Dissect - S4E12 - Glitter by Tyler, The Creator

Episode Date: July 9, 2019

Our season long analysis of Flower Boy continues with the song “Glitter”. It’s that Tyler’s album long journey culminates with him expressing how he feels to the love interest he’s been chasing throughout Flower Boy. But as we’ll discover, this beautiful moment comes with a twist ending. Purchase limited Season 4 merchandise at shop.dissectpodcast.com. New episodes of Dissect release every Tuesday. Follow @dissectpodcast on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From Spotify Studios, this is Dissect, long-form musical analysis broken into short, digestible episodes. I'm your host, Cole Kushner. Today we continue our serialized analysis of Flower Boy by Tyler the Creator. On our last episode, we dissected the album's 12th track, November. There we heard Tyler hit in an emotional rock bottom as his anxiety and loneliness reached a tipping point. Broken about his past, uncertain about his future, Tyler wished to return to November. to the past, the exact opposite of forward progress and emotional advancement. At the end of November's first verse, we heard a critical plot in Flower Boy's narrative,

which will remember is set in a car ride at sunset. Tyler's anxiety-written introspection has him distracted while driving. honking horn, which implies that Tyler almost hit another vehicle. He then pulls over the car to gather himself. On November 2nd verse, Tyler, still on the side of the road and perhaps shook by his near-death experience, gathers the courage to call the love interest he's talked about throughout the album. I wrote a song about you, I want your opinion. I'll sit on my heart rate to slow down at the ending, because the love that I got for you has exceeded appearance to lyrics on. Matter of fact,

I'm just call you so you can hear it. If you do answer, I'll play it to see it. state facts, although I already know the response you're going to say back. At that point I'll hang up, disappear, and just stay back. And if you don't, I'll leave a voicemail with the playback. We hear a phone ringing throughout this verse as Tyler makes a call. He says that he wrote a song for this person and wants to play it for them. Having gone through an album's worth of emotional turbulence regarding his loneliness and sexual identity, this is an extremely important point in the album's narrative.

Tyler has overcome his insecurities and is finally going to express how he feels to this person. Unfortunately, Tyler's crush doesn't pick up the phone. Rather, Tyler is met with a voicemail message. Tyler then presses play on the song he wrote for this person, the penultimate track on Flower Boy, the subject of our episode today, Glitter. Glitter is written and produced by Tyler the creator and was originally intended for the pop star Justin Bieber. There's just one chord progression used on glitter, comprised of four chords, G minor 7. C major, F minor 7, B-flat major.

This progression provides a harmonic framework for the entire song, played first on guitar and strings. Later on the song, the guitar and strings get replaced with an electronic keyboard. On top of this, Tyler adds two synthesizers. And finally, bass and drum. Now there's a few interesting things I have to point out about the chord progression used on glitter. The first thing is we find yet another chromatic. descending line hidden within this progression. If you'll remember, throughout the season I've been pointing out this similarity in multiple songs on Flower Boy. As a refresh, a descending chromatic

line is a series of notes that descend in small intervals, lower and lower. We heard these descending chromatic lines and chord progressions on Forward, Where This Flower Blooms, See You Again, Pothole, Garden Shed, Boredom, 911 Mr. Lonely, and we're going to find it here again on the progression on Glitter. Glitter's chromatic descending line begins with an F found in the progression's first chord G minor 7. This F moves down one half step to an E in the second chord of C major. The E moves down a half step to E flat in the third chord. Finally, the E flat moves down a half step to a D in the last chord of the progression. So within Glitter's four-cord progression, we find a four-note descending chromatic line from F to D. By my estimation, this now marks

eight songs on Flower Boy where we find a chromatic descending line within a song's chord progression. That's more than half the songs on the album. And if you can remember back to our episode on See You Again, we discussed the compositional technique known as Motivic Development and use Beethoven's Fifth Symphony as an example of a composer taking a single, often small musical idea and working it throughout an entire composition. Whether explicitly intentional or not, that's exactly what Tyler has done throughout Flowerboy, with these reappearance. of chromatic descending lines found in over half the songs on the album. Even though each song and each progression is distinct and individual, the chromatic descending lines add a small but substantial

element of consistency, contributing to our feeling that all the songs belong together, why the album feels more than just a collection of disparate songs. While we often can only distinguish these small details through analysis and rarely hear them in real-time listening, it's my personal opinion that these are the kinds of details that we experience on a subconscious level and are exactly why albums like Flower Boy seem to sit just above most other albums. Now, getting back to Glitter, the second thing I wanted to point out about the chord progression has to do with the emotional feeling Tyler was trying to portray on the song. It just sounds like a sunset and it sounds like defeat, but it's beautiful and that's what I wanted to capture as the last song.

