The 1975, a musical group from Manchester, have been making waves in the indie music scene for some years now, but only recently have they begun gaining a larger platform — not just musically, but also politically.
Frontman Matty Healy has been using the band's platform to promote political stances well before the band's new era of music. However, he and the rest of the band have used this new era to expand on their stances, specifically with one of their most recent singles, "Love It If We Made It."
The 1975 - Love It If We Made It (Official Video) UMG / YouTube
The video for the single, which will be on the band's third album, made its debut on October 15 — and fans everywhere had chills. The song itself has several strong messages, covering topics from sexual assault to praising pop culture figures. The video adds the visual representation the band wants to give viewers when listening to the song and addresses how it is important to be aware in today's social climate.
The opening line of the song references a couple having sex in a car and using heroin. Healy used to struggle with the use of heroin himself, but that did not stop him from wanting others to talk about the effects of the drug.
Throughout the video, there are clips of war scenes, explosions and fire. While there is no direct reference to these things, one underlying reference is to everything going wrong in the world — including war and combat zones all over the world.
"Selling melanin and then suffocate the black man. Start with misdemeanors, then we'll make a business out of them." These are a couple of lines in the first verse. When this part comes on in the video, there is footage of the killing of Eric Garner and footage of a prison, representing the business made out of misdemeanors.
Clips of the Westboro Baptist Church appear, as well as clips of children who have drowned on a beach, Donald Trump, Brett Kavanaugh and pop figures such as Kanye West and Lil Peep.
With all that's happening in this song and video, it is important to understand why the band is talking about these controversial topics.
While bands are normally looked at as people who just play music, they have fans that are watching and listening to what they are saying. That is the case with any big-name band. Their platform can be used to spread messages they believe in to thousands of people all over the globe.
This is significant in today's society because it is so important for people to not be in the dark when discussing national and international news, especially when music is considered to be a language everyone speaks.
The band talks about idolizing pop music figures, which is something people seem to care about more than they care about the news or even voting. Sexual assault is mentioned when the band says, "I moved on her like a bitch! Excited to be indicted." This goes back to reference all of the sexual assault cases there have been all across the country since the #MeToo Movement began.
The moral of the entire song is to talk about the direction the country and the entire world are headed in. These references are just a few of the things mentioned in the song. The title is up for interpretation of the listeners, but when I hear the song, my interpretation is that the band would love it if we all made it through the terrible things that are happening every day.
Even though this is my favorite band and has been for years, this song is important because it discusses the hard topics that may not be approached because they're viewed as too controversial or too hard to talk about. And while that may be true for some, if we don't talk about them, there will never be any ideas on how to fix them. We'll never even begin to fix them.
The 1975 may just be a band, but they are a band that is using their platform to talk about more important worldly topics rather than just the music industry. The band is opening that door and creating that path for more pop and indie bands to use their platform to do this. While they're not the first, they're definitely one of the bands in the mainstream genres to do so.
