Milk The Cunt

Milk The Cunt
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Scene in Whiplash I have never understood
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So I watched Whiplash for the third time last night and, for the third time, a scene left me confused.
During the first band practice, Miles Teler is talking to the core drummer when the camera suddenly cuts to a close up of someone yelling "Milk the cunt." It's over as soon as it starts but its so jarring and out of place. Is it a reference to something that I'm missing or is it a musical joke? Help!
What's the meaning of "Milk the cunt"?
He was telling everyone to play middle-C for tuning purposes. (Source: Miles Teller tweet)
This is what I think is going on, and my musician friend backed it up with his experience in band classes.
The band knows Fletcher is about to enter the room, and once he enters they must be perfect. Their instruments must be in tune and they must be ready and warmed up. Someone yells "Milk the Cunt!" As a last call for correct tuning and to stretch it out as long as possible before Fletcher enters precisely at 9:00
This has been driving nutes! Thank you!
It's a contrast to Nieman and the rest of the band, where he is insecure and needs to ask, timidly, several times for a note to tune to, the rest of the band tunes up on Milk the cunt and one stroke of the piano key.
Here is your answer OP. It is setting the scene, in the same way the first scenes in the 'lower level' band room start with all the players chatting and having to be calmed down by their teacher, not immediately shutting up when Fletcher shows up.
Band culture is weird. It's probably done code for tuning their instruments.
Middle- C is essentially the "equator" of tones on a scale, and therefore marks a logical note to tune one's instrument(s) to.
I'm fairly certain that character just used an inflammatory phrase to get everybody's attention amidst the dull roar (a room full of instruments all playing at once).
I think it was their queue to get in tune. That's what I got from it, anyway.
"Queue" is a line to wait your turn. "Cue" is a signal for something to happen. Not trying to shame you, just for others who might not know.
As others have said, it's for tuning. For what it's worth, that's a very small but very important detail for one of the unsung themes of the film related to the lack of women in jazz. Jazz has been a very male-dominated field of music. It's better now, but still has a ways to go (most of the bands I play in around town are devoid of women, maxing out around three out of a possible 17 or so on a "good" night). In the early days of jazz, women mostly contributed as singers, and it was partially thanks to the invention and proliferation of the microphone that they were able to branch out and not have to rely on backing bands and orchestras. Women also did some songwriting, but many of them did it with a male writing partner or with an alias.
The big tell in the film that shows this issue playing out today is the one and only female band member gets trashed by Fletcher. I don't think she has a speaking line.
And that's it for women in the film. And the crazy thing is that it's disturbing accurate. Source: me, in college. My first college big band had one woman in it, and she was treated the exact same way by our director as the characters from Whiplash. I had female friends in other bands that had the same experiences.
There was a documentary that came out some years ago called But Can She Play, about women in jazz. The title references what is basically a sexist catch phrase, something that men in jazz have asked other men who are vouching for a female jazz musician.
You think young people today are more progressive, and they are in a lot of ways. When I was in high school, "gay" and "fag" were commonly used as catchall negative adjectives. Not in 2015.
But in 2015, you go to a rehearsal full of undergrads in a big band: it's almost entirely men, and you're definitely gonna hear someone make a joke about a female student not in the room who is only good for sex.
Many of those guys age out of that and gain empathy as they develop. But it definitely creates a very difficult barrier early on that unfortunately weeds out a lot of talented and creative women musicians.
ANYWAY, just thought I'd provide some more insight than the surface explanation. Whiplash is one of my favorite movies in recent years, because it felt like a documentary to me (I went to one of those schools) and hit certain cliches in an honest way. It was hard to watch, but I'm glad it was made.
Old post but just stumbled upon it, and it provides a great insight on the subject.
Great post, no idea why it's been downvoted. I'll check that flick out.

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He was telling everyone to play middle-C for tuning purposes. (Source: Miles Teller tweet)

Edit

More than likely Fletcher took it because he had said he did not want to see another folder left laying around. Another possibility is that Andrew either hid the folder or lost it on purpose to sabotage Tanner and take his place as the core drummer. Edit: In the screenplay, it's revealed that a janitor threw out the folder on accident. It's likely in post-production this bit was cut to make it seem more malicious.

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