Twenty One Pilots was formed in 2009 by high-school friends Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas, and Chris Salih. They released about two albums which included their 2009 self-titled release and Vessel in 2013 which included one of their best songs, “Car Radio.”
Listen to Car Radio here:
Twenty One Pilots found their fame with the release of Blurryface in 2015 and it shot up on the charts. Their hit, “Stressed Out” got a lot of radio play and solidified their name in the punk genre. But something feels off about them. They claim to be punk, but they are really just ripping off the sound and lyrics of other popular punk bands and sprinkling cliches into their songs. Also, their sound is primarily based towards pop and hip-hop so I don’t know why they are branding themselves to be a big name in the pop-punk world.
They don’t have the same feeling of bands like Panic At the Disco!, My Chemical Romance, Fall out Boy or Greenday- which they seem to be imitating. Although they are very passionate about their music, it just isn’t adding up.
This can be best displayed by their song, “Stressed Out” which tries to relate to listeners with the most basic memory that everyone has, being young and then growing up and having to get a job. Somehow this concept worked and it has almost a billion plays on Spotify?
The lyrics go,
Does anyone else agree that the lyric, “now we’re stressed out” is kind of awkward phrasing?
Yes, it’s a good song, but it shouldn’t be praised like it is. It is clearly not a masterpiece in any sense of the term. Also, their other releases are not even close to the quality of this one, which wasn’t even that good in the first place. Singles like, “Ride” and “Heavydirtysoul” prove they are one trick ponies. Their addition to the Suicide Squad soundtrack “Heathens” literally SOUNDS LIKE STRESSED OUT! They have the same chorus progression and the singer doesn’t even seem to have vocal variety. Why do we keep making people like this famous?
Listen to the similarities:
They are trying to revive the classic 2000s punk but they don’t have the talent and skill that the previous bands possessed to make it work. But they can keep trying and people are actually buying it. I would understand if they were a moderately popular band averaging around 5 million views per music video, but no- they almost have a billion. Their band feels more like an insult to punk in my opinion and I can’t wait until they fall off because they don’t deserve to have this level of fame.