Tyler states that glitter sounds like a beautiful sunset, but also like defeat. While we'll find that Tyler portrays this in the song's two contrasting verses, I want to first point out how Tyler's able to capture this happy, sad juxtaposition musically. In Western harmony, there are two primary chord types that you hear in just about every song you've ever listened to. Those chord types are what's called major and minor triads. Both chords are comprised of three notes. In a major chord, you have the root note, A major third, and a perfect fifth.

Emotionally, major chords typically evoke feelings of happiness or joy. In a minor chord, you have the root, a minor third, and a perfect fifth. Emotionally, minor chords typically evoke melancholy, darkness, or sadness. Again, these are the two most common chord types in all of Western music. The major chord being quote unquote happy, and the minor chord being quote unquote sad. And so let's bring this information back to Glitter. As we heard, Tyler wanted to end the album on a juxtaposition between beauty and defeat.

To do this, Tyler gives equal priority to major and minor chords in his progression. It begins with a minor chord for two beats, then a major chord for two beats. We then get another minor chord for two beats, and then a major chord for two beats. The chord progression then repeats this alternation of minor and major over and over. Again, neither the minor or major chords are prioritized or emphasized. They are given equal time and priority, giving glitter that balance between happy and sad, between beauty and defeat Tyler spoke of. As we'll see, Tyler builds on this happy, sad juxtaposition thematically in his lyrics as well.

Glitter begins with Tyler singing a series of vocal. adlibs, which seems to be a shout-out to the 1974 song Loving You by Minnie Ripperton. Minnie Riperton's Loving You was co-produced by Stevie Wonder, one of Tyler's idols, and the song has been featured on Tyler's curated golf radio station. With lyrics like, loving you is easy because you're beautiful, and no one else can make me feel the colors that you bring, it's no surprise that Tyler nods to loving you to begin glitter, as glitter is a love song to his crush. Indeed, Tyler speaks directly to this person, continuing the intro, You've been on my mind. I'm losing my mind because I hope we can be more than just friends. With these lines, we realize

Tyler and this person already know each other, that it wasn't someone he was admiring from afar. After this brief introduction, Glitter continues into the song's hook. Tyler begins the hook, Fireworks, I feel like glitter. And every time you come around, I feel like glitter. Of course, Tyler is excited by this person, comparing the euphoria he feels to fireworks and the glittering light and colors they produce as they shower down in the sky. He then says, you're the one that I needed in my life. Though a pretty straightforward line, it's not one we experience lightly after having gone through the turbulent series of emotions Tyler displayed on the narrative of Flower Boy. We know that love and the lack thereof had Tyler experiencing an existential crisis of sorts. We also know that

expressing his emotions to this person involved him confronting his own sexuality. So all that to say, despite you're the one that I needed in my life, being a somewhat simple line, its impact here should be regarded as significant, the culmination of Tyler's album long journey. Throughout Glitter's hook, we hear a sample in the background saying, How You Feel. This is sampled from most deaf's 1999 track, Do It Now, featuring Buster Rhyme. Of course, the sample How You Feel ties into Glitter's thematic subject, which is all about what Tyler feels for this person. After Glitter's first hook, the song continues with verse one,

a rap section inspired by an unlikely source. I was like, damn, Quavo has a cool voice and cool pockets. I wonder if he will be cool on the rap part for this, because I didn't feel like writing another singing verse. And then I was like, You know, maybe, maybe I don't know. Here, let me, let me kind of rap in how I would like Quavo to rap. And then that's when I mirror, mirror on the wall.

Feeling good, feeling good and great. Oh, so that's just inspired by Quavo. So Glitter was one of those songs. I was like, man, let me do that. Mirr mirror on the wall. Who the brightest of them all. I never been the darkest one, because myself was stinted with towel. So I never sing out of eye with y'all, niggas.

