Music is so funny! But how? From monotone monks to extravagant symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, music was a sign of opening the human spirit to appreciate, fear, or love the life we live. Tell me about how gospel songs have impacted you and i will tell you how Jay Z’s Hard Knock Life is the same feeling. You listen to music to picture a make believe world to appreciate the world we all live in. Yet humor makes fun of life and we laugh at it so soundly. We all spend hours watching YouTube’s countless Vines, Try Not to Laugh or Grin challenges, and various fail compilations. We honor to make fun of one bit of life. So why are were wanting to laugh at life? Why are we so fascinated to make fun of artists who humiliated themselves? Or are artists solely want to make fun of themselves for our amusement? Does it make money? Yes. Makes us laugh? Yes. But what does the audience reflect on this? Surely it is funny to laugh at them but why laugh at an artist and where do fans cross over to see provoking, honest artists who want those fans? They are to make our lives better but carry a significant of sense self-humiliation, and offensive humor to degrade a realistic world and illustrate a place filled with power and freedom for fans . These two artists from their respected genres have gathered the thought as to what makes music humorous for the audience to spread power and freedom.
Tyler the Creator is a weird and animatronic rapper who will always spur any moment to make it obscene or laughable. Take his song Tamale making any possible reference he can to establish any chance you can crap and piss your pants. A lot of the song deals with insults left and right from dissing an African American culture icon like Spike Lee to diss the NBA player Tony Parker saying his vision is horrible. Tyler does not care to diss famous celebrities. He is afraid to not make music with careful perfection. He spent many hours trying to figure out a song’s chords he said in an interview. Tyler admitted it “was so hard but I finally got it, but ended up not using them and making something totally different or whatever. But you know, I make music all the time, I listen to it 24/7. Music is number one always”. He laughs but never will he offend music for it is his art form. What example is Tyler the Creator presenting in putting humor through music which he takes seriously? Tyler the Creator is a comic-rapper but not a comedian. He is shaping the form of rap for the 21st century because it was installed through his career. Tyler the Creator starting his career with his group Odd Future and Loiter Squad. Collaborating with those starters, he invented his comedic brand inside his rap game. This of course is not the first ever time a rapper used comedy but what I think is different with Tyler is he can change it anytime to fit his music. Focus on Tamale, Yonkers, and IFHY, you will see what I mean. Tamale is one of most popular songs from Tyler the Creator because he executes clever vowel play with the lyrics but slams people like a teenager would. He talks about creating a window of pleasure with a person’s sister and revokes “before I come, I’m calling your sister, when she comes over, I take picture, instantly put it on Instagram and suplex her off a building if i get banned” proving he will continue to slam any person to act in those and literally slam any person for humiliation. Even though it is comical, there is a serious side to his lyrics. The most serious side I have heard Tyler the Creator was the song Yonkers. He rapped “rapping as I’m mocking deaf rock stars, wearing synthetic wigs made of Anwar’s dreadlocks” which entitles to exploit the new age of music but insult the new age of music. Tyler knows the age of the rock star is changing to a new level where dead rock stars are now trying to match up with the new rock stars of today and searching which are the new ones but follow a lame hack. Tyler the Creator unique style to rap is no different like any other rapper but what makes him comical rapper for the fans is his way expressing the power and freedom to know who you are and feel who are. In the many interviews from Tyler the Creator he does not mind talking about dirty jokes or to ignore a rap beat in order to act silly. Point being, Tyler does not take the average rap game seriously because he wants his own world for everyone to arrive and come visit. This makes him a comical rapper period. The ruler of a world filled with teenage insults and crazy dirty jokes told 24/7.
Frank Zappa is the mad scientist composer of the 20th century indeed. A crazy, experimental, and intelligent being who reamed as king for the freak culture. Sadly he did not intake any drugs for his works on Freak Out! And other classics like Over Sensation. He composed and written all the lyrics to most of his songs in over 100 albums produced and recorded by Frank Zappa himself. A true workaholic and a genius. He is like the rock version of Tyler the Creator but this time when it is funny it is funny.
Frank Zappa talks about blending two genres together many times in his interviews but what may surprise people is his style to conduct an orchestra and his band to ruin a song.
While composing music, Frank Zappa will deliberately ruin a beautiful piece of music because he loved the sound of madness and disorder. He truly was an avant garde musician at art but where does the fans love him? Taking two songs like St. Alfonzo’s Pankcake breakfast and Dont You Eat That Yellow Snow:
Destroying a song does make the song more comical because the music and lyrics are flowing in the same theme. It is very clever for Frank Zappa because if he can’t make lyrics that are funny, he can make the music funny, vice versa. Tyler the Creator and Frank Zappa go and hand in hand but Tyler does not want to make fun of his music for it is number one to him. Frank Zappa will knock out all the conventions for classical music in order to freak out the audience in huge dysteria. Clearly the message Frank Zappa wants to promote with his style of music is disorder. The fans need to realize with Frank Zappa the world already has disorder but does not mean you have to wallow in despair thinking about it. Make fun of it and you will be fine.
