process, learning how
to actively listen in our own lives, learning how to edit papers, learning
how to put together a launch event. Everyone has worked so hard to get
this done and I know that we learned a lot and so we hope you enjoy it.
Thank you.
Introduction
Alana Chester, Matthew Gilbert, and Karen
Thantrakul
We, the editors, would like to welcome you to the launch of
MUSE, UCLA’s rst undergraduate journal publishing student work in
music scholarship. We really appreciate the support we have received
over the last few weeks getting this journal up and running.
MUSE is a project of both the undergraduate musicology
department, and the Active Listening Club, UCLA’s rst musicology-
based club. The idea of a club came to us last year in a meeting with Emily
Spitz, the undergraduate student advisor for the Herb Alpert School of
Music, one afternoon. Alana was talking to Emily about how much she
loves this department and how she feels so blessed to be surrounded by
such wonderful people, with such diverse interests. She made a comment
about wanting to have some sort of club where our cohort could just get
together and talk about music. Emily told her if she wanted to, she could
start one. So, she did.
In Active Listening Club, we get to understand how many diverse
musical tastes there are even amongst our small and collective student
body. The club offers a space for people to share what they are passionate
about, just as our journal will hopefully be a space where people can
share what they are passionate about. Our rst edition includes selected
essays from Professor Le Guin’s 12W, Writing About Music class. Four
of the ve essays we chose to publish are from non-music or musicology
majors, which is hopefully a testament to the quality of Professor Le
Guin’s teaching and the wonderful education that UCLA provides and
not a testament to how easy it is to write about music. Just as in Listening
Club, we have a diverse range of topics, including a paper by Isabel
Nakoud about her relationship to rapper Tyler, the Creator’s music, Grace
Adapted from the introduction to the MUSE launch event.
Introduction Introduction
7
6
Being the Cowboy: Mitski’s Rewriting of
Gender Roles in Indie Rock
Jenna Ure
I
n January of 2012, Mitski Miyawaki released her rst album, Lush,
consisting of nine songs which she produced and recorded by herself.
Since then, she has released four more albums, opened for artists such as
the Pixies and Lorde, and sold out shows for her own solo tours. Despite
her success, however, Mitski’s critical reception has demonstrated her
inability to break through the periphery of the indie rock scene, with
critics having long portrayed her as the genre’s outsider. As an Asian-
American woman, her presence in the genre has been persistently seen
as an unlikely divergence from the traditional mold of an indie rock
musician, a theme which is reected in her music. Although indie music
has traditionally been dominated by white, male artists, I argue that
Mitski’s music has played a role in renegotiating stereotypes in the genre.
By stepping into masculine archetypes while maintaining elements in her
music that are typically seen as feminine, Mitski illuminates the ways in
which female artists in indie rock have previously been limited while also
expanding the space which women have been allowed to occupy within
music.
From its inception, indie rock was built primarily around a set
of attitudes rather than a specic sound. Inspired by the do-it-yourself
ethos of punk, early indie rock artists aimed to preserve the trademarks
of rock‘n’roll while rejecting its commercial pressures.
1
In an attempt
to gain greater creative autonomy, artists began to release their work on
independent labels. Furthermore, they embraced amateurism as a form of
“authenticity” rather than adopting rock music’s reverence for virtuosity.
Indie rock came to be characterized as a scene where mists and rebels
1. Matthew Bannister, “‘Loaded’: Indie Guitar Rock, Canonism, White Masculinities,”
Popular Music 25, no. 1 (2006): 77–80. www.jstor.org/stable/3877544.
could have a voice and explore sounds and subjects that would not have
t into the traditional, aggressive rock‘n’roll mold. However, despite this
image of inclusivity, indie rock was unable to fully dissociate itself from
rock music’s masculine connotations–– the genre and its canons have long
been comprised of primarily male musicians. When listing the best indie
rock artists of all time, rock guides most commonly cite all-male bands
such as The Smiths, Pearl Jam, or R.E.M., while female rock performers
are scarcely mentioned. This male-dominated hegemony has received
pushback in the past, with movements such as Riot Grrrl ghting for a
more active role for women within the rock scene. Unfortunately, these
movements have been limited in their success. For example, although Riot
Grrrl successfully empowered young women to claim space in a realm
where they had previously been invisible, the movement has been widely
criticized for excluding women who did not belong to its white, middle-
class demographic.
2
Thus, indie rock has remained a predominantly
homogeneous scene in which women or people of color are perceived as
an anomaly.
One of the ways in which this gender divide has been upheld is
through the prevailing notion of rockism, the belief that music should be
valued based on principles of authenticity, innovation, and originality.
3
Historically, this subjective evaluation system has functioned to position
masculine genres and qualities as meaningful, while deeming those
perceived as feminine as supercial or trivial. Within the rock genre,
these gendered biases manifest through the ways in which artists are
deemed authentic or original. Physical displays of aggression, spectacle,
and bravado are often seen as hallmarks of a “true” musician, allowing
masculinity to be associated with virtuosity and femininity with artice.
4
For example, bands such as the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin,
who are often heralded as rock’s heroes, were praised for their distinct
2. Addie Shrodes, “The ‘Race Riot’ Within and Without ‘The Grrrl One’; Ethnoracial Grrrl
Zines’ Tactical Construction of Space” (B.A. thesis, University of Michigan, 2012), 65.
3. Max McKenna, “Reactionary Rockism: The Dangerous Obsession with ‘Authenticity’
in Indie Rock,” Popmatters, August 13, 2018, www.popmatters.com/reactionary-
rockism-2595467402.html.
4. Marion Leonard, Gender in the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power (UK:
Routledge, 2017), 43-50.
Jenna Ure
Being the Cowboy
8 9
sounds like it might more ttingly belong to the pop genre. However, as
the song continues, the background drums and fuzzy guitar gradually
build, becoming more urgent until culminating in a wall of sound at the
chorus which is similar to that featured heavily in classic indie rock. At
the same time, Mitski sings “Your mother wouldn’t approve of how my
mother raised me / But I do, I think I do / And you’re an all-American boy
/ I guess I couldn’t help trying to be your best American girl.” Through
the timing of these two elements, the song has been interpreted as being,
“...in direct conversation with the very notion of the indie rock canon.”
9
This idea is further emphasized in the song’s music video, in which
Mitski is shown irting with the “all-American boy” her lyrics reference
before he rejects her for someone else. For a moment, Mitski watches the
two of them, looking despondent and confused. However, in a few frames
the narrative changes as she begins to kiss her own hand, and the object
of her affection shifts to become herself. In doing so, she emphatically
rejects the idea of changing aspects of yourself to win over someone’s
acceptance or love and instead embraces her own identity.
Mitski’s refusal to shy away from aspects of her identity can be
seen throughout her entire catalog. Despite having negative connotations
within rock, she has previously described her music as unquestionably
feminine, albeit not in the conventional sense. In one interview with the
Guardian, she explains, “When I say feminine album, immediately the
perception is that it must be soft and lovely, but I mean feminine in the
violent sense. Desiring, but not being able to dene your desire, wanting
power but being powerless and blaming it on yourself, or just hurting
yourself as a way to let out the aggression in you.”
10
This can be seen
most clearly in her live performances and her lyrics, which constantly
switch between intimate and soft to violent and aggressive. During her
shows, for example, Mitski will often open with a bloodcurdling scream
before launching into lyrics about “kisses like pink cotton candy” and
“killer heels.” These hints of harshness are also exaggerated through the
9. Jillian Mapes, “Mitski: Puberty 2,” Pitchfork, June 22, 2016, pitchfork.com/reviews/
albums/21970-puberty-2/.
10. Alexandra Pollard, “Indie-Rock Star Mitski: ‘I’m Waiting for Everyone to Decide to Hate
Me’,” The Guardian, August 23, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/23/indie-
rock-star-mitski-new-album-rave-reviews-japanese-american-songwriter.
performance styles which featured exaggerated displays of physicality
and sexuality. Through this framework, the status quo is maintained in
which male musicians are assumed to be rock’s true innovators while
female musicians are seen as mere imitators.
Against this backdrop, it becomes apparent why Mitski is often
regarded as indie’s “underdog to root for.”
5
Having spent the majority
of her career producing songs, booking tours, and promoting her music
herself, Mitski experienced rst-hand the many barriers of entry that
remain for women in music. As a young girl, she never considered a
career in music due to the lack of female Asian-American musicians,
once saying, “I got a really late start playing music because I didn’t grow
up seeing anyone who looked like me, or had my background.”
6
Even
after she began releasing songs, she found that this lack of representation
impacted the way that she was perceived as a musician. When booking
her own shows, for example, she recalls having to sell out small venues
before being allowed to play larger ones, “despite seeing indie rock bands
of four white dudes being allowed to play these venues without having
to prove anything.”
7
Her songs, which typically hover around the three-
minute mark, also reect this idea of having to prove her value as an
artist. In a 2018 interview, she explained, “I’ve never been someone who
is listened to [...] I learned from a young age to be concise because there’s
a very small window for me to grab someone’s attention.”
8
Unlike her
male counterparts, Mitski had to constantly ght to be heard.
In her music, Mitski continues to confront ideas about who
“belongs” in indie rock. This is most explicit in her song “Your Best
American Girl,” the lead single on her album Puberty 2 (2016). Featuring
a catchy melody and lyrics that describe an ill-fated love, the song at rst
5. Suzy Exposito, “Mitski Is an Underdog Worth Rooting For,” Suzy X., November 21, 2014,
https://suzyx.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/mitski-is-an-underdog-worth-rooting-for/.
6. Daniel Kohn, “Mitski’s Indie Honesty: ‘Hype Doesn’t Play My Shows,’” The Village
Voice, June 11, 2015, https://www.villagevoice.com/2015/06/11/mitskis-indie-honesty-hype-
doesnt-play-my-shows/.
7. Ryan Bradford, “Mitski Shakes up the Indie-Rock Scene,” San Diego City Beat, April
11, 2017, https://www.sdcitybeat.com/archive/mitski-shakes-up-the-indie-rock-scene/arti-
cle_86db64b6-6bce-59c2-b25b-668581c1974f.html.
8. Emma Finamore, “Being Her Own Cowboy,” The Line of Best Fit, August 14, 2018,
thelineofbestt.com/features/longread/mitski-being-her-own-cowboy-interview-2018.
Jenna Ure
Being the Cowboy
10 11
In the “Geyser” music video, this idea can be seen in the contrast between
Mitski’s theatricality and her knowing, controlled gazes at the camera.
Thus, through the song, Mitski critiques how women are denied claims
of originality.
This idea of subverting gender expectations lies at the very heart
of Be the Cowboy. When discussing her inspiration for the album title,
Mitski explains that she wanted to “...be the cowboy you wish to see in
the world … What would a white guy say? What would a swaggering
cowboy riding into town do in this situation?”
13
For Mitski, being the
cowboy means having the freedom to make the music that she wants
and to be unapologetically herself. By stepping into celebrated male
archetypes, she refuses to conform to tropes and demonstrates how our
ideas of gender are moldeable and changeable.
One could argue, however, that Mitski’s success reects how the
landscape in music has changed. In the last decade, rockism has begun to
lose its dominance in music criticism, giving rise to poptimism. Poptimism
maintains the belief that pop music is just as valuable and deserving of
serious critique as rock and rejects the image of pop as simple or devoid
of meaning.
14
With this shift, poptimism’s love of articiality and the
synthetic has come to overshadow old ideals of authenticity, allowing
artists a greater freedom to explore theatricality and personas. Musicians
such as Lana Del Rey, who was initially criticized as a fraud when she
began releasing songs in 2012, are now embraced for their artistic vision.
Thus, through this shift, authenticity is losing its value as a means to
justify who “belongs” in indie rock, allowing for greater representation
of female artists.
Despite this shift in the way that music is valued, institutional
change has yet to follow. Advances in technology have made it easier
for aspiring artists to produce and record their own music, which has
allowed more female musicians to circumvent traditional barriers to
album-the-ugliness-in-ourselves-and-outsider-art.
13. Raisa Bruner, “Mitski Is Here for the Outsiders in Music,” Time, August 9, 2018, time.
com/5362180/mitski-be-the-cowboy/.
14. Alex Abad-Santos and Constance Grady, “How Lana Del Rey’s Career Explains a
Huge Shift in the Way We Think about Pop Stars,” Vox, October 30, 2019, www.vox.com/
culture/2019/10/30/20853231/lana-del-rey-authenticity-career-norman-fucking-rockwell.
production of her songs. When creating her most recent album, Be the
Cowboy, she stopped polishing off vocal aws or doubling the vocals
in order to create a sound which she describes as “brash, [...] not soft
and giving–– all the sounds are sort of opinionated.”
11
Through this
combination of elements which are often deemed masculine with those
that are overtly feminine, Mitski creates a sense of dissonance in her
music that tends to disarm the listener and subvert expectations. In doing
so, she highlights how only a small subset of this full range of emotions
is expected from women.
Mitski further explores gender biases in her song “Geyser,”
which she wrote about her relationship with music. The song begins
softly as Mitski croons “You’re my number one / You’re the one I want,”
personifying music as an unconventional lover. As the song continues,
however, the subdued sounds of the organ and strings in the background
gradually build as drums and guitars are slowly layered in. Finally, at the
chorus, the song breaks into a violent crescendo as Mitski sings “Though
I’m a geyser, feel it bubbling from below / Hear it call, hear it call, hear
it call to me, constantly.” In the music video, Mitski is featured on the
beach singing into the camera. Moments before the chorus, she smirks at
the camera before turning and running away. In what appears as a t of
madness, Mitski begins screaming the lyrics and collapses to the sand,
crawling along the shore before desperately digging at the sand. Seen in
the context of her relationship to music, this song and music video can be
interpreted as a reaction to descriptions of her music as autobiographical or
confessional. Despite her control over the work she produces, her creative
agency is often ignored by critics. Mitski has previously commented on
this view of her work, saying in an interview with Time Out:
It just bafes me how so many men can’t imagine that I own my brain, or that
the things I make come from me. It’s not that some light from God shines
through me and I don’t understand what’s going on. ‘It just pours out of her,
it’s just her being honest.’ But I’m like ‘I worked on this, this is what I study!’
