Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
The above aphorism from the Preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray claims that art that causes disagreement among critics is new, complex, and vital. The rapper and musician Tyler the Creator exemplifies this aphorism, namely his first two solo albums Goblin and Wolf (and to a vastly lesser degree his third album Cherry Bomb.)
In the current music discussion, it is a rare opinion that Tyler the Creator’s most recent albums (Flower Boy, Igor, and Call Me if You Get Lost) are anything less than stellar. The instrumentals are beautiful, each album has a distinct compelling and emotional theme, the lyrics are honest and cutting, and there is a massive diversity of sound in each album’s catalog. However, this consensus is far from the norm in the history of Tyler’s music. A lot of his early music was/is considered by some audiences to be overly vulgar, homophobic, violent, lacking complexity, and badly produced. However other audiences, especially teenagers, found his music exciting, raw, unfiltered, and expressive in a way that few other artists did. The most notorious and divisive controversy is Tyler’s alleged homophobia cited by his regular use of the f-slur in his early music. The albums on trial, Goblin, and Wolf, were released in 2011 and 2013. The early 2010s were confusing times for artists. At the time, cancel culture was either in its infancy or soon to arrive, and as a result, audiences were beginning to hold artists accountable for prejudices presented in their work and personal lives. Also in the early 2010s, gay marriage was in the process of becoming nationally legalized so homophobic language gained significant attention from the public.
The reactions to Tyler the Creator’s music are emblematic of the division of opinion regarding media and the state of the nation’s views on homosexuality in the early 2010s. Lack of agreement among listeners demonstrates that Tyler’s work had a complexity that could be differently interpreted. The work can be seen as vital to understanding the infancy of cancel culture and early-2010s opinions on homophobic rhetoric. While there is little explicitly unique in these early albums the newness of the response to these works demonstrates that these albums were culturally significant.
I want to highlight the phrase “disagreement among critics.” A noticeable lack of agreement on the quality or importance of work tends to elicit polarizing responses. Something that is average rarely creates tension and disagreement; it is easier for critics to let average works be ‘just okay.’ Basic or simple art does not create discussion or argument. It is easy to oversimplify these groups as people who ‘get it’ and people who ‘do not get it,’ but that categorization often paints the group that ‘does not get it’ as only close-minded or conservative (which, admittedly, is sometimes the case.) However, in acknowledging the polarity of opinion regarding a piece, we can find the societal or personal reasons that generate the polarity and attempt to unpack what makes a specific work draw out these responses and, therefore, be new, complex, and vital. I also want to address, in the context of Tyler the Creator’s work, Wilde’s term critic can be replaced with the terms audience or listener because, since the onset of the internet, anyone with a Wi-Fi connection can be considered a critic.