Flowers — Miley Cyrus (2023)

Why it's in this book

It shares February with Despechá and Bamboleo and belongs to the same family: the Latin minor, family D. Its four chords, A minor, D minor, G and C, fit on the ukulele and repeat for almost the whole song. To be straight with you: the record has a couple more, an E major in the pre-chorus and an F at the end of the chorus. In class we play the four-chord version; whoever already has those down can add the E major. In the room with no instruments you sing it with the disco bass drum in your feet and prepare the second voice, a third in the chorus. With ukuleles, the four chords with a disco strum. In the music room the bass has real work to do, and the bridge, which runs over the same loop, is the slot for the solo.

Why this song

Play the chorus and listen to what it says: someone who finds out they do not need anyone to buy them flowers, take them dancing or look after them. Many people heard it as a reply to another song: Bruno Mars's "When I Was Your Man", in which he regretted never buying his partner flowers.

A song that answers another song. The musical question is different: why do these four chords sound as if they fall into place on their own, one after another?

Historical context

Miley Cyrus started out as a child on TV, as Hannah Montana. Since then she has changed style several times: pop, country, rock.

In January 2022 she spent a week in a Hollywood studio with two songwriters, Gregory Hein and Michael Pollack. They wrote around a piano. "Flowers" was born that way: as a slow, sad ballad, with just Cyrus's voice and Pollack on a Rhodes electric piano.

Then the producers sped it up and put a disco beat, a funk bass and strings underneath. The same song in different clothes.

Foto: Raphael Pour-Hashemi, CC BY 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons

Miley Cyrus live in Barcelona in 2019, four years before "Flowers". Her voice is low and a little raspy: listen to how she uses it in the verses.

It came out in January 2023 and broke records: the most-streamed song in a single week in Spotify's history, number 1 in the United States for eight weeks, and the best-selling single in the world that year. In 2024 it won Cyrus her first two Grammys.

Musical characteristics

Four falling chords. The loop is A minor, D minor, G, C. Look at the root of each chord: A, D, G, C. Each one is a fifth below the one before. That path is called the circle of fifths, and the ear follows it as if each chord pushed the next. Pollack put it like this: it is one of those circle-of-fifths songs where the melody and the chords get written together.

The chord that pulls you home. In the pre-chorus a chord appears that was not there before: E major. In A minor, E major is the dominant: the chord that builds tension and asks to go back to A minor. That is why, after the pre-chorus, the chorus feels like an arrival.

The disco pulse. The most typical 1970s disco beat puts the bass drum on every beat: one, two, three, four. That steady kick is called four-on-the-floor. In class, the drums will play it that way. Your job in the listening is to check how close the record's drums are to that.

The bass dances. The bass does not just hold the long root of each chord: it moves, as in funk. That low melody is the bass line. In a five-piece band, it is the instrument that makes this song sound like this song.

Minor, but eager. The song is in A minor, but it does not sound sad. What takes the sadness away is the rhythm. Compare the slow piano demo with the record: the same harmony, a different emotion.

Hard facts: A minor, 4/4, 118 beats per minute, 3:20. The sections, according to Hooktheory: verse with pre-chorus, chorus, a chorus lead-out and an instrumental part.

Guided listening

Play the music video. Tap the beat with your foot and listen to the bass drum. Does it hit all four beats, as in classic disco, or only some? Compare the verse and the chorus.

In the verse, follow the bass. Try humming it. You will notice it moves far more than the voice.

Before the chorus, listen for the chord that builds tension. That is E major, the dominant. Notice how the chorus resolves it.

When it ends, play the Backyard Sessions version in Resources. What has changed? What has stayed the same?

Trivia and curiosities

• It came out on the birthday of actor Liam Hemsworth, her ex-husband. Many people read it as a message. The song itself does not say so.

• Several critics compared it to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" (1978), another disco song about getting on with life alone.

• In its first full week it racked up 96 million streams on Spotify, more than any song before it.

• The original demo, the slow piano ballad, was released later. It is the best proof that style changes everything.

Classroom activities

• Disco with your body. Room with no instruments: the whole class taps four-on-the-floor with their feet and claps on 2 and 4. On top, the chorus in unison. Then one group sings a third above.

• Circle of fifths on ukulele. A minor, D minor, G, C, one chord per bar. Before you play, say the root of each chord out loud: A, D, G, C. What is the distance between each one?

• The dominant. Whoever already has the four chords adds E major before going back to A minor. Play it with and without E major. Which sounds more like coming home?

• Band and bridge. Music room: drums on four-on-the-floor, bass on the root of each chord (plus a passing note or two if you can), keyboard on the chords. In the bridge, a keyboard or guitar solo over the loop.

Key vocabulary

• Circle of fifths — círculo de quintas
• Dominant — dominante: el acorde que crea tensión y pide volver a casa
• Four-on-the-floor — bombo en cada pulso, el ritmo de la música disco
• Bass line — línea de bajo

Resources

Official music video

Backyard Sessions, to compare — The same song played live in a back garden. Notice which instruments are there.

Guitar tutorial — JustinGuitar. An easy version.

Ukulele tutorial — Ukulaliens. To play along with the song.

Piano tutorial — PHianonize. An easy version.

Drum tutorial — Steve Howard. A lesson to learn the song's beat.

Bass tutorial — Starving Artists Courses. A full lesson on the bass line.

• Harmonic analysis — Hooktheory: https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/miley-cyrus/flowers