How can you take everything that I’ve painstakingly crafted and say, ‘it’s just
her diary.’
12
11. Finamore, “Being Her Own Cowboy.”
12. Ro S, “Mitski Talks Her New Album, the Ugliness in Ourselves and Outsider Art,”
TimeOut, June 17, 2016, https://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/mitski-talks-her-new-
Jenna Ure Being the Cowboy
12 13
Works Cited
Abad-Santos, Alex, and Constance Grady. “How Lana Del Rey’s Career
Explains a Huge Shift in the Way We Think about Pop Stars.” Vox,
October 30, 2019. www.vox.com/culture/2019/10/30/20853231/lana-
del-rey-authenticity-career-norman-fucking-rockwell.
Bannister, Matthew. “‘Loaded’: Indie Guitar Rock, Canonism, White
Masculinities.” Popular Music 25, no. 1 (January 2006): 77–95. https://
www.jstor.org/stable/3877544.
Bradford, Ryan. “Mitski Shakes up the Indie-Rock Scene.” San Diego
City Beat, April 11, 2017. https://www.sdcitybeat.com/archive/mitski-
shakes-up-the-indie-rock-scene/article_86db64b6-6bce-59c2-b25b-
668581c1974f.html.
Bruner, Raisa. “Mitski Is Here for the Outsiders in Music.” Time, August
9, 2018. time.com/5362180/mitski-be-the-cowboy/.
Exposito, Suzy. “Mitski Is an Underdog Worth Rooting For.” Suzy X.,
November 21, 2014. https://suzyx.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/mitski-is-
an-underdog-worth-rooting-for/.
Finamore, Emma. “Being Her Own Cowboy.” The Line of Best Fit,
August 14, 2018. https://www.thelineofbestt.com/features/longread/
mitski-being-her-own-cowboy-interview-2018.
Kohn, Daniel. “Mitski’s Indie Honesty: ‘Hype Doesn’t Play My
Shows.’” The Village Voice, June 11, 2015. https://www.villagevoice.
com/2015/06/11/mitskis-indie-honesty-hype-doesnt-play-my-shows/.
Leonard, Marion. “Gender and Indie Rock Music.” In Gender in the
Music Industry: Rock, Discourse and Girl Power, 43–50. Ashgate
Publishing, Ltd., 2007.
Mapes, Jillian. “Mitski: Puberty 2.” Pitchfork, June 22, 2016. https://
www. pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21970-puberty-2/.
McKenna, Max. “Reactionary Rockism: The Dangerous Obsession with
‘Authenticity’ in Indie Rock.” Popmatters, August 13, 2018. www.
popmatters.com/reactionary-rockism-2595467402.html.
Mitchum, Rob, and Diego Garcia-Olano. “Tracking the Gender Balance
of This Year’s Music Festival Lineups.” Pitchfork, May 1, 2018. https://
www.pitchfork.com/features/festival-report/tracking-the-gender-
entry and is reected in the increased numbers of women in the top
charts of popular genres. However, women’s contributions to music are
still devalued or are left unacknowledged.
15
For example, male artists still
dominate music festival lineups and are more likely to receive awards
for their work.
16
Additionally, recent controversies with female artists
being denied ownership over their work, such as Solange being called
the face of her work while her producer was attributed the credit for her
success, demonstrate how women still struggle to be seen as auteurs.
Thus, although Mitski has helped broaden the role that women have been
allowed to occupy in music, change is still needed. In order to improve
the diversity of voices heard, we must consider what biases and barriers
of entry into the music industry still exist for marginalized groups.
15. Stacy L. Smith, Marc L. Choueiti, and Katherine L. Pieper, “Inclusion in the Recording
Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists, Songwriters & Producers across 600 Popular
Songs from 2012-2017” (USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, January 2018), http://assets.
uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-recording-studio.pdf.
16. Rob Mitchum and Diego Garcia-Olano, “Tracking the Gender Balance of This Year’s
Music Festival Lineups,” Pitchfork, May 1, 2018, pitchfork.com/features/festival-report/track-
ing-the-gender-balance-of-this-years-music-fe stival-lineups.
Jenna Ure Being the Cowboy
14 15
balance-of-this-years-music-festival-lineups/.
Mitski. “Your Best American Girl.” YouTube, 13 April 2016, https://
youtu.be/u_hDHm9MD0I.
Mitski. “Geyser.” YouTube, 14 May 2018, https://youtu.be/3zdFZJf-B90.
Pollard, Alexandra. “Indie-Rock Star Mitski: ‘I’m Waiting for Everyone
to Decide to Hate Me.’” The Guardian, August 23, 2018. https://www.
th1eguardian.com/music/2018/aug/23/indie-rock-star-mitski-new-
album-rave-reviews-japanese-american-songwriter.
S, Ro. “Mitski Talks Her New Album, the Ugliness in Ourselves
and Outsider Art.” TimeOut, June 17, 2016. https://www.timeout.
com/newyork/music/mitski-talks-her-new-album-the-ugliness-in-
ourselves-and-outsider-art.
Smith, Stacy L., Marc L. Choueiti, and Katherine L. Pieper. “ Inclusion
in the Recording Studio? Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Artists,
Songwriters & Producers across 600 Popular Songs from 2012-2017.”
USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, January 2018. http://assets.
uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-recording-studio.pdf.
Shrodes, Addie. “The ‘Race Riot’ Within and Without ‘The Grrrl One’;
Ethnoracial Grrrl Zines’ Tactical Construction of Space.” BA, thesis.
University of Michigan, 2012.
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Jenna Ure Being the Cowboy
17
16
Waitress
! Equalitea And Pie, Please
Irena Huang
T
he Broadway musical Waitress is a feminist triumph. Based on the
2007 lm of the same name and adapted from a book by Jessie
Nelson, the storyline went through multiple iterations before making
a colorful splash on Broadway in April 2016 at the Brooks Atkinson
Theatre. It’s the rst musical in Broadway history with an all-female
primary creative team, scored by six-time Grammy Award-nominated
singer-songwriter Sara Barellies, choreographed by Lorin Latarro, and
directed by Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus.
1
The show has been
criticized as predictable, cliche, and too reliant on character tropes,
reecting its characters as shallow and stereotypically feminine. At the
heart of the show is Jenna, originally played onstage by Tony Award-
winner Jessie Mueller, a virtuoso pie baker stuck in an abusive marriage
and dealing with an unintentional pregnancy. Supported by her two best
friends and fellow waitresses, she ultimately aspires to win a pie-baking
contest, the nancial reward from which would enable her to leave her
husband.
2
Jenna, a [quote the song] woman, [address the affair in the
context of her character arc -- talk about her complexity and pursuit of
happiness] She’s supported by her two best friends, fellow waitresses at
the diner, and her story is told in full; a beautiful portrayal of a woman
who is lonely, reckless, kind, scared, and strong. Waitress has been
written off as modestly charming and void of dramatic altitude, yet I
argue that the musical is dynamic, powerful, and champions feminist
1. Mark A. Robinson, “Long-Running Hit Waitress Begins Final Six Months on Broadway,”
Broadway Direct, July 16, 2019, https://broadwaydirect.com/long-running-hit-waitress-
begins-nal-six-months-on-broadway/.
2. Danielle Feder, “Feminism and Femininity in Broadway’s Waitress,” HowlRound Theatre
Commons, August 2, 2016, https://howlround.com/feminism-and-femininity-broadways-
waitress.
ideals, both behind-the-scenes and on the Broadway stage. The creative
team has made history with its record number of female representation
at the executive level.
3
While theatre critics are right to point out that on
the surface the musical follows a cliche plot with familiar characters, the
production is a powerful piece of feminist artwork because it provides a
space that allows audiences to see stereotypes turned on their heads and
emphasizes the main characters that are each dened separately from a
man, have the autonomy to make both good and bad decisions, and are
relentlessly supportive of each other.
In the summer of 2019, I packed my bags and moved to New York
City for the three-month break. I decided to see Waitress my rst weekend
in the city and I was blown away. As soon as I stepped foot inside the
lobby of the Brooks Atkinson Theatre located in the heart of Manhattan,
I was hit with the smell of freshly baked pie, welcoming me into the diner
where Jenna nds escape from her troubles. Pies frame the proscenium in
spinning display towers, the stage curtain features the familiar criss-cross
pattern of a fruit pie, and theatregoers are able to purchase miniature
pies before taking their seats, evoking a feminine, domestic space before
the show even begins.
4
The production’s pie-centric branding cites both
Jenna’s passion and her traditional duties as an American wife. The
saying “A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” applies to the
characters in the show, as well as the audience members; when Jenna
bakes a pie, her married gynecologist, Dr. Pomatter, falls in love with her,
as does her invested audience. The show’s credited Pie Consultant Stacy
Donnelly bakes the pies that the cast eats on stage, as well as the mini
pies which are sold at the show; this new creative role furthers a feminist
agenda by afrming that domestic arts are indeed arts, legitimate and
culture-dening.
Waitress, although fun and creative, does follow a familiar plot:
A small-town girl, after going through some hoops and hurdles, nally
breaks free and lives independently. The musical has received criticism
for having a “chick-ick plot,” and being a “tourist-trap rom-com that has
3. Sloane Crosley, “Inside the Making of Waitress, the First Broadway Musical with an
All-Female Creative Team,” Vanity Fair, November 14, 2018, https://www.vanityfair.com/cul-
ture/2016/04/waitress-broadway-musical.
4. Feder, “Feminism and Femininity in Broadway’s Waitress.”
Irena Huang
Waitress! Equalitea and Pie, Please
18 19
little to offer;” according to Terry Teachout for the Wall Street Journal, it is
as “familiar as a cafeteria salad.”
5
He assumes that artistically signicant
musical theatre has to be unfamiliar and challenging, but that is simply
not the case. A common device implemented in musicals is the “marriage
trope,” a term coined by Raymond Knapp, which refers to the success or
failure of a character’s personal relationships serving as a marker for the
resolution or continuation of other issues at large.
6
The “marriage trope”
is commonly used in American musicals to clue the audience into the
bigger picture, and Waitress is no exception. In fact, the solidication of
the American musical as a revered art form stemmed from the need to
dene and rene what precisely it meant to be American.
7
Personally, I
believe being American means ghting for equality amongst all people.
In 2020, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the passage of
the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. However, the
ght for gender equality is ongoing, and messages still need to be heard
about what uplifts women and what suppresses them. Musicals bring
audiences together within a constructed community and sends those
audiences into a larger community armed with songs to be shared, which
is what Waitress achieves.
8
Waitress is domestic, homey, and familiar
in its American comforts. My experience of this show compelled me
to tell all of my friends and colleagues about it, sharing the songs from
its soundtrack to all of my social media platforms and showering the
message with praise.
Jenna opens the show crooning “sugar, butter, our” like a
lullaby, introducing a major musical motif and establishing herself as the
unhappy protagonist clinging to her one talent: baking pies. At the urging
of her best friends, Becky and Dawn, Jenna takes a pregnancy test, which
conrms her greatest fear: she is pregnant with her husband’s child. The
5. Terry Teachout, “‘Waitress’ Review: Skimpy on the Filling,” The Wall Street Jour-
nal, April 25, 2016, https://www.wsj.com/articles/waitress-review-skimpy-on-the-ll-
ing-1461619765.
6. Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), .
7. Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006), .
8. Ibid.
central conict of the musical is domestic abuse, shown through Jenna’s
husband’s verbal and emotional cruelty and his threats of physical
violence. Though he is unable to hold a job, Earl believes that Jenna’s tips
belong to him, even chastising her for not making enough and taking her
earnings to spend as he pleases.
9
Earl takes every dollar Jenna earns and
goes so far as to make her promise him she won’t love their child more
than she loves him. As the musical reaches its climax, Earl discovers and
conscates Jenna’s stash of money intended to aid in her escape. She is
unable to compete in the neighboring county’s pie contest and surrenders
to her prison-like marriage. At her lowest point, Jenna sings “She Used
to be Mine,” an emotionally intricate song through which Jenna analyzes
her inner conicts and complexities: “She is messy, but she’s kind / She is
lonely most of the time.” She acknowledges her mistakes, her aws, and
the regret she’s allowed to puncture her self-esteem.
10
She admits that
having a child was not how she envisioned her life panning out, telling
her unborn child, “You’re not what I asked for / If I’m honest, I know I
would give it all back / For a chance to start over and rewrite an ending
or two.” By the end of the song, Jenna nds her voice and the will to
ght for a brighter future, “regenerating the woman within her,” in a raw
portrayal of feminism taking shape.
11
Jessie Mueller’s performance of this
gut-wrenching song features a melody that soars, then recedes in waves,
becoming almost a whisper at times. In the climactic bridge, Mueller
sings, “Growing stronger each day ‘til it nally reminds her / To ght
just a little, to bring back the re in her eyes / That’s been gone, but used
to be mine,” hitting a high note during the word “nally” and sustaining
a powerful belt on the words “re” and “mine.” The emphasis on these
words evokes the nuances of self-doubt, loneliness, and helplessness in
situations of female disenfranchisement. To admit powerlessness yet
9. Paul Taylor, “Waitress, Adelphi Theatre, Review: ‘This Show Is the Real Deal,’” The
Independent, March 8, 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/
reviews/waitress-adelphi-theatre-london-review-a8811911.html.
