Question: Is Twenty One Pilots the band that best captures the struggles millennials and generation Z-ers face? The answers could be all over the board, mainly because everyone has different tastes, and intrinsically we all experience life differently. That being said, I believe that Twenty One Pilots is the band of our generation, and here's why:
I discovered Twenty One Pilots a little over a year ago, around when their Blurryface album dropped mid-May in 2015. I listened to little else the next few months. I watched every music video the duo made, and each one somehow drips with a synesthetic effect.
An example of this is in the music video for “Holding On To You.” There's a moment at the beginning of the video that sets the expectation for the rest of the experience. The dancers make as if they're pushing Tyler Joseph, the singer, into the center of their circle, effectively making him disappear right as the first drop in the music hits. This gets the audience to see the shifts in the music congruently with the shifts in the dancers' bodies. Throughout this video, there are also shifts in perspective to enhance the song's lyrics and latent emotional content. One such shift occurs when Joseph has a noose slipped around his neck, during the lines “... this ain't a noose/ This is a leash, and I have news for you/ You must obey me." The camera angle then changes to match the lyrics -- the noose literally becomes a leash, a rope that all the dancers are holding on to, holding him back, until he breaks free.
That's just one video, and all of them have these kinds of details. The incredible artistic forethought required to produce art this in-depth on so many sensory levels is part of why I think twenty one pilots will be a pillar of this musical age.
Another reason I think Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun are spearheading the race for musical translation of emotional turmoil is their approach to mental illness in their music. I would say 75% - 80% of Twenty One Pilot songs have some connection to the conflict of character vs. self, a blatant struggle with depression and anxiety, problems that most millennials face and can relate to. The kicker is the way they handle it. They are bringing awareness to mental health, and through their music, generation Z can be the one to demystify mental illness. It's a natural part of life, and Twenty One Pilots makes sure that those people struggling with mental illness know that they are not alone.
Once more for those in the back: This band is helping spread acceptance and support for those with mental illnesses.
Just sit down and listen to an album by this band. Listen to the lyrics, find a lyric video and read the words as they're sung. Watch the videos and support this band that embodies creativity, freedom of speech, and community for those who've always felt alone.