Eo, who no pay so never pay attention to when niggas got a sale. So I keep that buck, I ain't getting no fuck, they build me up. Tyler begins first one, mirror mirror on the wall, who is the brightest of the mall? This is the first and a number of callbacks will find throughout glitter. Specifically, this references the song 9-1-1 Mr. Lonely, where Tyler asked a similar question. Both glitter and 911 Mr. Lonely playoff the phrase originally found in Disney's Snow White and the Seven dwarves. But whereas on 911, Tyler asks, who's the loneliest of them all, to which it responds me. On glitter, Tyler, Tyler asks who's the brightest of them all.

This, of course, ties into the fireworks imagery of the song and expresses the way this person makes him feel the opposite of lonely. Tyler continues by contrasting brightest with darkest, saying, I've never been the darkest one, because my self-esteem is tall. While past songs on Flower Boy would seem to contradict his claim of tall or high self-esteem, we know Tyler is speaking about how he feels when he's around this person. Tyler continues this line, I've never been the darkest one because my self-esteem is tall,

so I've never seen eye-to-eye with the all N-words. Because his self-esteem is quote-unquote taller, he towers over his critics, doesn't see eye-to-eye with him. He continues building off this critics theme, saying, Ae uno peso, never paid attention to what N-words got to say so. I keep that buck, I ain't give no fuck. Here we get some clever wordplay around money terminology.

I believe Tyler is using uno peso to mean something like $1 or buck, as he then says, I never paid attention, and then later says, I keep that buck, because he dismissed or didn't pay attention to the negative comments from his critics. Tyler caps off this clever string of lines, they ain't build me up, so I block them like Lego. Tyler plays off the fact Legos are plastic toy blocks you build with, saying he ignores or blocks out his critics since they didn't contribute to how he's built his now very successful career. As Glitter's first verse continues, Tyler once again gets self-referential.

Tyler continues first one, feeling glitter, feeling good and great, got the burner, got the heat like weight, got the shit that's all up on that hit. I use it on myself a day you did. Got that four, five, seven track, and for me, baby dog, I hope you agree beat, because you like my fire. Tyler continues first one, feeling glitter, feeling good and great, got the burner, got the heat like weight. Aside from both being names for things that are hot, burner and heat are both slang words for guns. This ties into the next line, got the shit that's all up on that hip, as in a gun on one's hip. He then says, I'll use it on myself on the day you dip, implying suicide to evoke how crushed you'd be if this person ever left him. Next, Tyler again references a gun, but also Flower Boy track numbers, saying, got that 457 track 8 for me. that 4-5, first cites a 45 automatic colt pistol. A standard 45 magazine capacity is eight rounds, and so coming off the I'll use it on myself the day you dip line, we might suspect the 7,

track 8 for me, refers to 7 bullets in the clip, while the 8th is in the chamber for Tyler, implied by the track 8 for me line. Of course, there's significant double meaning in these lines. Specifically, Tyler is referring to tracks 4, 5, and 7 on Flower Boy, which are see you again, Who That Boy and Garden Shed. These are all songs Tyler most directly alluded to his feelings for his crush. See You Again in Garden Shed were the most blatant displays of his feelings, while Hootat Boy more so refers to this person in the song's title, as we know this person is male. The line, Track 8 for Me, is a little more complex than tracks 4, 5, and 7, as Tyler makes sure he emphasizes that that track is his. We first think of track 8 on Flower Boy, which is boredom. This would make sense, as this

song mostly deals with Tyler's personal boredom, loneliness, and isolation, not so much about his love interest. But we do find additional meaning as the verse concludes. Tyler says, Track 8 for me, Baby Doll, I hope you agree. In the official song lyrics for Glitter, the word Baby Doll has quotation marks around it. This seems to imply a song title, specifically Baby Doll, track 8 on NERD's album in Search of. As I remember from our first episode this season, NERD's album in search of had an incredible lifelong influence on Tyler. Specifically, the song Baby Doll finds Farrell revealing his romantic feelings to someone else, so it makes sense that Tyler would cite it on the song in which he's doing the same.

So not only does the line 457, track 8 for me, reference Flower Boy's tracks 457 and 8, it also references track 8 Baby Doll on In Search of. But even more is revealed when we analyze the verse's final line. Let's take one more listen. Tyler says track eight for me, Baby Doll, I hope you agree, because you light my, which bleeds into the word fireworks from the song's hook, making the line, because you light my fireworks. On its surface, this references the hit song Light My Fire originally by the doors. But things take an interesting turn when we realize that singer Minnie Ripperton covered Light My Fire.