10. Charles Isherwood, “Review: Jessie Mueller Serves a Slice of Life (With Pie) in
Sara Bareilles’s ‘Waitress,’” The New York Times, April 24, 2016, https://www.nytimes.
com/2016/04/25/theater/review-jessie-mueller-serves-a-slice-of-life-with-pie-in-sara-
bareilless-waitress.html.
11. Ibid.
Irena Huang
Waitress! Equalitea and Pie, Please
20 21
pledge to ght back and become stronger is a stand for feminism. My
heart is swept up along with the song and I yearn for Jenna to nd the
happy ending she deserves.
In a New York Times conversation piece between Alexis Soloski
and Laura Collins-Hughes, the musical was repeatedly denounced for
tolerating bullying behavior and Jenna’s attitude change following the
birth of her baby being “creepy and reactionary,” because, for the majority
of the show, Jenna seems to not want the baby at all.
12
I argue that that is
due to her explicit fear of becoming a bad mother and having to raise her
child in an abusive household. Once Jenna leaves Earl, it is clear that she
is a loving, protective mother, as she always would have been. Soloski
even states, “That the show is popular with female audiences mysties
me. I don’t read it as empowering.”
13
The fact that a musical produced
by an all-female creative team isn’t feminist enough is discouraging; if
a similar show was created with men at the forefront, they’d be lauded
for at least trying. Waitress presents strong female characters who exist
independently of and are hindered by men while they are supported by
their fellow female condants. It’s disheartening that critics have deemed
a musical in which the men exist only in relation to the women as a
“dull”and empty failure.
14
Beyond drawing criticism for the storyline and characters,
Waitress has also dissuaded some theatre critics with its score. Terry
Teachout degrades Sara Bareilles as:
a not-quite-famous singer-songwriter… [who] has no notion of how to write
for the stage. Her tunes are at and unmemorably unhummable, and she
shoves so many words into each stanza that none of them stand out: ‘But he
could be criminal / Some sort of psychopath who escaped from an institution
/ Somewhere where they don’t have girls / He could have masterminded some
way to nd me / He could be color blind, how untrustworthy is that?’
15
Taken from the song “When He Sees Me,” these lyrics depict a relatable
12. Laura Collins-Hughes and Alexis Soloski, “Broadway May Not Be So White, but Is It
Woman Enough?” The New York Times, May 31, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/
theater/women-on-broadway-a-year-of-living-dangerously.html.
13. Ibid.
14. Teachout, “‘Waitress’ Review: Skimpy on the Filling.”
15. Ibid.
and quirky bout of anxious thoughts that swirl in the mind of Dawn, one
of the supporting characters who has her own dating ascos to worry
about, even as she offers emotional support to Jenna. While Teachout
deems these lyrics “hard to follow” and claims that, “Waitress loses
dramatic altitude whenever the characters start singing,” I believe the
opposite.
16
The lyrics, augmented by the memorable and exciting score
and artfully delivered by the actors’ performance skills, carry the entire
show and establish the foundation for a musical all about putting women
rst.
While Charles Isherwood, a theatre critic for The New York
Times, marks Waitress as a “remarkable jukebox musical” with
characters as at as “comic book cartoons,” I argue that this is not the
case.
17
Not only are all the female characters positively represented as
honest and good people, each supporting character has a eshed-out
backstory and arc. Jenna and her coworkers, Becky and Dawn, are
a trio of close friends who support each other through their hardships
and mistakes. Each woman is fully dened and prioritizes her female
friendships over eeting romantic interests.
18
While Jenna’s dealing with
the crisis of an unplanned pregnancy and an extramarital affair, Becky
has her own torrid love affair with Cal, the manager at the diner. Dawn
also dips her toes in the shallow end of the dating pool at the advice
of her friends. After much reluctance, she meets Ogie, the only male
character to have more than one solo number in the entire musical. His
introduction song, “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me,” is effervescent and
vivacious with electric guitar riffs and playful cymbal crashes, but his
pursuit soon becomes aggressive, an edge accentuated by the song’s
driving rock style: “I will never let you let me leave / I love you means
you’re never, ever, ever getting rid of me.” Ogie represents the same kind
of harassment that plagues Jenna and Earl’s abusive marriage, and the
audience cringes when he refuses to leave the diner where Dawn works
after their rst date. Once Ogie sings the catchy and frustratingly funny,
16. Teachout, “‘Waitress’ Review: Skimpy on the Filling.”
17. Isherwood, “Review: Jessie Mueller Serves a Slice of Life (With Pie) in Sara Bareilles’s
‘Waitress.’”
18. Feder, “Feminism and Femininity in Broadway’s Waitress.”
Irena Huang
Waitress! Equalitea and Pie, Please
22 23
“Never Ever Getting Rid of Me,” his charm and comedic timing softens
the hearts of those watching, encouraging the spectators to disregard his
disturbing behavior.
19
Later on, Dawn falls in love with him, suggesting
the troubling notion that abuse is validated if the abuser seems non-
threatening. Waitress subtly perpetuates a confounding double standard
about a serious issue that women struggle with every day.
20
The musical
goes beyond using Dawn and Ogie’s relationship as a foil to Jenna and
Earl’s, presenting a detailed assessment of their relationship that questions
whether or not relentless pursuit is acceptable. The show adds texture to
the standard narrative, introducing a less recognized type of emotional
suffering. While Dawn and Ogie ultimately ending up together may not
be a completely satisfying resolution, it can be forgiven as one of the few
aws of the musical. However, Waitress still stands as substantial and
dense with topics that need to be addressed that bring attention to the
women, in the right ways.
I disagree with the claims that Bareilles’ tunes are at or
unmemorable or unhummable–– if anything, they’re the opposite. Each
track swells with creative musical elements that range from the quirkiest
of lyrics to the added effects of percussion for comedic timing. The songs
in Waitress are best described as operating within, “...a pop idiom over an
intricately gured rhythmic oor.”
21
During “The Negative,” Becky and
Dawn urge Jenna to take a pregnancy test to the loud and relentless beat
of drums and piano keys. During “Bad Idea,” Jenna and Dr. Pomatter
perform a duet that is racy in terms of choreography and vibrant, musically.
The song has a quick tempo and features beautiful harmonies sung by
Mueller and Drew Gehling, who originated the role of Dr. Pomatter. It’s a
tune that is catchy yet classy, offering comedic relief to audiences during
especially heavy moments throughout the show. Another track that is also
memorable is Fitzgerald’s “I Love You Like a Table,” which even features
creative vocal changes to operatic styles that strikes a chord of laughter
within anyone who hears it. He toggles between using his thin, nasally
voice to a deeper voice that’s thick with resonance. The juxtaposition is
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Taylor, “Waitress, Adelphi Theatre, Review: ‘This Show Is the Real Deal.’”
hilarious and makes the track lighthearted, catchy, and memorable. It’s
as if the songs’ staying power is being epitomized to the point of satire
in the number “Never Ever Getting Rid of Me.”
22
Like the New York
Times says, the score is appealing, “...drawing on the sounds of country
music reecting the Southern setting, but also containing more traditional
Broadway-pop balladry.”
23
Not only does Waitress put forth nuanced, progressive portrayals
of women on the stage, the production behind the scenes also actively
champions women and is changing the Broadway community. The
cast and crew of Waitress have always participated in charities and
fundraisers, and during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the show
changed the waitresses’ iconic blue uniforms to pink ones to bring
awareness to the cause.
24
The creators of Waitress have intentionally
inverted musical theatre conventions to craft a wholly feminist show.
Audiences are conditioned to expect female characters that exist only in
relation to the typically male protagonist, pushed to the periphery and
never thoroughly developed. Waitress is the opposite, ipping traditional
norms and depicting men on the fringes of a show that revolves around
three strong female characters.
25
Becky and Dawn are played by actors
Keala Settle and Kimiko Glenn, respectively, both of whom are of Asian/
Pacic Islander descent, representing racial diversity without resorting
to stereotypes. Becky and Dawn have fully realized character arcs and
signicant representation in the musical’s score.
26
Although gender
representation is still extremely skewed in theater professions such as
playwriting and directing, Waitress is paving the way for more female
representation in the echelons of the creative department.
27
Terry Teachout has stated that, “Waitress is a small-scale musical,
and it might well have made a somewhat stronger impression had it
22. Ibid.
23. Isherwood, “Review: Jessie Mueller Serves a Slice of Life (With Pie) in Sara Bareilles’s
‘Waitress’.”
24. Robinson, “Long-Running Hit Waitress Begins Final Six Months on Broadway.”
25. Feder, “Feminism and Femininity in Broadway’s Waitress.”
26. Ibid.
27. Sloane Crosley, “Inside the Making of Waitress,”
Irena Huang
Waitress! Equalitea and Pie, Please
24 25
been done in an off-Broadway house better suited to its modest charms.
Probably not much stronger, though: It simply isn’t good enough.”
28
Yet,
the production held its own against juggernaut Hamilton and “emerged as
both a critical and nancial success, recouping its $12 million investment
in less than 10 months on Broadway.”
29
The show is now playing in
London’s West End, touring North America, and planning to open in
Australia in 2020.
30
While some viewers of Waitress might brush it
off as a unimpressionable or bland, it presents a powerful and heartfelt
portrayal of realistic relationships. It is a feminist victory, both under the
spotlight and behind the curtains. It has found a home on Broadway and
connected with audiences all around with world, drawing attention to the
importance of female friendships and nding strength from within.
28. Teachout, “‘Waitress’ Review: Skimpy on the Filling.”
29. Robinson, “Long-Running Hit Waitress Begins Final Six Months on Broadway.”
30. Ibid.
Works Cited
Collins-Hughes, Laura, and Alexis Soloski. “Broadway May Not Be So
White, but Is It Woman Enough?” The New York Times, May 31, 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/theater/women-on-broadway-a-
year-of-living-dangerously.html.
Crosley, Sloane. “Inside the Making of Waitress, the First Broadway
Musical with an All-Female Creative Team.” Vanit y Fair, November 14,
2018. https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/04/waitress-broadway-
musical.
Feder, Danielle. “Feminism and Femininity in Broadway’s Waitress.”
HowlRound Theatre Commons, August 2, 2016. https://howlround.
com/feminism-and-femininity-broadways-waitress.
Isherwood, Charles. “Review: Jessie Mueller Serves a Slice of Life (With
Pie) in Sara Bareilles’s ‘Waitress’.” The New York Times, April 25,
2016. https://nyti.ms/1SYwN0i.
Knapp, Raymond. The American Musical and the Formation of National
Identity. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2006.
Knapp, Raymond. The American Musical and the Performance of
Personal Identity. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Marks, Peter. “Ingredients of ‘Waitress’: Sara Bareilles, Jessie Mueller --
and Lots of Syrup.” The Washington Post, Aug ust 29, 2017. ht tps://w ww.
washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/04/24/
ingredients-of-waitress-sara-bareilles-show-tunes-and-syrup/.
Robinson, Mark A. “Long-Running Hit Waitress Begins Final Six Months
on Broadway.” Broadway Direct, July 16, 2019. https://broadwaydirect.
com/long-running-hit-waitress-begins-nal-six-months-on-broadway/.
Taylor, Paul. “Waitress, Adelphi Theatre, Review: ‘This Show Is the Real
Deal’.” The Independent, March 8, 2019. https://www.independent.
co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/waitress-adelphi-
theatre-london-review-a8811911.html.
Teachout, Terry. “‘Waitress’ Review: Skimpy on the Filling.” The Wall
Street Journal, April 25, 2016. https://www.wsj.com/articles/waitress-
review-skimpy-on-the-lling-1461619765.
Irena Huang
Waitress! Equalitea and Pie, Please
27
26
Dissonant Ones: The Harmony of Lou Reed
and John Cale
Gabriel Deibel
I
n the sweltering New York summer of 1965, John Cale, Lou Reed,
and Sterling Morrison decided to record six demos in Cale’s SoHo
apartment.
1
“Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “I’m waiting for the Man,” and
“All Tomorrow’s Parties” were four of the tracks. The folky strums of
Morrison’s guitar complemented the saw of Cale’s droning viola as Lou
Reed’s harrowing lyrics shone an honest eye on 1960s New York, “I have
made a big decision / I’m gonna try to nullify my life / ‘Cause when the
blood begins to ow / When it shoots up the dropper’s neck / When I’m
closing in on death.” As this example shows, Reed’s songwriting was as
powerful as it was pessimistic, drudging through the drug-fueled, sex-
soaked violence to which Reed was determined to give a voice. Reed
made rock music more musically and lyrically complex, artifying it by
combining elements of avant-garde, classical, and beat poetry.
2
However,
bandmate John Cale’s avant-garde sensibilities and fervent push against
the sound and style conventions usually associated with traditional pop
and classical music gave the Velvet Underground their edge. The ambience
and cacophony Cale brought to the songs Reed wrote became integral
to the Velvets’ inuence. It is hard to imagine a song like “Heroin,” so
harrowing in its performance, without rushing, atonal drone of Cale’s
viola. Punk rock without “White Light/White Heat” is like a carpenter
without a hammer. The blistering feedback and chaotic distortion Cale
achieved on that recording inuenced countless generations of music
1. Roland Ellis, “July 1st, 1965: The Velvet Underground’s First Recordings,” Gaslight
Records, 2015, https://gaslightrecords.com/articles/the-velvet-undergrounds-rst-recordings.
2. Ibid.
listeners.
