Summer Research Project - Tyler the Creator

Tyler The Creator

Tyler, the Creator is an American rapper and founder of alternative hip hop group “Odd Future”. At the age of 23 he has 3 albums of his own; Bastard, Goblin and Wolf. He has also featured and produced on records with other artists such as The Game, Lil Wayne, Mac Miller and many more.

The reason why I have chosen to study Tyler, the Creator is because he is a controversial artist in the industry and may do things differently to his musical peers.

Media Representations

Tyler, the Creator in my opinion may be regarded as a rebel as he choses to do things his way, he has an absurd way of saying things in his music which may disturb some audiences. However when spoken to in interviews he seems to be ore relaxed and not as serious as some of the content in his lyrics may seem. Therefore the representation of Tyler, the Creator is not very accurate.

Media Languages and Forms

His music tells us a lot about his early upbringing and how his mother raised him as a single parent. There are often references associated with his father, certain quotes from songs like “Bastard” express the amount of hatred he has towards his father. His facial expression varies a lot depending on the kinds of emotion being created in the song. There is also a contrast between the clothes he wears in regard to the way he carries himself; he often will wear colorful clothes even when rapping about depression. He will also swear a lot in an absurd way, this may disturb certain audiences as they may not be used to something this abrupt. He also directs his own music videos in which he wishes to convey a message of some sort. In his most famous video “Yonkers” he ate a live cockroach in order to gain attention of other audiences.

Narrative

A music video named “She” starts of with a still image of  a 'GOBLIN' logo. This may tell us that the artists represent a brand called goblin or could even connote that the viewer is about to watch something scary. The video then starts with a close up shot of a road sign saying 'nil bog' which is 'goblin' backwards, now indicating the video does represent a brand. There is also diegetic sound as we can hear cars go past. In the same scene the camera zooms to the right hand side of the road showing a long shot of three men gambling, one of the men starts to sing, indicating he is one of the artists in the song (Frank Ocean). The scene then changes to a close shot of the man rolling dice and holding money in his hand that makes it clear he is gambling. The scene then changes to a woman moving into a house, and we can see the that the three men are looking at them. This gives us a indication that the song is about this woman. The scene then changes to a close up of her face and she is smiling at Frank Ocean meaning that she is happy to be moving in near him, or suggesting that they may have had a previous relationship of some sort. The girl is then escorted into the house by an elder man. The scene then changes to a shot of the artist and the woman in bed however he pushes her to the side and looks out the window and we can now tell that time has passed because it is now dark. He also sees this man in a balaclava and therefore rings the police describing that he has seen some kind of goblin. there is a slide scene that shows a policeman listening to him on the phone. The next scenes show that the girl is angry because the man is not with her now and she even seems to be angry with her dad, she lies down in her room alone with the door shut meaning that she needs her own time. She eventually falls asleep and the man seen at the window with the balaclava has appeared and is now also rapping indicating he is the other artist (Tyler The Creator). He then reveals his face raps the song to this woman even though she is sleeping and cannot hear him, while doing this he also smells some of her clothes and tells her to meet him by the lake by writing the message on her window. He has probably avoided waking her up because she would freak out and cause an uproar within the household. The next scene is a 180 degree pan that shows Tyler running out the house, so fast that he trips to a wall where frank is sitting down near some flowers observing what is happening. The scene then changes to a daytime of a shot of Tyler riding his bike really fast with some of his friends behind him, this switches to a shot of the woman riding her bike calmly with her friends, indicating they are both going to the lake. The scene then changes to both of them at the lake until the music stops and tyler realises it is a dream. Tyler and his friends get arrested which could be a result of Frank calling the police earlier. The scene next shows Tyler in the police car eventually being brought to the neighbourhood he was stalking this woman. The police men get into a brawl with an elder man that could be the woman's dad, This is a distraction so tyler starts to speak to the woman and now she looks unimpressed until he compliments her, there is nothing else to say and they are both smiling and Tyler is looking at the camera. The video finishes by zooming out into a television frame making out that all of this was a short film. We can then see the same woman watching this on her sofa. The camera then slowly zooms out to show Tyler again in his balaclava looking down at her. Throughout the video the lighting was tinted slightly blue in the daytime to give us a feeling of gloom. whereas other shots were mostly at night or inside with very dim lighting.

Genre

Tyler, the Creator makes Hip-Hop/Rap music. He often mimics the generic themes of rap in his own music like mocking other rappers that talk about typical things like money, women and power. Generally in Hip-Hop music  artists like to glorify things they find amusing however Tyler, the Creator mainly speaks about family problems and how he feels towards his friends which is an alternative approach of lyricism. I think that the general hip hop audience would not have initially regarded Tyler as a proper rap artist thus he is also regarded as a maker of alternative hip hop.

Media Instituitions

Tyler was first signed to XL recordings and they were responsible for the release of his first album called Goblin. He also signed a joint venture deal for his own label called Odd Future with RED distribution and Sony Music Entertainment. His latest album released on his own label sold more than 90,000 records in the first week of sales. The albums were released digitally through iTunes. They were also made available in retail stores such as HMV. There is also music that has been released under the Odd Future label that can be available for free download via the odd future website.

Media Audiences

I think that the psychographic groups of explorers would definitely be interested with this type of text as it is the alternative version of the original type of music. The music and culture that odd future possess is also in collaboration with a street skateboard brand called Supreme which is also a niche market that would also attract the same audience. The demographics would vary depending on consumers personal taste however it is likely that the groups of c1,c2d and e would be interested. I think that males and females would equally be interested in this kind of text.