As a self-labeled music enthusiast, whenever someone tells me to check out a band that they think I’ll like or the band seems to be getting some hype, I will give that band a chance. I will take the time to go listen to a few songs to see how I feel about the band. Sometimes I end up stopping partway through the song and enter a bewildered state of “but why?” and “how did we come to this?” about the state of music and just have to give up for a while.
"Someone Explain This Band to Me" will be a series that will feature the bands that have stumped me in such a way, and the band to be first honored with this designation is Twenty One Pilots (twenty one pilots? TWENTY ØNE PILØTS? TØP?).
After hearing about Twenty One Pilots too much, my roommate and I decided oh what the heck, let’s play one of their songs to find out what all the ruckus was about. I will never forget the looks we shared when the vocals of “Stressed Out” started and we both stared at each other in shock. This? This was what everyone was obsessed with? Rock music is dead. Rap-rock was back like it was the early 2000s oh my god we have come full circle. Someone go and get Linkin Park from storage, it’s their time to rise again. At least I can recite the chorus to “In the End” in a deadpan as a joke. I cannot even begin with our confusion after going to their Wikipedia and realizing they really only have Josh Dun on drums and Tyler Joseph doing vocals and I guess sometimes another instruments? Rock music? No. Rolling Stone’s write-up for them had the most peculiar summarization of their sound: “but Twenty One Pilots are one of the hardest-to-categorize hit acts in years, mixing angsty lyrics, Macklemore-style rhymes, Ben Folds–like piano pop, 311-ish reggae beats...” I can’t even tell if this is a compliment because these are all terrible acts to be likened to, honestly.
There’s an article from the New York Times, that even though complimentary about the band, pretty much sums up most of my musical confusion and disappointment about them.
"The most important young mainstream rock band of the 2010s isn’t much of a rock band at all. Twenty One Pilots is an amalgam of the sounds made by two decades of the disintegration of arena-size guitar rock. Its platinum 2015 album, “Blurryface,” is adventurous and ambitious; while remaining resolutely pop at its core, it aspires to rock’s pomp without losing sight of how rock’s energy now largely exists in other genres."
This is so grim to me. They are a rock band as in so much they do not fully qualify in the pop category as the likes of Maroon 5 or “Cake by the Ocean” by DNCE. They are a pop band. They make pop music that has elements of rock music in it, and that appeals to the mainstream masses and gets them on the radio. But, they also still have the image and lyrics that embody Hot Topic angst to grasp that demographic. Such marketing success hasn’t been had since Fall Out Boy, so good job on Fueled By Ramen for signing both bands. A while back I saw someone on Twitter say something along the lines of Twenty One Pilots make mainstream music for people who think they aren’t mainstream, and that was the most real statement I have read about them.
To add insult to my own confusion, I, unfortunately learned that The Killers, my favorite band, are part of the reason that Twenty One Pilots exist. Great. Wonderful. Cue me looking angrily at The Killers section of my iTunes and muttering “you did this.” Joseph was heavily influenced after seeing The Killers perform in Ohio in 2009, and he has referenced Brandon Flowers as an influence.
Maybe it was my slow slide into comfort with the bands that I’ve been listening to for the past 15 years that left me oblivious, but the rise to fame of Twenty One Pilots took me a little bit by surprise. When they announced two shows at Madison Square Garden, I was even more confused. Really? Two? Several bands recently announced headline shows at the arena that baffled me, and I was seriously stumped at how they were managing to plaay two. But behold, they were sold out. Okay, I have a guilty pleasure and kind of a problem called examining band fandoms on social media to try and understand them, and during the days of the two MSG shows, that’s exactly what I did. I’ve heard some not-so-great things about the “Skeleton Clique” as the fandom is known, but I looked at some of their line waiting and show experiences and saw the things I do understand about bands, the love of the band and music and being with your friends at shows. I understand that their music apparently addresses mental health issues and helps fans deal with those problems, and yes, I don’t fully get that part of it, but I respect it, fine.
At the end of the day, I don’t understand Twenty One Pilots. I don’t understand how they somehow are the most popular rock band by not even being a rock band. I would truly rather have experienced the return of Linkin Park so as to have some nostalgia for simpler days rather than have a band in front of me that seems to be a representation of a bleak future for the state of rock music when 10 years ago things were looking so bright. Where did we go wrong? Someone, please explain Twenty One Pilots to me.