3
Lou Reed crafted songs that dug into the bleak reality of 1960s
New York as he casted an objective eye over the world of junkies and
sexual deviants, but I argue that the Velvet Underground are one of the
most inuential musical acts of the 20th century because of John Cale’s
sonic experimentation, beautifying the harsher tones of feedback and
distortion into orchestras of cacophony.
The Velvet Underground’s original 1964 lineup consisted of two
Syracuse College students, a Welsh avant-garde musician, and an IBM
keypuncher. Lou Reed was an inspiring singer-songwriter who studied
English literature at Syracuse and was inuenced by beat poetry and
performers as diverse as Bob Dylan, Booker T. & the M.G.s, Ornette
Coleman and Cecil Taylor.
4
John Cale was a classically trained multi-
instrumentalist and graduate of the University of London.
5
Cale’s prior
involvement with the international art group Fluxus had led him to
start creating music in a new minimalist style and under the tutelage
of composer LaMonte Young his creativity found the perfect place to
ourish.
6
Instead of dressing the song like an arranger often would,
Cale sought to dene the aura of the recording.
7
Rounding out the band
were Sterling Morrison, a college friend of Reeds, and Moe Tucker,
percussionist and sister of Morrison’s friend. In 1964 the bones of the
Velvet Underground were beginning to take form, but by late 1965 Andy
Warhol offered them a record contract, an ofcial management deal, and
patronage on the condition that German singer Nico would be added as
an additional vocalist and frontwoman. During this period of time, the
critic Robert Gold wrote on the Velvet Underground and stated, “The
band makes a sound that can only be compared to a railroad shunting
yard, metal wheels screeching to a halt on the tracks. It’s music to go
3. Ibid.
4. Ellen Willis, Beginning to See the Light; Sex, Hope, and Rock N’ Roll (Minneapolis: Uni-
versity of Minnesota Press, 1992), 89-99.
5. Richard R. Witts, The Velvet Underground (Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
2006), 68.
6. Ellen Daniels, “Avant-Garde Grit: John Cale and Experimental Techniques in Popular
Music” (M.A. diss., Michigan State University, 2012), 22.
7. Witts, The Velvet Underground, 83.
Gabriel Deibel
Dissonant Ones
A note from the editors: As a member of the editorial board, while Gabriel had the
chance to review other papers and provide feedback, he was not involved with the
selection process for this issue of the journal.
28 29
of soft songs and I didn’t want that many soft songs… I was trying to get
something big and grand and Lou was ghting against that. He wanted
pretty songs.”
13
Cale was an outsider when it came to American rock n’
roll as he felt the genre was not as stimulating as art music, saying things
like, “The avant-garde makes more sense to me.”
14
Cale’s penchant for
art music and instrumental experimentation led him to introduce many
of the band’s iconic sounds. For example, the prominent use of celesta
in “Sunday Morning” was Cale’s idea, adding a lullaby-esque ambiance
not present in the initial recording.
15
Cale’s arrangement of the song “All
Tomorrow’s Parties” made use of a prepared piano, which pioneered
the effect in popular music.
16
The consistent, repetitive hammering of
piano keys counters Reed’s loose arpeggiated guitar picking, giving the
piece an energetic kick and a sense of momentum. “The Black Angel’s
Death Song,” co-written by Reed and Cale, the recording is dominated
by Cale’s electric viola and the loud bursts of feedback he created by
hissing into the microphone.
17
In the context of a rock band, the viola
would usually have to be amplied, but Cale’s use of the instrument gave
the song the grandness of a symphony. He orchestrated chaos and gave
Reed’s songs a dressing of dissonance that was yet unheard of in most
rock groups, a dissonance would have been absent if Reed had someone
more conventional as producer and arranger. Cale’s use of dissonance
and distortion both countered and complimented the prettiness of Reed’s
songs.
The legendary culmination of Reed and Cale’s partnership is The
Velvet Underground and Nico, the 1967 record that was so inuential,
American online music magazine Pitchfork listed it as the best record of
13. Witts, The Velvet Underground, 68.
14. John Cale, “Of Anger and Twitching: An Interview with John Cale,” interview
by Andrew Phillips, Popmatters, January 26, 2006, https://www.popmatters.com/cale-
john-060109-2496107865.html
15. Eric Hoffman, “Examinations: An Examination of John Cale,” Mental Contagion,
accessed December 9, 2019, http://www.mentalcontagion.com/mcarchive/examinations/exam-
inations0409.html.
16. Tim Mitchell, Sedition and Alchemy: A Biography of John Cale (London: Peter Owen
Publishers, 2003), 14.
17. Daniels, “Avant-Garde Grit: John Cale and Experimental Techniques in Popular Music,”
[page number].
out of your mind to, if that’s your bent.”
8
Even producers and engineers
had trouble understanding what the Velvet’s were doing with their music.
During the 17-minute recordings of “Sister Ray” for White Light/White
Heat, engineer Gary Kellgren famously walked out and told the band, “I
don’t have to listen to this. I’ll put it in Record, and then I’m leaving. When
you’re done, come get me.”
9
Tensions would eventually rise between
Cale and Reed and Cale was booted out by the rest of the band due to his
desire to direct their sound towards the avant-garde.
10
Both Reed and Cale were interested in doing as much sonically
and narratively with as little as possible; as Reed would say, “One chord
is ne. Two chords is pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”
11
Reed was the primary songwriter, a lyricist whose songs displayed rich
thought with few words, as in “Sunday Morning”: “Sunday morning
brings the dawning / It’s just a restless feeling by my side / Early
dawning, Sunday morning / It’s just the wasted years so close behind.”
His objective and respectful depictions of characters prompted Warhol
superstar Candy Darling to praise Reed’s depiction of her, saying, “Lou
Reed made me immortal,” in his songs “Candy Says” and “Walk on the
Wild Side.”
12
Whether talking about heroin, amphetamines, prostitution,
gender dysphoria, love, religion, or addiction, Reed’s lyrics represented
the reality he was living in, enabling him to turn the social taboos of his
time into unconventional lyrical subjects.
Behind the scenes however, Cale was the architect of what dened
the Velvet’s sound. Cale and Reed were constantly in conict with each
other over the direction of the band, and as Cale said, “There were a lot
8. Robert Gold, “The Velvet Underground at the Shrine,” in All Yesterdays’ Parties: The Vel-
vet Underground in Print, 1966-1971, edited by Clinton Heylin (New York: Hachette Books,
2009), 64.
9. Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart, An American Masters Special, directed by Timothy Green-
eld-Sanders, PBS American Masters, 1998.
10. Daniels, “Avant-Garde Grit: John Cale and Experimental Techniques in Popular Music,”
47.
11. Sam Parker, “Remembering Lou Reed: Ten Quotes from a Rock God,” Esquire, October
20, 2013, https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/news/a5092/remembering-lou-reed-10-quotes-
from-a-true-rock-god/.
12. Colin Moynihan, “From the Archives, a Portrait of a Pop Art Muse,” New York Times,
February 24, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/arts/design/25cand.html.
Gabriel Deibel
Dissonant Ones
30 31
song, born of disorder and avant-rock minimalism, noisier and more
distorted than anything the Velvets had previously released. Opening
their second album, 1968’s White Light/White Heat, the title track is an
ode to intravenous amphetamine use, mimicking the frenzy of a meth
rush. Reed barrages the listener with lyrical nods to the drug: “(White
light) White light goin’, messin’ up my mind / (White light) And don’t you
know it’s gonna make me go blind / (White heat) Aw, white heat, it tickles
me down to my toes / (White light) Ooh, have mercy, while I have it,
goodness knows.” John Cale drives the 12-bar blues song forward with an
intense thumping bass line, that by the end of the piece becomes dissonant
and scattered. Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison trade fuzzy guitar lines
over Maureen Tucker’s crashing cymbals and hypnotic snare hits. Cale
would later overdub a monotonal boogie-woogie piano, an almost proto-
punk assault on the ears. The nal forty seven seconds of the song sees
him overwhelm the mix to replicate the auditory effect of speed-use. The
song ends as a swirling crash of noise, the cacophonous beauty of which
certainly challenged audiences of conventional rock n’ roll.
Many retrospective reviews of the Velvets pin Lou Reed as the
central gure who pushed their sound into unexplored territory. Reed
himself was quoted as saying, “I just keep thinking that when The Velvet
Underground rst came out with songs like ‘Heroin,’ we were so savaged
for it. Here it is a few decades later, and I have those lyrics published in a
book, and I’m giving readings at art museums.”
19
Cale does not enjoy the
same praise as Reed, even though he sculpted Reed’s songs into pieces of
experimental bliss . Reed’s work endures because it depicts humanity at its
most vulnerable, frail yet beautiful. The Velvets music is not considered
danceable or catchy, and lacked mass appeal when it was originally
released. American music critic and writer for The Village Voice Robert
Christgau saw the most appeal in, “...the quietest and most lyrical” of
the Velvet songs such as “Candy Says.”
20
The simple arpeggiated guitar
pickings of “Candy Says.” creates an incredibly hypnotizing soundscape,
19. Greg Kot, “The Velvet Underground: As Inuential as The Beatles?” BBC, October 21,
2014, http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131125-do-the-velvets-beat-the-beatles.
20. Robert Christgau, “Toesucker Blues: Robert Christgau’s Farewell Salute to Lou Reed,”
Spin, October 28, 2013, https://www.spin.com/2013/10/lou-reed-robert-christgau-toesucker-
blues /.
the 1960s.
18
“Sunday Morning,” and “Heroin,” are songs so brilliant in
their simplicity and social commentary that they have withstood the test
of time and remain cornerstones for both indie rock and punk. Blistering
feedback, atonal sweepings of viola, arrhythmic percussion, off-key
singing, and Lou Reed’s deadpan vocal delivery were all considered
unconventional qualities in music for the time. This album redened
not only what rock’n’roll could be, but also redened what could be
considered listen-able and created a world of opportunities to hybridize
the avant-garde with rock n’ roll.
The track “Heroin” is a particularly chilling piece, so brutal and
real that I remember myself drifting through the hallways of my house,
both a ood of warmth and a crippling sense of detachment overtook
me, it was unlike anything I had ever heard or felt. “Heroin” opens the
second half of The Velvet Underground & Nico with harrowing beauty.
Alternating between arpeggiated D and G chords, Lou Reed and Sterling
Morrison wind their guitars through Maureen Tucker’s hypnotic oor
tom. Cale joins with his piercing electric viola drone, permeating the
soundscape with a surreal ambience. Within the rst stanza Reed overtly
references drug use: “When I put a spike into my vein / And I tell you
things aren’t quite the same / When I’m rushing on my run / And I feel just
like Jesus’ son,” blessed as his father, but without the sacrice. Instead of
a verse-chorus structure, the piece follows a cyclical, four-part structure
of varying tempo, which mimics the high of the narrator, frantically
dancing between waiting for a x and the rush of euphoria associated
with intravenous drug use. At around 4’20”, Reed sings, “Heroin, be the
death of me/ Heroin, it’s my wife and it’s my life.” The piece collapses
into a ery wall of dissonance and feedback. Cale’s viola breaks through
the mix with incredible passion, darting and droning across the track in
a freeform atonal sweep. The cacophony and ambience of Cale’s viola
gives “Heroin” its distinctive sound, building the track from its Dylan-
esque folky roots to a far more experimental, almost pseudo-spiritual
experience.
“White Light/White Heat” is a gritty, honky-tonk rock’n’roll
18. “200 Best Albums of the 1960s,” Pitchfork, August 22, 2017, .https://pitchfork.com/fea-
tures/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1960s/.
Gabriel Deibel
Dissonant Ones
32 33
would move back in with his parents on Long Island, working as a typist
for his father’s tax accounting rm, before eventually meeting glam rock
superstar David Bowie and resurrecting his own career.
24
Although the
Velvets have recently been reassessed and their legacy well documented by
various lovers of music, it is still important to understand how inuential
Cale was on the development of rock’n’roll music. Cale instigated the
use of dissonance in rock music and expanded the boundaries of musical
expression for decades to come; without Cale’s work in the Velvets,
artists like The Stooges or Patti Smith would not have their recognizable
sound.
25
The Velvets’ greatness cannot be solely attributed to Lou Reed;
instead, it comes from two artistic spirits discovering how to best express
themselves. Even in their simple two-chord progressions, the Velvets
made a statement by producing songs that sounded so immense, brutal,
and raw. Cale’s timbral experimentation and creative use of dissonance
birthed the sound of one of the 20th century’s most important rock
groups. Reed and Cale’s music will stand the test of time and inspire new
generations to pick up instruments and just let it all ring out.
24. Lou Reed, “Interview: Lou Reed on the Velvets, Bowie... and his love of heavy metal,”
interview by Ian Fortnam, Louder, October 29, 2016, https://www.loudersound.com/features/
interview-lou-reed-on-the-velvets-bowie-and-his-love-of-heavy-metal
25. Kurt B. Reighley, “John Cale: The Return of an Underground Icon” Live on KEXP, NPR,
January 26, 2013, https://www.npr.org/2013/01/26/169729239/john-cale-the-return-of-an-un-
derground-icon.
but is hardly as interesting or as original as a piece of music like “Heroin.”
Many of the songs off of their later albums, The Velvet Underground
(1969) and Loaded (1970), lack that grit that Cale gave the Velvets, as the
songs become more digestible, but lose their distinct colors.
Cale’s contributions to the band are far more conceptual and
driven by the needs of an artist to expand his own listening consciousness.
A song such as “Heroin” wouldn’t hold the same uneasy tension or
chaotic climaxes without the instrumental contributions of John Cale.
Reed had been building his legacy upon the shoulders of his literary
idols, like William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and
Delmore Schwartz, who had already famously dissected drug addiction,
homosexuality, and death throughout their works.