The same Mini Ripperton Tyler interpolates on the introduction of glitter. Mini Ripperton's version of Light My Fire is found on our 1979 album, Mini. Can you guess what track Light My Fire is on that album? Yep, track 8. We'll be back right after the break. Welcome back to Dissect. Before the break, we discussed Glitter's first half, which featured a well-written verse that found Tyler's confidence soaring

due to his infatuation with his love interest. Midway through the song's second hook, Glitter takes an unexpected musical turn. I listen to all music slowed down, like just no matter what. You do that a lot. Is it just trying to isolate or is it? I don't know why. I just like it better. Not so down but pitch down. Yeah yeah. No, that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah. I love pitch down. So I was listening to Glitter like that. And I just slowed it down just to see. And that's when I rap like this, there's my mouthful, dude, that boy,

and I was like, oh shit, let me write a verse real quick. As we just heard, Glitter melt into a slower tempo. about 16 beats per minute slower than its start. The pitch of the song also slides into a lower tonal register of E-flat minor, four pitches below the original key of G minor. We note that Glitter's total running time is 3 minutes and 45 seconds, and this change in pitch and tempo occurs exactly midway through the song, around 1 minute and 52 seconds,

effectively dividing the song into two parts of equal length. This division was first alluded to in the album's previous song November. Referring to Glitter, the song he's about to play for his crush, Tyler says, Opposite My Heart, it slows down at the ending. Tyler's heart speeds up or accelerates in front of this person, opposite of Glitter, which slows down. The perfect division of glitter will come to have a number of thematic implications, but aside from the musical changes,

the first thing we notice about the song's second half is that Tyler's sore and confidence has now come back down to earth. Indeed, we're reminded of Tyler's description of glitter being both beautiful and also sounding like defeat. We started today's episode talking about how this was reflected in the song's chord progression, but we're also hearing it play out in long form as well. Verse one found Tyler confident and boastful. With verse two, it appears we're getting the other side of the coin as Tyler begins predicting his own defeat. We're a fat boy, yeah, sumo, got it mimmo, Pell skin see dude must be a window,

cause you in an L, could be a DJ. When I see me, my heartbeat change tempo, yeah, simple, that's what I want, but I can't, that's who you are, but I ain't. You get track to skip trace, I'm calling me quick, so wait, please don't save me. Tyler begins the verse, yeah, look at my face, look at that joy.

This is one-sided, I can't lie, we ain't gonna work out, we have fat boy. In contrast with the first half, this side of glitter, this side of glitter, side of Tyler, isn't so optimistic about how things will turn out after he reveals his feelings to this unexpected love interest. Tyler then describes this person saying, Pale skin see-through must be a window. This person having pale or white skin is consistent with the description Tyler's been giving throughout Flower Boy. We heard about this person's rose-tinted

cheeks, as well as their resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio and Anakin Skywalker. And while the line must be a window is first a clever line about how translucent or see-threather this person's skin is, we also realize window sounds a lot like wind though. This ties into the next line. Must be a wind though, because you ain't an L, L being short for loss. Tyler plays on this use of single letters saying, could be a DJ. When I see you, my heartbeat changes tempo. This line is at once a reference to the tempo change we just heard on glitter, a callback to the line about his heart rate on November, and a second callback to the song 911 Mr. Lonely, and when we which Tyler requests the DJ to change his blue mood.

Tyler brings Glitter's second verse to a close with the lines, That's what I want but I can't. That's who you are, but I ain't. We can track 10 skip trace. Here we get yet another reference to a track number. This time it refers to track 10 on the album skip tracing by the Mild High Club. Track 10 on that album is a song titled Chapel Perilus. In August of 2017, Tyler tweeted a photo of the skip tracing album cover with the caption, quote, fell in love to this album.

It would appear that Tyler and his crush listened to this album together, and that for Tyler, it's a memento of time spent with one another. Tyler ends Glitter's second verse, I'm caught near Quicksand. Wait, please don't save me. Quicksand here is used as a metaphor for Tyler's dangerous emotional relationship he has with this person. Tyler's happiness and contentment are at this person. which means they also have the power to completely devour him, hence the quicksand metaphor.

