Tyler, the Creator, 'Don't Tap the Glass, and the dire state of party music

Tyler, the Creator just dropped a delightfully upbeat new album called Don't Tap The Glass. Its launch included a social graphic missive from Tyler in which he discusses a contemporary societal ill with a big ol' wall of text.

"I ASKED SOME FRIENDS WHY THEY DONT DANCE IN PUBLIC AND SOME SAID BECAUSE OF THE FEAR OF BEING FILMED," the text begins. "I THOUGHT DAMN, A NATURAL FORM OF EXPRESSION AND A CERTAIN CONNECTION THEY HAVE WITH MUSIC IS NOW A GHOST. IT MADE ME WONDER HOW MUCH OF OUR HUMAN SPIRIT GOT KILLED BECAUSE OF THE FEAR OF BEING A MEME, ALL FOR HAVING A GOOD TIME." Tyler goes on to describe the "freedom" of a phone-free album listening party he hosted.

Ah, this is something extremely relevant to I Enjoy Music ethos. I'm on the record here as reeeally hating when people go to an event with loud amplified high energy music and act as though there is no music playing at all. It happened in the Coachella crowd for Gaga, it happened at the re-animation of an old indie sleaze dance party. I could be described as a crank about this phenomenon. I would accept the label of Dance Crank.

Tyler's statement has sparked discourse. Some of this discourse is generational, pitting zoomers against millennials, which I have to reject outright because inter-generational warfare is a psyop to distract us from bigger problems (like boomers. haha no no I kid I kid, I joke with you). Do I, like Tyler, think the problem is the phones? Hmm, I think the phones contribute to the problem, but if you listen to the song "Whoo! Alright - Yeah...Uh Huh." by the Rapture (a BOP) we have been having dance floor problems long before we had smartphones: "People don't dance no more / They just stand there like this / They cross their arms and stare you down / And drink and moan and diss." That song came out in 2006, when Facebook had barely dropped the "the" (it's cleaner).

We have probably always had dance floor population problems. This is why we need songs that explicitly tell people to get on the dance floor and enjoy themselves. Madonna had to tell us to get into the groove. Prince had to tell everyone it was okay to Go Crazy and Get Nuts. Dance craze songs often use the imperative mood: DO THE MASHED POTATO. Disco as a whole genre was basically tautological—many disco songs remind listeners to enjoy themselves at the disco. Newton's First Law of Motion: a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it. The outside force is someone wheedling, chortling, begging you to celebrate good times, come on.

We've had a dearth of simple, direct party songs for quite some time, and we're really starting to feel it. People laugh at the millennial cringe of the Party Rock Era but are now hungry for "recession indicators" that hearken back to the days when LMFAO and Lil Jon and Pitbull were barking at us to slurp down some shots and have a good time. Justice's continued popularity reveals a need for young French children to tell us to do the D.A.N.C.E. The revival of Charli XCX's Covid-era song "party 4 u," which is technically about throwing a party but is also quite lugubrious and lacking in party utility, seems to speak to this latent desire for explicit party music. (Maybe the Chainsmokers remix will work in a pinch? ).

But we've got to work harder to pull ourselves out of our navels, where we have been gazing, and distill the sentiments into simple commands. Renee Rapp went part of the way there, she has a song out now with the chorus "Leave me alone, bitch, I wanna have fun," and it has a charming early aughts feel, like it should belong on the Pink album Missundaztood. But the lyrics are muddled with too much clutter—at the end of the day, I am not going to dance to a song about quitting the television show The Sex Lives Of College Girls. The message must always be clear and direct: "Killah" is a fun song to dance to but "Just Dance"...is cleaner. Basically, I know musicians who use subtext, and they're all cowards.

I will conclude with this: it's not easy to let go and have a good time in public. And it could be argued that it's harder than ever before. There is the social media panopticon to deal with, some general pandemic party etiquette amnesia, a focus on sobriety and wellness over sloppiness and hedonism, a gravitation toward passive rather than active entertainment, a lack of funds to spend on parties, a lack of accessible spaces to party in. But we can overcome all of this. We just need some direction. The new Tyler album is a great start! "Ring Ring Ring" is so fun. Now who will be the artist brave enough to yell at us, in a catchy style, and in no uncertain terms, to dance, to party, to have fun?

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