21
However, Cale’s
sounds had never been utilized in rock’n’roll before. Dissonance, though
not a new concept, had never been so effortlessly promoted through a
pop record. Musical artists who had been inuenced by the sounds of the
Velvet Underground such as Patti Smith, The Stooges, and The Modern
Lovers all sought out Cale as a producer.
22
Patti Smith’s record Horses
(1975) owes much of its sound to insane artistic contributions of Cale as
Smith would go on to say that her work with Cale, “transcended anything
I ever did before. He was like -- getting into my body ... he has all this
warmth in him and he gets inside you and he goes through all the pain
you go through.”
23
Horses is now considered one of the most inuential
records of the 20th century and the distinct conicts of sound present in
the music can be attributed to Cale’ approach as a producer and arranger,
choosing to challenge himself and the listener and push the boundaries of
whatever style of music he works on.
August 23rd, 1970 saw Lou Reed on stage at Max’s Kansas
City, playing what would be his last show with the Velvet Underground.
Disenchanted by the band’s lack of success and progress, Reed quit the
band during their last week of residency at Max’s Kansas City. Reed
21. Peter Hartlaub, “How the Beats Helped Build San Francisco’s Progressive Future,” San
Francisco Chronicle, last modied March 12, 2018, https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/
Our-SF-The-Beats-help-build-city-s-progressive-6676634.php.
22. Daniels, “Avant-Garde Grit: John Cale and Experimental Techniques in Popular Music,”
48.
23. Ibid.
Gabriel Deibel Dissonant Ones
34 35
God.” Esquire , October 28, 2013. https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/
news/a5092/remembering-lou-reed-10-q uotes-from-a-true-rock-god/.
Reed, Lou. “Interview: Lou Reed on the Velvets, Bowie... and his love
of heavy metal.” Interview by Ian Fortnam. Louder, October 29, 2016.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/interview-lou-reed-on-the-
velvets-bowie-and-his-love-of-heavy-metal
Reighley, Kurt B. “John Cale: The Return of an Underground
Icon.” Live on KEXP. NPR, January 26, 2013. https://www.npr.
org/2013/01/26/169729239/john-cale-the-return-of-an-underground-
icon.
Unterberger, Richie. “White Light/White Heat: The Velvet Underground
Day-by-Day.” London: Jawbone Press, 2009.
“200 Best Albums of the 1960s.” Pitchfork , August 22, 2017. https://
pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-
1960 s/.
Willis, Ellen. Beginning to See the Light: Sex, Hope, and Rock N’ Roll.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
Witts, Richard R. The Velvet Underground. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2006.
Works Cited
Cale, John. “Of Anger and Twitching: An Interview with John Cale.”
Interview by Andrew Phillips. Popmatters, January 26, 2006. https://
www.popmatters.com/cale-john-060109-2496107865.html
Christgau, Robert. “Toesucker Blues: Robert Christgau’s Farewell Salute
to Lou Reed.” Spin, October 28, 2013. https://www.spin.com/2013/10/
lou-reed-robert-christgau-toesucker-blues/.
Daniels, Ellen. “Avant-Garde Grit: John Cale and Experimental techniques
is popular music.” MA diss., Michigan State University . 2012. https://d.
lib.msu.edu/etd/562/datastream/OBJ/View/.
Ellis, Roland. “July 1, 1965: The Velvet Underground’s First Recordings.”
Gaslight Records. 2015. https://gaslightrecords.com/articles/the-velvet-
undergrounds-rst-recordings.
Gold, Robert. “The Velvet Underground at the Shrine.” In All Yesterdays’
Parties: The Velvet Underground in Print, 1966-1971, edited by Clinton
Heylin, 64. New York: Hachette Books, 2009.
Greeneld-Sanders, Timothy, dir. Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart, An
American Masters Special. 1998; PBS .
Hartlaub, Peter. “How the Beats Helped Build San Francisco’s Progressive
Future.” San Francisco Chronicle, last modied March 12, 2018.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/Our-SF-The-Beats-help-
build-city-s-progressive-6676634.php.
Hoffman, Eric. “Examinations: An Examination of John Cale.” Mental
Contagion. 2000. http://www.mentalcontagion.com/mcarchive/
examinations/examinations0409.html
Kot, Greg. “The Velvet Underground: As inuential as The Beatles?”
BBC, October 21, 2014. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131125-
do-the-velvets-beat-the-beatles.
Mitchell, Tim. Sedition and Alchemy: A Biography of John Cale. London:
Peter Owen Publishers , 2003.
Moynihan, Colin. “From the Archives, a Portrait of a Pop Art Muse.”
The New York Times, February 24, 2009. https://www.nytimes.
com/2009/02/25/arts/design/25cand.html.
Parker, Sam. “Remembering Lou Reed: Ten Quotes from a True Rock
Gabriel Deibel Dissonant Ones
37
36
Boy Band: Intersecting Gender, Age, Sexuality,
And Capitalism
Grace Li
O
ne Direction’s Midnight Memories was the rst album I owned. I
still remember begging my mom to drive me all the way to a Target
twenty miles away from our house, just because only that store had “The
Ultimate Edition” of the album that included exclusive photos of the band
behind the scene, and their signatures and handwritten messages. My
thirteen-year old self thought One Direction had written a letter to me.
Buying an album by the biggest boy band in the world was a big deal. My
mom had never thought I was into music, and she never understood why
I suddenly loved an album so much that I would carefully place it at my
bedside for the entire month after my purchase. I told her One Direction
was different from other artists. They were ve British boys––Harry
Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Zayn Malik––
who were just a little older than me and grew up in middle-class families
just like mine. However, they became a global phenomenon that dened
the pop music of this decade after the judges of the X-factor, a talent show
in the UK, put them together as a band, and their songs and personalities
had girls around the world in love with them.
My feelings towards One Direction as a thirteen-year-old were
typical. The teen boys radiated positivity and lightheartedness from the
moment X-Factor put them together, always goong around together
in the public eye. Their songs conveyed their fun-loving and charming
personalities, telling adoring girls, “what makes [them] beautiful.” They
united teenage girls around the world by making us scream and making
our hearts break. At the time, I was trapped in a bubble of sexual fantasy,
and it was not until today when I realize that I was one of the many young
women manipulated by the sexist and capitalist entertainment industry. It
also wasn’t until my late teen years when I realized that female fans like
me were not the only victims––so were the members of One Direction.
In all seriousness, how could men in their 20s still manage to sing,
“Baby you light up my world like nobody else,” at the end of every single
concert? As I followed the rise and fall of the band, and resulting solo
career for member Harry Styles, I realized their fans, myself included,
their management, and record label seem to disregard the fact that these
boys matured and have become men.
Although I relate to female fans who attempt to display their sexual
autonomy by fantasizing their relationships with the British heartthrobs,
I still believe that “boy band” is not a name for a musical group––it is a
marketing term and a symbol of puberty that directs towards a complex
issue involving infantilization, sexuality, and autonomy of boy bands,
which are often overlooked by mainstream media. As fame fossilized the
boys’ public image, they were obligated to sing the same songs since they
were sixteen and their persona was orchestrated by their management
throughout their entire career, in which they were portrayed as innocent
and shallow to their fans, yet treated as money-generating commodities by
their record label. My conicting feelings on this issue and this industry,
in which I have been actively following in the past decade on social
media and in real life, prompted me to write this paper. One Direction is
more than a boy band because not only do they dene young women of
Generation Z’s taste and desire, but they also embody the intersections
between gender, age, sexuality, and capitalism in the music industry. From
worshipping a Harry Styles cutout back in freshman year of high school
to perusing articles about the band on Rolling Stone after their break-
up, I analyze from the perspective of a fan how the behind-the-scenes
events––constant pressure derived from their female fans who indulged
themselves in pubertal fantasy, silent yet sophisticated manipulation by
the management and record label due to the nature of their capitalist
industry, and simply the struggles of growing up and becoming adults
who deserve to be free––affected the rise and fall of one of the most
inuential bands in this decade.
The idea of “boy band” in popular culture originated in the 1960s,
when teenage girls started the global movement called “Beatlemania,” an
era in which girls would howl and scream and throw jellybeans at George
Grace Li
Boy Band
38 39
Harrison to showcase their affection.
1
Young girls followed the four
boys wherever they went, holding signs that said cheesy all-capitalized
messages along the lines of “BEATLES PLEASE STAY HERE
4-EVER” and shrieking at the band as “She Loves You” started playing.
Those female fans, , also marked the beginning of “Teenyboppers,” a
promiscuous term that is “applied indiscriminately to fans of performers
like the oh-so-cute-and-dreamy boy bands.”
2
In particular, music critics
who apparently “know better” agree that “what unites [Teenyboppers] is
their bad taste.”
3
Boy band music is perceived as being feminine, since
their songs are far from being musically complex and merely symbolize
an undeveloped skeleton that is puberty. One Direction is conceived as a
modern day parallel to the Beatles. Same charming British accent, same
fanatical Teenybopper fans who stalked them from Manchester to São
Paulo, and same bubblegum hits that monopolized Billboard (think “She
loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” by the Beatles and “You don’t know you’re
beautiful, oh oh” by One Direction)––the boys of One Direction were
destined to be tied to teenage girls and their silly, shallow, boy-crazy
stereotypes from the very beginning.
Despite Sony’s contribution to One Direction’s global success, the
band was a manufactured commodity of their management and record
label, who limited the band members’ autonomy by manipulating their
on-screen persona and portraying them as ignorant boys in the heat of
puberty. All the band members came up in the public eye on the British
talent show, the X-Factor, in 2010 when they were merely students like
thousands of other contestants. As a result, the career of One Direction
was transparent and monitored by the public ever since the band was
created, leading to them “being perceived as subservient to the industry
and management demands.”
4
As contestants of the show, they posted
1. Norma Coates, “Teenyboppers, Groupies, and Other Grotesques: Girls and Women and
Rock Culture in the 1960s and Early 1970s,” Journal of Popular Music Studies, vol. 15, no. 1
(2003): 10, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-1598.2003.tb00115.x
2. Ibid, 4.
3. Ibid.
4. Kai Arne Hansen, “Fashioning a Post Boy Band Masculinity: On the Seductive Dreams-
cape of Zayn’s Pillowtalk,” Popular Music and Society, vol. 41, no. 2, 2016: 196 doi:10.1080/03
007766.2016.1242994.
weekly “Video Diaries,” in which they recorded behind-the-scenes
footage, where they fooled around and made jokes at each other––things
that teenage boys do in their free time. Gaining almost half a million
views, these videos were merely part of the marketing strategy that
gave female fans an impression that One Direction was innocent, free
from drugs and alcohol, and just like their guy friends at school. The
uniqueness in the case of this band was their frankness, contrary to their
90s counterparts’ sugar-coated perfection, but fans did not realize that it
was their management who ironically created the band’s honest image.
This marketing succeeded because they captured the selling point––
teendom of the band members themselves. One Direction, a “boy” band,
was a representation of sustained adolescence, which conveyed “promises
of a suspended utopia in which the playfulness of childhood carried over
into adult life.”
5
Us Teenybopper fans were exactly stuck in between
childhood and adulthood, starting to develop romantic emotions with
guys, but had not had many relationships. And then we saw Harry Styles,
the goofy and irty bakery boy-next-door with luxurious curly hair and
charming emerald eyes, on the television. Instantly, we were hooked
by him. If Harry wasn’t your cup of tea, they had four more options––
the responsible and caring Liam Payne, the cute blond Niall Horan, the
playful and sassy Louis Tomlinson, and last but not least, the mysterious
bad boy Zayn Malik. Was it a coincidence that the ve boys, who had just
met on a talent show, distinctively complemented each other? In reality,
their onscreen persona and every single one of their behaviors were a
careful manipulation by the judges from the very start. In leaked emails
from Sony in 2014, a presentation described Harry Styles as “adorably
slow” and revealed that they tried to position Zayn as a “poser” and a
“player” and other members as “clever”, “cheeky” and “giggly.”
6
Their
record label not only failed to give them the autonomy that adults deserve
but also further objectied and emasculated them by describing them
in derogatory adjectives, usually reserved for children. Even when they
became adults, the entertainment industry still treated them as innocent
5. Ibid.
6. Amy O’Connor, “Wikileaks Shared Juicy One Direction e-Mails and Directioners Are
Freaking Out,” The Daily Edge, April 17, 2015, www.dailyedge.ie/wikileaks-one-direction-e-
mails-fans-reaction-2053049-Apr2015/.
Grace Li
Boy Band
40 41
“boys” who could be exploited and fossilized.
Not only did One Direction’s management and record label take
advantage of their personal freedom, the control over the band’s album
production also damaged their musical integrity and feminized their
reputation in their sexist industry. In the music video of their very rst
song, “What Makes You Beautiful,” the ve boys were wearing different
colors of annels and khaki pants while running around on the beach.
As the camera gave closer shots to each band member during their solo,
they all made direct eye contact with the camera as they showed off
their “cheeky” and “giggly” personalities. It really felt as if they were
smiling right through the screen at me. In addition to their appearance,
the rhythm and lyrics of the song also explained why critics from LA
Weekly would dedicate an article to the band, titled “One Direction’s
‘What Makes You Beautiful’: Why This Song Sucks.”
7
One Direction was
born on television and lived in television, a medium that often exploits the
female gaze, which is also portrayed by the media as “the worst of mass
culture and crass commercialism.”
8
To explain this phenomenon, Coates
suggests that the teenage audience of this culture don’t know better than
to fall for the fake teen idols whose managers and record companies prey
on their girlish fantasies.
