Dissecting the lyrics of a rare breed: an authentic mainstream band.

9 min read

It rarely happens that a modern band which is immensely popular has any real substance to them, and Twenty One Pilots is such an example.

They have their own distinct style: idiosyncratic, hip-hop rhythms blended with electronic and rock motifs — and all of that sprinkled with bittersweet, introspective, and intimate lyrics.

They are awe-inspiring, confusing, catchy, and profound at the same time.

Here’s a few themes I observed in their songs:

1. They write about self-hate and the importance of facing your own demons

I have these thoughts
So often I ought
To replace that slot
With what I once bought
’Cause somebody stole
My car radio
And now I just sit in silence

These lyrics can have many meaningful interpretations, and that versatility is usually a compliment for the songwriter. To me these words resemble our modern obsession of silencing our own thoughts, of trying to distract ourselves from our issues.

I have these thoughts
So often I ought
To replace that slot
With what I once bought

You have unpleasant thoughts, and more often than not, your habit is to replace that “slot” in your mind which is occupied by these thoughts with something you can buy, some form of entertainment or distraction. It could be a TV show to indulge in, new clothes, booze, drugs — you name it.

’Cause somebody stole
My car radio
And now I just sit in silence

Again, you can interpret it as literally someone having stolen his car radio and him being bored as a result. However, knowing Tyler Joseph — their main lyricist, he surely had a deeper meaning behind these lyrics.

To me it’s representing that moment of facing your own demons, when the distractions don’t work anymore, or when you’re forced to face the silence, the silence of your own mind — which if you pay attention to — is usually not as silent as it seems. And when you finally address it, it may come screaming at you:

Sometimes quiet is violent
I find it hard to hide it
My pride is no longer inside
It’s on my sleeve
My skin will scream
Reminding me of
Who I killed inside my dream

You can’t really escape the car that you’re driving — your mind and your body. You have to listen to it, there is no choice. You’ll have to “pull the steering wheel” and then you’ll be “forced to deal with what you feel”:

I hate this car that I’m driving
There’s no hiding for me
I’m forced to deal with what I feel
There is no distraction to mask what is real
I could pull the steering wheel

But no one said it would be easy, dealing with your own demons is painful:

I find over the course of our human existence
One thing consists of consistence
And it’s that we’re all battling fear
Oh dear, I don’t know if we know why we’re here
Oh my,
Too deep
Please stop thinking.
I liked it better when my car had sound.

2. They write about how the news and media glorify the act of suicide of famous people.

We glorify those even more when they..
My opinion, our culture can treat a loss,
Like it’s a win and right before we turn on them,
We give them the highest of praise,
And hang their banner from a ceiling,
Communicating, further engraving,
An earlier grave is an optional way.
No.

There’s a lot to be said about this. Famous people killing themselves has become a sick kind of entertainment for the masses. It’s not news that the more negative and shocking an event is, the more views it’s going to get — behavioral studies have shown that. The media companies know very well about this and they fully exploit it with no remorse whatsoever.

What’s my problem?
Don’t get it twisted.
It’s with the people we praise who may have assisted,
I could use the streams and extra conversations,
I could give up, and boost up my reputation,
I could go out with a bang, they would know my name,
They would host and post a celebration.

Sure, most of us are sad when any human being decides to kill himself, but there’s a certain hypocrisy involved here, we do tend to feel less sorry for famous people, as if them being rich and popular is a shield protecting them from the fragility of the human mind, as if they deserve less compassion from us, because they had it all and threw it away:

They say “How could he go if he’s got everything?”
I’ll mourn for a kid, but won’t cry for a king.

Tyler argues that yes, we have beaten the stigma of talking about suicide, people are more aware that it is a modern epidemic, but we should also reconsider the way we treat suicide, the way we glorify it for our media ratings and views, the way we feed the beast and give vulnerable people the extra temptation to kill themselves as a statement to the public:

Don’t get me wrong, the rise in awareness,
Is beating a stigma that no longer scares us,
But for sake of discussion, in spirit of fairness,
Could we give this some room for a new point of view?
And could it be true that some could be tempted,
To use this mistake as a form of aggression,
A form of succession, a form of a weapon,
Thinking “I’ll teach them”, well, I’m refusing the lesson,
It won’t resonate in our minds.
I’m not disrespecting what was left behind,
Just pleading that it does not get glorified,
Maybe we swap out what it is that we hold so high.

These are not empty words. Research backs this up. The more we talk about people that kill themselves in the media, the more we encourage others to do the same in order to get that postmortem publicity. Psychologists call this “The Werther Effect”, following Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther, also called “the copycat suicide”, which refers to the contagious nature of the publicized suicide.

Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The publicized suicide serves as a trigger, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide by a susceptible or suggestible person. This is referred to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave, nationally. This is called a suicide cluster…“Hearing about a suicide seems to make those who are vulnerable feel they have permission to do it,” Phillips said. He cited studies that showed that people were more likely to engage in dangerous deviant behavior, such as drug taking, if someone else had set the example first.

3. They write about depression via an ironic upbeat music, implying that often the signs of depression are less obvious than people think.

*or that you have to force yourself to fight against depression

I must’ve forgot, you can’t trust me
I’m open a moment and closed when you show it
Before you know it I’m lost at sea

When you’re depressed you may often seem like you’re OK on the outside, and you fake it so that people wouldn’t ask more questions, because it’s often painful to talk about the very thing that bothers you all the time, the very thing that clouds your judgement.

Also, more often than not, people are not sincere when they ask you about how you feel, they don’t really want to know the truth, it’s just the socially acceptable thing to do, hence the hesitation to give an honest answer when you’re depressed — you know you won’t be understood, which, ironically, can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And when things go well, enjoy it, because they are fleeting, especially when you’re depressed:

Remember the moment you know exactly where you’re goin’
Cause the next moment before you know it
Time is slowin’ and it’s frozen still

As a consequence, you may have suicidal thoughts, you may even think of doing it. Tyler argues that it’s OK to have the thoughts, but don’t identify with them, don’t act on them. You must realize they are just thoughts, they are not you:

And the windowsill looks really nice, right?
You think twice about your life
It probably happens at night, right?
Fight it, take the pain, ignite it, tie a noose around your mind
Loose enough to breathe fine and tie it to a tree tell it,
“You belong to me, this ain’t a noose
This is a leash and I have news for you
You must obey me!”

Fighting depression is about embracing reality and being proactive. Accept what you feel, what you are, face the dragon, face it fully, and create something out of that fight, even if it seems meaningless at first, you must persevere and create your new self:

Lean with it, rock with it, when we gonna stop with it?
Lyrics that mean nothin’, we were gifted with thought
Is it time to move our feet, to an introspective beat?
It ain’t the speakers that bump hearts
It’s our hearts that make the beat

“Speakers” here may mean the external circumstances that bump our hearts (that affect us). He may imply that our hearts (us) decide how to make the beat (how to interpret what happens to us).

One of the best writers and philosophers of the 20th century, Albert Camus, argued in his work The Myth of Sisyphus, that “there is only one serious question in philosophy, and that is suicide”. He argued that if we don’t address this question seriously, we can’t really live.

He came to the conclusion that suicide is not the answer, even if life is full of suffering. He made the analogy of a Greek myth about a man named Sisyphus which was cursed to endlessly push a boulder uphill, and that “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”, implying that life itself is meaningless and absurd, and there’s no guaranteed reward for your efforts. But you must embrace the absurdity, push the boulder, and choose to be happy in spite of it. There’s no intrinsic meaning to that activity, it just is. You just are.

As Søren Kierkegaard — the father of existentialism — brilliantly put it:

“…Hang yourself, you will regret it; do not hang yourself, and you will regret that too; hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you’ll regret it either way; whether you hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.”

4. They write a catchy song about our addiction to sadness by making a perfect analogy with a deadly chemical (chlorine) which in small doses is used to cleanse dirt.

Sippin’ on straight chlorine,
Let the vibe slide over me,
This beat is a chemical, beat is a chemical,
When I leave don’t save my seat,
I’ll be back when it’s all complete,
The moment is medical, moment is medical.

This one is more literal, suggesting that sipping on sadness (straight chlorine) can be cathartic. (moment is medical)

Sadness serves a purpose if you learn to use it. However, you have to be careful not to indulge in it too much, as it’s a chemical, and it bigger doses it can be dangerous and addictive:

Loving what I’m tasting,
Venom on my tongue,
Dependent at times.
Poisonous vibrations,
Help my body run,
I’m running for my life.

But the other danger is not addressing your sadness at all, ignoring it, running away from it and faking happiness. All of that will only bring you misery in the long run. In order to cleanse the dirt (negative thoughts and worries) you must embrace the chemical (sadness) and let it build you “with pieces”, because in the end, even your own self is “just a chemical”:

I’m so sorry I forgot you,
Let me catch you up to speed,
I’ve been tested like the ends of,
A weathered flag that’s by the sea.
Can you build my house with pieces?
I’m just a chemical.

Twenty One Pilots is a blend of a lot of things: catchy beats, mind-warping lyrics, mainstream melodies intertwined with some unorthodox writing in their songs. They are the reflection of our times: complex, multi-faceted, and full of dichotomies like superficial/authentic, cheerful/sad, nihilistic/meaningful — sometimes all in one song.

They are, indeed, the philosophers of our time.

Twenty One Pilots: The Philosophers Of Our Time