Twenty One Pilots’ ‘Blurryface’ Goes Platinum

These dudes get hated on a lot for some reason, but I really enjoyed Blurryface. Congrats guys!!

 

I'm shocked only by the fact that it wasn't platinum already. Good on them though.

 

Well deserved

 

Huge for them. This Blurryface era has been fantastic, and can't wait to see what they're going to do next.

 

Same. It hasn't left the top 40 since released

 

It's insane how big these guys have gotten over the past year. Congrats to them!

 

now we need vessels to go platinum

 

I just don't get it

 

I don't either. But it's just something new and different, I suppose.

 

Album is hanging around the UK charts too so must have sold a lot over here too. Not yet had any big songs here. Think Stressed out may have gotten into the top 10 though. Heathens is in the top 40 at the moment too.

 

Too bad it's a burning garbage pile of an album.

 

I listened to this a ton the first couple weeks and haven't touched it since. That's cool though.

 

Worst album I heard last year.

 

Love the album. So well-deserved imo. Still crazy to think I saw them open for Walk the Moon and Neon Trees.

 

Still crazy I saw them in 2012 headline with locals and like 5/6 others there for $10/12. then year later same venue 400 cap or so sold out, plus won to see them at radio station event before that

 

i agree. I love it way more that Blurryface

 

Now if only the band could go even a few weeks without something problematic happening...

 

What's been problematic?

 

Super happy for these guys - great band, great record.

Also for a bit of perspective: their debut was released in 2009. They've toured 250+ days a year for 7 years, building up an audience organically at shows before they ever got near a radio. These guys are everything right with this scene - good dudes who did things the right way and are now getting well deserved credit. For the people who don't 'get' it, that's totally fine - but the way they went about this is everything we all love about music. They worked hard, wrote honest, open music that connects with people, and did it their way. I couldn't be happier for a band like that to have this level of success.

 

Here's just a handful of highlights:

Both members of the band have talked a lot of shit about "other" hip-hop artists and the genre in general, specifically Drake and artists whose lyrics they deem as having less substance than theirs. They have multiple songs where the lyrics address this condescension towards hip-hop (Lane Boy, HeavyDirtySoul, Holding On To You, et. al.).

They frequently position rap/hip-hop as a lesser "other", somehow different than what Tyler does - kind of gross for a band made up of two white men who profit off of hip-hop music and hip-hop culture. Josh recently made a statement on Instagram which more or less amounted to "I have black friends". Tyler has a number of old tweets (since deleted, after fans dug them up) with arguably racist and misogynist "jokes". Some people take issue with the fact that he paints his hands and neck black for shows/videos.

After SCOTUS legalized gay marriage in the US last year, the band (who has a rather sizable LGBTQ fanbase) refused to acknowledge this (while nearly every other band on the label did) a topic they'd previously skirted around in the past. When they finally did make a statement, there wasn't even any direct mention of the LGBTQ community, or even the word "gay", and Tyler's specific statement insinuated that gay fans were somehow a "burden". Here's a link that goes into it more: Twenty One Pilots Speak Out After Coming Under Fire for Remaining Silent About Marriage Equality

It might seem like a bit of an inference, but Tyler Joseph's immediate family members have made homophobic and transphobic statements on Twitter, and it was not unreasonable for fans to suspect he shared their views, considering his upbringing. Tyler's brother, Zack, while not directly a member of the band, has been featured on a number of their songs and has made explicitly transphobic statements repeatedly on Twitter, specifically targeting Caitlyn Jenner. He also favorited a bunch of racist, sexist, and transphobic shit - and then started fighting fans who called him out. The band's frequent collaborator, photographer and music video director Mark Eshleman got roped into this, also bullying and mocking fans who took issue with the transphobia (he later deleted his tweets and tried to take the high road). Again, Tyler and Josh turned a blind eye, a subtle reinforcement of their close associates' behavior.

There's also issues with the way the band glamorizes mental illness in their lyrical content. The character/persona of Blurryface as a personification of mental illness does more harm than good. They've referred to their music as "schizophrenic pop" and "schizo-pop" which, understandably, some take issue with. Psychosis is not an aesthetic.

Now, I don't necessarily agree with all of the drama/incidents, but that's a lot of red flags. My ex and her friends were super into the band, and they frequently lamented how hard it was to identify with the "Skeleton Clique" (the name of the TOP fanbase) because of all the shit that would go on whilst anyone slightly critical of the band was drowned out/attacked by their rabid fans.

 

I don't think the band is required or obligated to speak out on any issues, to be honest. From what I've seen and heard they seem like really humble guys who enjoy creating and playing music. Not obsessed with them, but I've watched a decent amount of interviews with both guys. They seem to love what they do and put on an incredible show. Seem like hard workers too...I can't believe they tour as much as they do. Really got into them when blurryface came out, but did not expect it to be as big as it is. Happy for them. It's one of my favorite records.

 

The big takeaway re: Twenty One Pilots being problematic should be that they're white men making millions off of a black art form while belittling the black artists making music in that art form and positioning their own music as superior than their "substanceless" peers. Even Macklemore acknowledges the cultural history of the music he's creating and the significance of his peers and predecessors in the genre. Tyler Joseph, on the other hand? In his own lyrics, in a rap verse refers to his music as "not rap, not hip-hop".

 

I don't know if I personally think it's fair for Tyler and Josh to face ridicule for something their family/team say/do because it isn't necessarily a reflection on their personal feelings. Now if they publicly supported these sayings/doings then that would be a different conversation, but we don't know what their silence means. They could have told Tyler's brother "hey man that's not cool", I mean we just don't know.

Just my opinion tho! People are allowed to like/dislike bands as they please

 

So wait, this band is problematic because they have family members that say offensive things, they think the music they make/like is better than other music, they reference their own mental illness, and they spoke out in favor of gay marriage after other people did (because they assumed that they didn't need to)?

Apparently, my entire life has been problematic, as literally all of those things describe me.

People can feel how they want about a band. And I've stopped listening to bands over comments online and what seems to be shitty behavior and attitudes from them. Like, I get it - you want to share values with the bands you like. But that stuff all seems like an extreme stretch to be called 'problematic.'