9
Coates’ words indeed summarize the reason
that One Direction and their label, decided to make What Makes You
Beautiful their rst single. I could almost immediately guess that it was a
bubblegum Pop song by the heavy, repetitive, yet incredibly catchy drum
beats when it started playing. In addition to its consistent uptempo, the
song included handclaps at its climax, almost a little too exhilarating and
overpowering that either an adult could felt nauseous after playing it eight
time or a teenage girl could scream “You don’t know you’re beautiful” all
day long.
10
A random girl also made an appearance in the video, getting
closer to a band member each time she interacted with him. She seemed
almost ctional as she was not physically present at all times, but the
7. Shea Serrano, et al, “One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’: Why This Song
Sucks,” LA Weekly, May 23 2019, www.laweekly.com/one-directions-what-makes-you-beauti-
ful-why-this-song-sucks/.
8. Coates, “Teenyboppers, Groupies, and Other Grotesques,” 70.
9. Ibid.
10. Serrano, “Why This Song Sucks.”
girls watching the video lived vicariously through her, because she made
their girlish fantasies come true by making romantic eye contact with
Harry Styles. Not only were the members of One Direction protable
commodities marketed by their management and label, but they were also
objects that symbolized puberty and romance for girls. One Direction,
therefore, were truly at the bottom of this power pyramid of the capitalist
and sexist music industry supply chain.
While One Direction and their Teenybopper fans both suffered
from professional and social stigma respectively, One Direction still
remained products that their management infantilized and that their fans
took pleasure in. The popularity and sensationalism that surrounds boy
bands is interpreted through the lens of Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
(2017):
They are one of the few safe outlets (the other is called Twilight) for young
women to express their budding sexuality. Explore real-life sex or even just
experiment a little with the sexual power of tight pants or a miniskirt, and a
teen girl risks slut-shaming. If she goes to a 1-D concert and screams her lungs
out, then fantasizes later that night about Liam sneaking into her bedroom—
well, girls will be girls.
11
The reason that boy bands are called boy bands instead of man
bands is also simple: they are fossilized at the age when they rst became
popular because young women, who are also experiencing puberty and
have not had much sexual experience, need someone––a symbol––
whom they can’t date in real life to satisfy their burgeoning sexual desire
without being slut-shamed. Similar to the sexism experienced by those
in the entertainment industry, the idolization of boy bands that exist in
our society places pressure on impressionable teenage girls to conform
to traditional female roles. Despite knowing people who were also big
fans of the band, I remember being uncomfortable to tell people outside
the “bubble,” especially men, that I really, really liked One Direction in
eighth grade. I could as if see the judgmental side-eye before I stuttered
the name “One Direction.” The underlying prejudice against Generation
Z Tennyboppers expanded from the mass media to real life. Even though
11. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, “What’s So Feminist About Liking Boy Bands?” Dame
Magazine, December 9, 2017, www.damemagazine.com/2015/12/21/whats-so-feminist-about-
liking-boy-bands/.
Grace Li
Boy Band
42 43
I valued the band’s music and personalities more than their mere looks,
the social norm in American culture of shuttling down anything that
teenage girls are fans of, simply because anything related to us appears
to be shallow, created a social stigma around associating myself with the
band. One Direction was not just uff––they were only considered so
because the masculine culture infantilized them. As a result, they were
and would always be “boys.” Boy bands like them are no longer just a
name in the entertainment industry––they are a prot-generating ideal
that the capitalist society creates in order to prey on teenage girls who are
eager to develop their sexuality.
Although capitalism manipulates girls in a negative way, it indeed
drives them to express sexuality in a revolutionary way. As generations
of Teenyboppers, all the way from the era of Beatlemania, scream their
lungs out and fearlessly show that girls just want to have fun, they also
assert “‘an active, powerful sexuality by the tens of thousands [of girls],’
enacted in a way that was more revolutionary than rebellious.” They have
a fantasized relationship with John Lennon and Liam Payne, but this
relationship also has a distinct quality in that it does not direct toward
marriage. Their affection to the boys is purely sexual, not pertaining to
tradition and “the tedium of marriage to a crew-cut boy from high school.”
As much as I appreciate this new perspective on female autonomy, it is
still subjected to the dominating masculinity and the infantilization of
boy bands. Indeed, the display of Teenyboppers in Beatlemania and the
era of One Direction was purely sexual, because they could never see
the band members as romantic partners since the boys lacked certain
masculine traits. Harry Styles’ luxurious hair was a symbol of sexual
fantasy, but he was not the boy young women would marry because
long hair is perceived as feminine.
12
Therefore, within the heterosexual
fanbase of One Direction, Harry Styles was still the sixteen-year-old boy
who could tie his hair into a bun––like what female fans themselves do
every morning. His feminine traits create a neutral aura which suggests
that despite his gender identity, he resembles the fans in certain ways as
well. Perhaps claiming Teenyboppers’ behaviors are revolutionary is an
12. Merrill Fabry, “Long Hair for Women, Short Hair for Men: How Did That Start?” Time,
June 16 2016, https://time.com/4348252/history-long-hair/.
overstatement, because this female autonomy practiced in Beatlemania
and the bubble of boy bands is the only form in American society where
young women are allowed to be sexual. Yet in the broader context of
capitalism, the management and record label are the agencies who still
control the same bubble of sexual fantasy.
“I’m not in a boy band anymore––I’m in a man band now,” says
Harry Styles in his most recent Saturday Night Live monologue, four years
after One Direction went on an indenite hiatus.
13
Looking like a rock
star on the show in an all Gucci suit with his still silky but more trimmed
hair and growing mustache, the former One Direction heartthrob marked
his sign of the times––he is no longer the boy in a white t-shirt and jeans
known for his slick back hair, smiling on the cover of the rst album I
ever owned from six years ago. As he jokingly recounted the stories from
the old days, thanking Simon Cowell for growing the band “in those test
tubes,” I wonder what the bitter reality behind his humor actually looked
like. Being the pubertal symbols for Generation Z Teenyboppers, he and
his band mates carried the boy band legacy and attracted teenage girls
from all over the world, but the sacrice for their commercial success was
the unspoken exploitation, feminization, and infantilization by Simon
Cowell and his management. As we reach the end of the decade that
started the #MeToo movement, perhaps it is time to continue our efforts
by reexamining the music and entertainment industry who discriminate
against both men and women by pitting them against each other; perhaps
it is time for young women to express their emotions without being afraid
of judgements; and perhaps it is time for boy band members to demand
the overdue autonomy that they deserve as adults.
13. Saturday Night Live, “Harry Styles Monologue - SNL,” Youtube video, 4:45, November
16, 2019, https://youtu.be/es7jXKXzW-Q.
Grace Li Boy Band
44 45
Works Cited
Armstrong, Jennifer Keishin. “What’s So Feminist About Liking
Boy Bands?” Dame Magazine, December 9, 2017. http://www.
damemagazine.com/2015/12/21/whats-so-feminist-about-liking-boy-
band s/.
Coates, Norma. “Teenyboppers, Groupies, and Other Grotesques:
Girls and Women and Rock Culture in the 1960s and Early 1970s.”
Journal of Popular Music Studies 15, no. 1 (2003): 65–94. https://doi.
org/10.1111/j.1533-1598.2003.tb00115.x.
Fabry, Merrill. “Long Hair for Women, Short Hair for Men: How Did
That Start?” Time, June 16, 2016. https://time.com/4348252/history-
long-hai r/.
Hansen, Kai Arne. “Fashioning a Post Boy Band Masculinity: On the
Seductive Dreamscape of Zayn’s Pillowtalk.” Popular Music and
Society 41, no. 2 (2016): 194–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2
016.1242994.
O’Connor, Amy. “Wikileaks Shared Juicy One Direction e-Mails and
Directioners Are Freaking Out.” The Daily Edge, April 17, 2015. htt ps://
www.dailyedge.ie/wikileaks-one-directione-mails-fans-reaction-
2053049-Apr2015/
Saturday Night Live, “Harry Styles Monologue - SNL.” Youtube video,
4:45. November 16, 2019. https://youtu.be/es7jXKXzW-Q.
Serrano, Shea, Matt Miner, and Brett Callwood. “One Direction’s ‘What
Makes You Beautiful’: Why This Song Sucks.” LA Weekly, May
23, 2019. http://www.laweekly.com/onedirections-what-makes-you-
beautiful-why-this-song-sucks/.
Grace Li Boy Band
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47
46
A Possible Resolution for the Complicated
Feelings Revolving Around Tyler, the Creator
Isabel Nakoud
W
hen I rst started this paper I thought I’d like to use the lenses
of gender and sexuality to try and gure out just who Tyler, the
Creator is. I noticed that authors who took up Tyler’s discography as a
topic for analysis admittedly regretted their decision, or even resented it.
I quickly learned from the mistakes of these journalists and accepted that
Tyler does not wish or intend to be understood, and so I will respect that.
Nonetheless, Tyler has chosen to create in a time when the music industry
is rapidly changing. Given his leadership of the culture of today’s internet
generation, his relationship to social politics cannot be ignored. Right
before our eyes, the socio-political climate in the US has drastically
changed, especially in regards to conversations of identity, gender, and
sexuality. Amidst this change we nd Tyler Okonma, who has always
been vocal about gender and identity, and so it’s curious to me how
his discography sits within the socio-political timeline of this decade.
Throughout his discography, Tyler has matured considerably and so has
his portrayal of masculinity; I demonstrate Tyler’s growth as an artist
through an analysis of two distinct songs at both ends of his career—
“Yonkers” and “A BOY IS A GUN*.” Ultimately, I argue that Tyler, the
Creator is both a product of and vehicle for the creation of a new black
masculinity that has resonated within contemporary hip-hop, a genre
curbed by its infamous anti-LGBTQ attitudes and toxic masculinity.
Meet Tyler
T
yler Okonma grew up in Ladera Heights, California, on the outskirts
of Los Angeles. Tyler’s rst successful venture in music was through
his founding of LA Collective Odd Future, which has since broken up
but was popular amongst the so-called Internet Generation and was
critically acclaimed for their music—featuring other successful artists
today, such as Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt. The group confronted
their teenage angst by entering the world of hip-hop through their wild
characters and controversial music, which was intended to provoke and
shock through lyrical depictions of murder, violence, and even sexual
assault. The collective defended their musical decisions by claiming that
the lyrics were actually satirical with the intent to confront the black
male stereotype, negatively portrayed as hyper-violent or aggressive.
This attention-seeking technique is not unlike what Tyler will eventually
fall back on in his solo career.
Since Tyler’s solo career, he has been called the “David Bowie” of
today’s hip-hop, as he presents all the music he creates with a particular
br and, st yle, and a named character.
1
Beginning with his rst solo mixtape,
Bastard (2009), everything in Tyler’s music is paired with a certain visual
and each album’s story has its own cast of characters. Bastard features
a depressed schoolboy in conversation with a dreadful school therapist,
Dr. TC. His breakout album, Goblin (2011) rst introduced his character,
Wolf Haley, who always wears a green ski mask and hates himself,
communicating only with his own demons. Wolf (2013) continues telling
Wolf’s story but introduces two other characters, Sam and Salem, for a
relationship triangle set place in a summer camp, where Tyler and his
friends, “just wanna ride [their] bikes.”
2
T hes e rs t t h ree albu ms res emble d
Tyler’s production in Odd Future, and the violence was certainly not
done away with, as Tyler became popular for his controversial images of
violence against men and women alike, raging use of the word “fa*got”
and a song that tells kids to, “burn shit, kill people, fuck school.”
3
Unlike
other Odd Future artists, Tyler proved that he was unafraid to take things a
step further and break whatever boundaries had not yet been broken. The
visuals of these albums, especially his famous music video, “Yonkers,”
1. Winston Ford and Reg, “Reg & Stone Talk Music!: Episode 64: Tyler The Creator is Hip-
Hop’s David Bowie,” The Couch Sessions, May 23, 2019, https://shows.pippa.io/5b9d743c-
d738867844a64d7c/episodes/episode-64.
2. “Slater,” featuring Frank Ocean, Spotify, track 8 on Tyler, the Creator, Wolf, Odd Future
Records, 2013.
3. “Radicals,” Spotify, track 3 on Tyler, the Creator, Goblin, XL Recordings, 2011.
Isabel Nakoud
A Possible Resolution
48 49
did not fall far from the Odd Future tree, as Tyler ate a cockroach (really),
threw up (really) and ctionally portrayed his own suicide on camera
(not really). He certainly knows how to shock people, which may have
been a strategy from his youth in order to get authority gures to pay
attention to him.
4
In interviews, Tyler was far more chill than his music
depicts and fought back criticism with the idea that it should not be taken
seriously, that it was only ever parodical or satirical, and especially had
to repeat himself when he claimed not to be homophobic.
5
These rst few
albums carried a style largely inuenced by Tyler’s musical role models:
Pharrell, André 3000, Kanye West, and even Eminem. Later, his musical
interests expanded to artists such as Tame Impala and Stevie Wonder
which had evidential inuence as early as Wolf but nally begins to
show in his production of Cherry Bomb (2015). In addition to the playful
instrumentals, visuals of Cherry Bomb played with color, featuring hot
pink and the brightest of yellows and blues. Despite being his favorite
album personally, it completely opped in the industry.
His next two releases were a turning point, and particularly his
next album, Scum Fuck Flower Boy, was a dening moment for Tyler.