Despite its risks, Tyler doesn't want to be saved and it's no wonder. Having heard the album up until this point, we know that for the majority of Tyler's life he's been lonely and without romantic love. We also know that this was in part caused by his inability to articulate his sexuality to others. On glitter, Tyler is now willing to be vulnerable, willing to put himself and his feelings on the line in the name of love despite the potential for heartbreak. And isn't that what makes love so powerful in the first place? The inherent vulnerability of giving a peace of yourself to another person, the voluntary willingness and humility to carve out a space in your own heart for someone else's, to care for their health and happiness as much as you care for your own.

Even if this person breaks Tyler's heart, at least he's allowed himself an opportunity for his heart to be broken. For someone who seemingly lived his entire life without real romantic love, who struggled for years to articulate his feelings for the same sex, this is no small feat. It's actually quite something. Please don't save me, indeed. As we just heard, Glitter continues with a mostly instrumental outro. If we listen closely, though, we can hear Tyler's detuned voice murmur something. Tyler's stune voice murmur something. stated on record that he's saying rose-tinted cheeks here. Let's listen to this passage one more time, and I'll cue you just before Tyler murmurs this, right here. As we remember, Tyler first

described as fantasy lover as having rose-tinted cheeks on the song, See You Again. But the phrase takes on even more significance when we realize that rose-tinted cheeks is the name of an unfinished song Tyler wrote for Flower Boy and subsequently shared on YouTube as a rough draft. The song's introduction gives us a clue into where the song would have fit in the album conceptually. This is the same answering machine we heard in the introduction to glitter. It seems safe then to assume that rose-tinted cheeks was an alternative song that Tyler was going to leave on his crush's voicemail. Rose-tinted cheeks is thematically the same as glitter. Both are love songs expressing how Tyler feels about this person. Tyler even references

track 10 from Mild High Club, the same song Tyler shouted out on glitter. Rose Tinned Rosed'Ritech'all Track 10, track 10 dirt bike afternoos As long as pale skin's near I didn't have to leave a room Rose Tinted Cheeks

also contains a similar ending to glitter Here Tyler says I might as well drown Please don't save me Which is of course very similar to him being caught in quicksand and not wanting to be saved at the end of glitter

While rose tinted cheeks doesn't contain any additional insight to the album's narrative It does reinforce that Tyler is most likely talking about someone very specific, and if anything, it's just kind of a cool alternative ending scene you'd find on a movie's bonus DVD. After Tyler shouts out rose-tinted cheeks on the outro of glitter, the song continues with its extended instrumental. As we approach the end of the track, we hear another thematically relevant lyric. Here, Tyler sings the phrase,

scum-fuck, Flower Boy over and over. Of course, this is the album's full title, adding to our growing list of self-references on the album's back half. While we'll discuss at length the thematic implications of the title Scum Fuck Flower Boy on our finale episode, hearing it sung here on the album's penultimate track provides a nice feeling of completion, of narrative unity and closure. This feeling of closure doesn't last long though. With the final moments of glitter, the album's narrative takes an unexpected twist. As you know, Tyler has pulled his car over to the side of the road after nearly getting into an accident on November. Perhaps inspired by his near-death experience,

Tyler gets the courage to call his crush with the intention of telling him how he feels, which he does through the song Glitter. His crush doesn't pick up, so Tyler leaves Glitter as a voicemail message, or so we thought. Fuck. Tyler's album-long journey of self-examination,

confrontation with his sexual identity, battling existential and romantic loneliness, all of what we've experienced on Flower Boy thus far has led to this moment, the moment in which Tyler picks up the phone, calls his crush, and plays for him glitter. Now here in the closing moments of the narrative, Tyler finds out that his voicemail didn't go through due to either a bad connection or because he wasn't actually speaking. Tyler then expresses his frustration saying,

fuck, but we're still not told exactly why the call didn't go through. Was it really a bad connection? Was Tyler not actually speaking? Was this just all in his head the entire time? We'll discuss this, recap the entirety of Flower Boys' narrative, and draw some final conclusions on our season four finale episode. Next time on Dysect. Dysect is written and produced by me,

original theme music by Birocratic, song recreations by Andrew Atwood, audio editing by Eric Bass and me. If you enjoy Dysect, please help me spread the word by telling a friend, family member, or co-worker about the show. Follow DysectPod playlist on Spotify, where you can find music playlist curated by yours truly. Also, be sure to say hi at Dysect Podcast on Twitter and Instagram and join our newsletter at dissectpodcast.com. Okay, thanks, everyone. I'll talk to you next week.