First, he showed the world that he had grown up and was no longer the
wild teen from Odd Future. Second, Tyler grew as a musician and was
able to perfect the new style that he was transitioning into with Cherry
Bomb. In addition to the change in musical style, Tyler’s tone became more
mature and sentimental in Flower Boy; it was also the rst album in his
discography without a single use of homophobic slurs. The most important
thing about Flower Boy is that the narrative is from Tyler himself, rather
than a character, which was necessary so fans would understand that the
sentiment of the album was real. The promotional visuals of Flower Boy
are sunowers and bees, matching the garden theme of the album, which
gives the listener a soothing feeling not typically expected of Tyler’s
music, or hip-hop in general. The record is colorful and alive, rich with
jazz, soul, and R&B.
This genre-bending style was further developed in his latest
4. Something modeled years earlier by one of his role models, Eminem.
5. I only say this to lay out Tyler’s response to criticism, but not to defend him. Especially
since later, Tyler steps away from the harmful language and imagery, his plausible deniability
can only stretch so far.
release, Igor (2019), his nostalgic memoir to 80’s culture and also his
rst album to hit #1 on the Billboard charts. The album is my personal
favorite, mostly because no matter how many times I listen to it, it sinks
into me like I’m hearing it for the rst time. Also, the 80’s theme is an
undeniably satisfying tie to his Bowie parallel, teasing the possibility
that Tyler might be self-aware of this connection.
6
Just as Bowie dressed
in character on tour to embody the things he was singing about on his
record, Tyler started to perform in character as Igor, a black man with a
blonde wig, gold chain, and oversized suit in a variety of bright, pastel
colors.
7
Even though these albums were very different, Flower Boy and
Igor showcase Tyler opening up about his sexuality. There have been
multiple times throughout his career where Tyler described himself as
gay during interviews, sang lyrics about kissing boys, or posted about
his uttering crushes on other men such as Leonardo DiCaprio or Cole
Sprouse.
8
However, no one knew to take these signs seriously since Tyler
might have just been doing them for attention, and they were easily
overshadowed by his persistently homophobic lyrics.
9
Everything took a
turn when Flower Boy, the one album where Tyler spoke as himself, gave
lyrical hints to his sexuality with more imagery of him kissing boys, and
included the song “Garden Shed” about feeling trapped in “the closet”
and realizing his sexuality was not “a phase.”
10
Since the album was
musically different and much more down-to-earth, Tyler’s claims were
taken seriously and warranted a deep search into his past for
6. When Tyler returned to playing characters with Igor, it became clear that Flower Boy was
meant to be understood as a “time-out” record that gave Tyler the chance to be honest about
his feelings. Returning to characters meant that the original, beloved techniques of his career
were not done away with; that the ‘old Tyler’ was not lost, but simply grown up.
7. As an example, Bowie’s Thin White Duke is his character for Station to Station (1976).
8. Tyler even tweeted in 2015 that he had tried to come out, but that no one believed him: “I
TRIED TO COME OUT OF THE DAMN CLOSET LIKE FOUR DAYS AGO AND NO ONE
CARED HAHAHHAHAHA” (@tylerthecreator, April 12, 2015).
9. djvlad, “Lord Jamar on Tyler the Creator: Is He Really Gay or Just Looking for Promo?
(Part 3),” YouTube Video, 4:50, July 28, 2019, https://youtu.be/SfsZjoD2Frk.
10. “Garden Shed,” Spotify, track 7 on Tyler, the Creator, Scum Fuck Flower Boy, Columbia
Records, 2011.
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
50 51
other signs of him coming out.
11
Even though Tyler has still not ofcially
“come out” in an interview, he hasn’t denied it either, and if it’s any
conrmation, the story of Tyler’s Igor is about the heartbreak of Igor
falling in love with a man who loves a woman. Fans and critics alike
were skeptical of the authenticity of Tyler’s sexual revelation, which is
not necessarily unjustied given Tyler’s history of apparent homophobia.
However, the criticisms themselves can be seen as homophobic since the
accusers seemed to build their disbelief on the myth that illegitimizes
gay sexuality. One writer even questioned if Tyler was cleverly, but
disturbingly, “...ridiculing the gay experience for puerile effect.”
12
In a
way, Tyler is doing this, but possibly by positive and genuine means.
Tyler is still a provocateur, but instead of eating bugs on camera and using
ashy threats of violence, he wears an atypical hairstyle for black men in
the form of a blonde wig, and shocks the masses by being a successful
rapper who might also have feelings for men.
13
Hip-Hop and Masculinity Interlude
W
hen Tyler describes his own relationship to race or gender in
his childhood, he claims that his interests in music or clothes as
opposed to sports made him, “too white for the black kids.”
14
Tyler also
mentioned that he has “feminine mannerisms,” which made it difcult to
navigate the expectations of black masculinity.
15
He expressed that black
gender is conned, forcing men to always “act tough” and adhere to a
11. Christopher Hooton, “Tyler the Creator Has Been ‘Coming out’ as Gay or Bisexual for
Years and No-One Cared,” The Independent, November 23, 2018, https://www.independent.
co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/tyler-the-creator-gay-bisexual-coming-out-scum-fuck-
ower-boy-lyrics-i-aint-got-time-twitter-garden-a7834751.html.
12. Benjamin Lee, “Is Tyler, The Creator coming out as a gay man or just a queer-baiting
provocateur?” The Guardian, July 25, 2017.
13. For more on Black Masculinity and Visual Culture, see Gray (1995)
14. Dylan Green, “‘These Black Kids Can Be Who They Are’: On Tyler, The Creator & the
Stigma of Blackness,” DJBooth, February 12, 2018, https://djbooth.net/features/2017-08-04-
tyler-the-creator-and-the-stigma-of-blackness.
15. Tyler Okonma, “Tyler, The Creator Breaks Down How His First Ever Runway Show
Came Together,” interview by Liz Raiss, The FADER, June 15, 2016, https://www.thefader.
com/2016/06/15/tyler-the-creator-interview-golf-wang-made-la.
binary system of gender.
16
Despite these feelings about his upbringing,
Tyler still chose to express himself through hip-hop and rap music, both
of which carry their own specic relationship to black masculinity.
Rap as a genre has its roots in African rhythm and poetry, but its
development is based in the history of black Americans, who used and
continue to use hip-hop as a platform for expression; the genre takes back
power that was and continues to be stripped away with ongoing oppression
and a history of slavery. Hip-hop also has ties to black intellectuality,
where the articulation of the lyrical poetry in rap demonstrated an
intellectual talent that allowed Black Americans to showcase their merit
after being deprived of that opportunity for so long.
17
Miles White has
said that rap signicantly shapes how America and the rest of the world
view black people, as its popularity inuences the ‘White imagination’
of black masculinity and culture.
18
The masculine myth that intertwines
with expectations of hip-hop artists and black Americans rapidly became
hyperbolized.
19
While hip-hop musicians used the music as a force
against racism and socioeconomic oppression, the masculine identity
had to build itself on the anti-masculine, which by construction, is the
feminine.
20
Ideas of masculinity and femininity, especially as they relate
to queerness, are more recently expansive and not binary. However, with
16. Jenkins (2011) poses “With all of the various ways that we can describe, label, and
identify Black men, why are there only a few, limited, and stereotypical identities present in
popular culture?”
17. Jenkins (2006) introduces hip hop as a space for Black intellectual inclusion.
18. Miles White, From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap and the Performance of Masculinity
(Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2011), 14.
19. There is a theory on black masculinity and homophobia in particular, which acknowledg-
es the historical exclusion of blacks as “perverted” to society due to their race, and inde-
pendently, the exclusion of homosexual men as “perverted.” Thus, the intersection leaves little
room for the visibility of black homosexual men, who risk being double-edgedly extricated
from society as unforgivably “perverted,” thus creating the “defensive” culture of homopho-
bia in black communities. Seeing the deep roots of homophobia in the history of black sexual
politics, it is no surprise that hip hop, which was an opportunity for black American men to
proclaim a strong cultural identity, features overt homophobia as a way to distance themselves
from this “perversion” and give themselves a place in society that held some social power.
20. My gender analysis will be mostly traditional in the sense that it acknowledges society’s
view of gender as binary and the expectations that divide gender. However, I want to preface
that there are new theories on gender which I acknowledge and have the potential to dispute or
complicate my argument.
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
52 53
roots in Freud’s Implicit Inversion Theory, the male queer is typied as
feminine, and so to be masculine is not only to be misogynistic, but also
homophobic.
21
The sound and image of hip-hop is almost synonymous with
masculinity, which was always curious to me, because how can a genre
sound masculine? Do sounds also partake in the social construction
of gender? Typically, theories on gender are focused on the visual or
behavioral presentation of gender. Therefore, how do we listen for
gender? The socially constructed gendered voice that developed from
the phenomenon that the majority of members of different biological
sexes produce sounds that are more or less distinguishable between
high and low pitches. Thus, in addition to the aggressive tone, which
is tied to masculinity, hip-hop is expected to sound masculine because
it is dominated by male artists. Additionally, Crystal Belle argued that
in addition to lyrical anti-gay slurs, the greatest evidence of hip-hop’s
homophobia is the lack of gay representation in the rap genre.
22
Therefore,
the sound of hip-hop could be considered largely misogynistic, or at
the very least, hypermasculine, because of its saturation with exclusively
American males, leaving little to no room for “feminine sound.”
23
Hip-hop is traditionally thought of as pushing against something.
Therefore, after reviewing these characteristics of the hip-hop genre, it‘s
no wonder why hip-hop and rap resonated with Tyler over other forms
of music, especially when he was younger and brimming with angst, as
demonstrated by the raging mists theme of Odd Future. Ironically, hip-
hop is very emotional when you consider that anger itself is an emotion.
In Tyler’s early music, even songs that were meant to be love songs
were paired with the sounds of frustration, as if Tyler always had to be
pushing against something—even if it meant being harsh on himself for
his romantic attachments. However, post-Flower Boy, Tyler shows that
hip-hop can be used to confront other, more vulnerable emotions, such as
21. For more on the Implicit Inversion Theory, as discussed by Kite and Deaux (1987).
22. Crystal Belle, “From Jay-Z to Dead Prez: Examining Representations of Black
Masculinity in Mainstream Versus Underground Hip-Hop Music,” Journal of Black Studies
45, no. 4 (May 2014): 287–300. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0021934714528953.
23. Donald R. McCreary, “The Male Role and Avoiding Feminity,” Sex Roles 31, no. 9-10,
1994: 517-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01544277.
loneliness or the fear of rejection.
Before Flower Boy
Tyler’s discography is closely related to his growth as an artist,
musician, and human being, but a stark comparison lies between his music
pre- and post-Flower Boy, which can be particularly seen in his most
popular song, “Yonkers,” and also his recent song, “A BOY IS A GUN*,”
where Tyler’s deliberate production of each song speaks to his relationship
with his own gender and sexuality. Let’s begin by analyzing “Yonkers,”
from the 2011 album Goblin, where Tyler speaks as Wolf Haley. Goblin
consists of a conversation between two voices on the album: Wolf Haley,
and an anonymous, deep voice, which represents the dark personication
of Wolf Haley’s conscious.
24
Naming his character Wolf is likely tied
to Tyler’s brand, “Wolf Gang,” and the name itself is hyper-masculine,
evoking the image of a wolfpack.
25
The connotations of this are unclear,
but clearly tied to masculinity: is Tyler the alpha wolf or the beta wolf?
If we see Odd Future as his wolfpack, does he feel obligated to prove
himself as the leader of the pack? Perhaps Tyler does feel that pressure.
Being homophobic, misogynistic, angry, and violent are attitudes that
arise when the pressure to prove ones’ masculinity becomes toxic because
this pressure comes with the need to assert dominance over others. These
others might be women, LGBTQ+, or even other males in a ght for the
alpha male role. Lyrically, there are about twelve or more instances where
the imagery of violence is portrayed in “Yonkers,” and some, such as
the image of continuously stabbing Bruno Mars in his esophagus, are
as imaginative as they are disturbing. The specicity and randomness
almost makes the violence parodic, but no less uncomfortable.
Another important musical aspect of “Yonkers” that contributes
to the performance of masculinity is Tyler’s voice and his pronunciation
of the words. While voices of higher pitch are constructed as feminine,
24. Revisiting the album’s title, the voice is clearly the monstrous ‘Goblin’. At the end of
‘Yonkers,’ Wolf describes himself as a goblin, which actually only reinforces the fact that the
monstrous voice on the album is an extension of Wolf’s self and mind.
25. Sometimes, Wolf Gang is spelled “GOLF Wang.”
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
54 55
deeper-sounding voices become paired with masculinity. Thus, Tyler
raps with a very deep voice, and in order to exaggerate that further, he
speaks in a very “guttural” way. In addition to this manipulation of his
own bodily form, his sound performance is also manipulated by bringing
the microphone close to him so that the sound does not spread out into
the room, but stays up-front and close. This is another tool to explain
the characters in the musical performance: Wolf, alone with the thoughts
that compose his conscious. In this song, we’re taken inside the id of his
disturbing psyche, and the lack of sound expansion means that we are
not allowed to leave, no matter how uncomfortable we get. Wolf wants
his thoughts to be heard, and so he imposes himself onto the listener and
forces their attention in another attempt to assert his dominance. One
last way Tyler uses his speech to create the aggressive tone of the song is
through the hard enunciation of his consonants. He growls, whether the
lyrics he raps in that instant are a curse or not. Noticing the prominence
of his enunciation is interesting, because it begs you to consider what
people typically do with their voices when they’re outraged, but not able
to yell or raise their voice to express that anger completely.
Since Tyler is very angry but cannot scream (he is alone, so what
good would that do?) the listener might be deceived to feel an increase
in energy as the song progresses. However, there is no “net energy” gain
or loss throughout the song, as the background indistinguishably loops.
Thus, the feeling of an energy increase is more the consequence of the
song’s increase in tension that has no place for relief. The sound waves
produce a tangible density that makes the room feel heavier and more
under pressure. Thematically, it makes sense that there is no space for
this anger to be relieved because the song is entirely in Wolf’s mind.
When your mind is lled with toxicity, how could you channel that? Wolf
is alone; his dialogue is with his own conscious. The song is meant to
verbalize personal thoughts without too much editing, as someone might
naturally do when conversing them with someone, since they can never
have more empathy for you than yourself.
One really unique and underappreciated aspect of rap is how
much the artist can accomplish and creatively communicate with effective
orality, reducing the background music to added material. In some cases,
as in this song, that’s just what the background music is. I try to imagine
how this song could stand alone as Tyler’s vocal performance without the
instrumental, which is intended to stay in its place in the background.
Many people really love the beat, which surprised Tyler, as it doesn’t add
as much to the song as all the elements of Tyler’s orality.
26
However, there
is one very important thing that the beat is essential for: providing the
rhythm. The relationship that Tyler establishes with the beat is conicted,
which is a characteristic of many of Tyler’s earlier music and especially
on other tracks of this album. Tyler chooses not to be rhythmic with the
words, which I can only interpret as another way for him to establish his
alpha dominance. The rhythm does not dictate how or when he speaks—
only he can do that. Instead of dragging back against the beat, Wolf pulls
the beat along behind him. Wolf is proving himself as the leader; he is the
driver, not the passenger.
After Flower Boy
O
n the more recent end of Tyler’s career, “A BOY IS A GUN*” from
Igor is paradoxically an ode to hip-hop and a gay love song. The
title is tting as the song uses the actual noises of a gun cocking and
shooting bullets to complement its beat, which is a sound not unfamiliar
to the hip-hop genre. Guns have their own place in hip-hop culture, with
a number of songs referencing guns in their lyrics.
27
Thus, it is important
that Tyler also used the sound and symbol of a gun to write “A BOY IS
A GUN*” (“ABIAG”), since the paradox that it creates takes a direct shot
at hip-hop’s masculine stereotype. Instead of using the ideas of guns to
communicate violence or to create a threat to another man, Tyler uses
the imagery and familiar sounds to write a love song to another man. He
recognizes that the man, like a gun, is dangerous to Tyler because of his
inability to defend himself from such a weapon. Previously in hip-hop,
the rapper held the gun and pointed it at his enemies, but with Tyler, the
26. Tyler humorously shared that he was actually “trying to make a shitty New York beat,”
giving the song its title, since Yonkers is a city in New York with a less-than-stellar reputation.
27. Consider the popular song, “Heat” by 50 Cent, or “Thug Luv,” by Bone Thugs-N-
Harmony, featuring 2Pac, or the list of hip-hop songs dedicated to guns compiled by Complex
(2011).
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
56 57
gun is being pointed at him, making himself vulnerable. The song’s lyrics
explain that the boy is also like a gun because Tyler likes him on his side at
all times: “You‘re a gun, cause / I like you on my side / At all times / Keep
me safe (No, don‘t shoot me down) / Wait, wait, depending on, you know
(all the time) / You could be dangerous to me (time, time) / Or anyone
else.” This implies another paradox, where the boy, like a gun, can make
someone feel safe and yet in danger at the same time, depending on who
is in control. This is a vulnerable thing to admit in relation to someone
else, which makes it quite endearing: this boy doesn’t allow Tyler to have
control or dominance like he used to. Is that emasculating?
28
“ABIAG” sounds more melodic than titles such as “Yonkers,” and
the feel of the song is a lot lighter-- so light that some songs on Igor are
piercingly nostalgic for young love and novel heartbreak. The novelty of
the sound, truly, is what makes the nostalgia hit home, since it takes you
back to the rst time someone made you feel something more, and how
easy it was to lose control of yourself when that happened. In a stark
contrast to the harsh consonants on “Yonkers,” the rapping on “ABIAG”
is melodic; the words are not as detached from one another and ow
together seamlessly. When Tyler speaks, there is less of a uctuation in
energy and the words actually sound more monotone. This allows his
voice to ood in and out of the instrumentals so that his voice is not
always in the foreground, as in “Yonkers.” This creates a different tone
for the song where Tyler is no longer trying to dominate, for he is not the
only person worth listening to. He allows the background instrumentals to
sometimes overshadow him, as he is now humbled by his lack of control.
Also, being more embedded in the song might indicate a sense that Tyler
himself is a little lost in his emotions and is less condent than in the
previous, more familiar version of himself.
29
Outside of the song, these
emotions might describe Tyler’s navigation of the new, more vulnerable
identity that he is sharing.
28. More on this from Belle, (2014): “I do agree that an unemotional persona lies at the heart
of Black masculine performances. This is often an act, a performance of sorts that asserts a
manhood that is dominant and deviant, attempting to dene itself in a world that has often
tried to deny the very existence of Black men. Thus, with regard to Black masculinity, it is
difcult to decipher what is real and what is merely a performance instigated by a white gaze.”
29. The music video for this song quite literally shows Igor lost, wandering about a mansion.
As Tyler lets his guard down, the production of his songs change,
as does his relationship to rhythm. “ABIAG” in particular is interesting
because the beat is most noticeable when accentuated or literally delivered
by the sound of a gun cocking or ring. Tyler’s monotone speech continues
to move in relationship with the beat, like they’ve nally gured out how
to get along. This reinforces the lack of dominance that Tyler takes over
the sound production because he is not trying to argue with the beat or
talk over it, as if it continues to cut him off in conversation. Instead, the
smooth instrumentals and tempo comb the words out of him and help him
communicate in a vulnerable and honest space. Additionally, the music
feels open because of its new sound production. Tyler no longer spits into
the microphone and keeps it close, which allows the sound to take up
more space and travel. The sound is meant to be spread and shared; he is
no longer by himself.
While new songs such as “ABIAG” reect a growth in Tyler’s
emotional maturity and also comfort with his own gender and sexuality,
I do not think the stark changes give any word to Tyler’s authenticity.
Despite the uctuation, I think Tyler stays true to himself and his unique,
weird individuality. Even though we’ve been able to learn more about
him recently, there is still much to be uncovered, and his commitment
to being paradoxical has not wavered. Coincidentally, this can even be
seen in both “Yonkers” and “ABIAG.” The opening line of “Yonkers” is
upfront and clever: “I’m a fuckin’ walkin’ paradox––no, I’m not.” Tyler
immediately falls back on his word so that you have to pick which one
to believe; he makes you work to understand him. The exact same idea
is conversed at the end of “ABIAG,” where Tyler turns from the original
theme of the song and tells his lover, “Cause the irony is I don‘t wanna
see you again / Stay the fuck away from me,” which was a contrasting
allusion to his Flower Boy love ballad, “See You Again.” Tyler literally
refuses to make sense or create any “truth” in his music––all we ever get
is a collage of his different creations (characters included) and ashing
projections of his mind. His music is always a narrative, but we can never
trust the narrator.
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
58 59
Conclusion
When I rst read the article by a gay man who was frustrated with
Tyler for coming out after years of spitting the word “fa*got,” I thought
that Tyler coming to be one of the leaders of the new movement within
hip-hop would seem like a curse for the LGBTQ+ movement, since he
is controversial, has a complicated history, and takes no shame in his
provocations.
30
However, I’ve come to realize that Tyler’s pride of his role
as a “walkin’ paradox,” has the power to open people’s minds and crush
their expectations. Tyler is an attention seeker, and an effective one at
that. But what we’re failing to see behind the politics of his discography is
someone who deliberately thinks out their presentation and performance.
Since, as discussed, Tyler presents his music through the character he
creates, it prevents us from ever being able to point to a single image,
outt, album cover, or song, and say “That’s who Tyler, the Creator is.”
Because we can’t do that. We can only ever say, “Meet Wolf Haley.” Or
“Meet Igor.” The parts of these characters that resonate with Tyler, if any,
will only ever be known to him.
It’s not an uncommon idea that the greatest artists are difcult
to understand. And while that might be a romanticization of Tyler’s
problematic nonsense, there’s some truth to Tyler’s performance always
being dynamic. He has a clear and interesting relationship with the world
and is suited for public attention. He can handle it; he experiments with
the eyes on him at all time and warrants their reaction with his behavior.
Even when Larry King pronounced Tyler as a “renaissance man,” he
rejected it.
31
He is no polymath, he is just a creator. He refuses to be
bound to any one thing, especially labels. After understanding Tyler‘s
absolute intolerance for being cornered into one thing—perhaps the only
thing we can ever truly understand about him—it becomes clear why he
is an important leader for the new conversation on gender and sexuality
for black men in hip-hop. Perhaps his constant provocation is actually a
30. Lee, “Is Tyler, the Creator coming out as a gay man,” 2017.
31. Larry King, “Tyler, the Creator on Gay Rappers, Profanity, and His Artistic Idiosyncra-
sies | SEASON 2,” interview by Larry King, YouTube Video, 27:59, June 4, 2014, https://youtu.
be/kC3y_9PNaoM.
stereotype on an LGBTQ icon, since he embodies every characteristic of
a “diva,” but exists within the hip-hop sphere.
32
One possible explanation
is that if Tyler picked one image, and being queer was his brand rather
than being just one part of it, then everything else would be judged
through that lense. His role in hip-hop would be the gay rapper. But even
today, no one can claim this about Tyler because he leads the internet
generation in too many other ways, and this forces people to accept that
being gay is just a thing that people are, and that that’s okay, and that it
doesn’t have to change anything about a person’s role in society or art if
they don’t want it to.
This isn’t meant to overshadow the fact that Tyler’s history has put
him in an awkward position with some people who identify as LGBTQ+,
but it does speak to the diverse journeys people can have with their
sexualities. This narrative is especially important within Tyler’s context
as a black musician who used every ounce of his creativity to enter the
world of hip-hop and fashion, and stay aoat in the face of criticism.
Tyler shows that black men can be gay, play with the expectations of
gender, and overall create a new black masculinity for themselves outside
of the White imagination. Since, as provided by Tyler’s interviews, he has
always felt boxed in by the different labels by which identity is constricted,
Tyler uses his power as a role model and modern cultural creator to push
forward for a space in which these binary constructions are broken down
so that they are not taken seriously, but only ever played around with.
Even if Tyler never wants us to gure just who he is, he certainly wants
to help us gure out the different people that we are, and how to be those
people freely.
32. Originally brought to my attention by UCLA Graduate student Erin Fitzpatrick.
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
60 61
June 15, 2016. https://www.thefader.com/2016/06/15/tyler-the-creator-
interview-golf-wang-made-la.
White, Miles. Jay-Z, and Jim Crow. From Jim Crow to Jay-Z: Race, Rap,
and the Performance of Masculinity. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois
Press, 2011.
Work Cited
Belle, Crystal. “From Jay-Z to Dead Prez: Examining Representations
of Black Masculinity in Mainstream Versus Underground Hip-Hop
Music.” Journal of Black Studies 45, no. 4 (May 2014): 287–300.
doi:10.1177/0021934714528953.
Christopher Hooton @christophhooton. “Tyler the Creator Has Been
‘Coming out’ as Gay or Bisexual for Years and No-One Cared.”
The Independent, November 23, 2018. https://www.independent.
co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/tyler-the-creator-gay-bisexual-
coming-out-scum-fuck-flower-boy-lyrics-i-aint-got-time-twitter-
garden-a7834751.html.
Dylan, and Green. “‘These Black Kids Can Be Who They Are’: On Tyler,
The Creator & the Stigma of Blackness.” DJBooth, August 4, 2017.
https://djbooth.net/features/2017-08-04-tyler-the-creator-and-the-
stigma-of-blackness.
Gray, Herman. “Black Masculinity and Visual Culture.” Callaloo 18, no.
2 (1995): 401-05. www.jstor.org/stable/3299086.
Jenkins, Toby S. “Mr. Nigger: The Challenges of Educating Black
Males Within American Society.” Journal of Black Studies 37, no. 1
(September 2006): 127–55. doi:10.1177/0021934704273931.
Jenkins, Toby S. “A Beautiful Mind: Black Male Intellectual Identity
and Hip-Hop Culture.” Journal of Black Studies 42, no. 8 (November
2011): 1231–51. doi:10.1177/0021934711405050.
Kite, Mary E., and Kay Deaux. “Gender Belief Systems: Homosexuality
and the Implicit Inversion Theory.” Psychology of Women Quarterly
11, no. 1 (March 1987): 83–96. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1987.tb00776.x.
Lee, Benjamin. “Is Tyler, the Creator Coming out as a Gay Man or Just
a Queer-Baiting Provocateur?” The Guardian, July 25, 2017. https://
www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jul/25/tyler-the-creator-ower-boy-
gay-man-or-queer-baiting-provocateur.
Mccreary, Donald R. “The Male Role and Avoiding Femininity.” Sex
Roles 31, no. 9-10 (1994): 517–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01544277.
Okonma, Tyler. “Tyler, The Creator Breaks Down How His First Ever
Runway Show Came Together.” Interview by Liz Raiss. The FADER,
Isabel Nakoud A Possible Resolution
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Closing NotesClosing Notes
Closing Notes
Thank you for reading. If you are interested in learning more about
either the Active Listening Club at UCLA or MUSE, please contact us
at uclamusclgy@gmail.com, or visit us at our website at uclamusclgy.
github.io. We are always looking for people to join our team, and we are
always accepting submissions.
Special thanks to the wonderful faculty and staff of the UCLA Department
of Musicology for your support and mentorship.
Active Listening Club Members
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MUSE is UCLA’s rst undergraduate journal publishing student
work in music scholarship. A student-run organization, MUSE aims
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Winter 2020
Vol. 1, No. 1
