Analyzing the songs i’ve written about on my blog thus far, all share a common quality responsible for its likeability: relatability. Whether its meaning directly parallels with my experiences or if they utilize rhetoric to connect to the audience, each rely on specific tactics to draw in their audience. Certainly, I don’t share the same intensity of heartbreak as presented in Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well,” Post Malone’s “I Fall Apart,” or Katy Perry’s “Part of Me,” but each song successfully induces emotion from its audience to allow them connect even in the most miniscule form. For me, the craft of the song intermixed with supporting melodies ensued admirability and that likewise goes for this week’s analysis of “Car Radio” by Twenty One Pilots.

In Twenty One Pilots’ “Car Radio,” they metaphorically assemble lyrics detailing the consequences of silence and its ability to bear harmful thinking. Constructing their song in the form of a poem, the band hopes to appeal to their audience by highlighting their words rather than crafting a catchy rhythm. Consequently, they encircle their message around a symbolic car radio that is ultimately responsible for distracting us from our negative thoughts. However, when the car radio is stolen, as is the noise, only leaving silence to remain.

Contrasting deep epiphanies commonly defined as “shower thoughts,” the “car thoughts” that Twenty One Pilots conversely defines, exploits the danger of them– “sometimes quiet is violent” lead singer, Tyler Joseph, implores. Experiencing an existential crisis, the silence refuses to immobilize his thoughts, leading to his demise throughout the song.

So far this sounds dark, I know, but it is innocent on the surface for the most part. By utilizing the car radio as a mask to hide their darker meaning, the song contains relatability in that individuals often get distracted by their thoughts. In fact, majority of people consider themselves “over-thinkers” (this isn’t a real statistic), but in spite of that, the term is prevalent for a reason, everyone experiences it.

However, unlike most people, Tyler Joseph sings about how the deterioration of his car radio leads to the deterioration of his mind, and ultimately to himself. Although this isn’t a theme I enjoy exploring, the craft of the song is undeniably fascinating, not only in the lyrics, but in the production.

A soft, piano melody institutes the beginning of the song followed by an intermixing of instruments that create a sound resembling the ripples in water as if to create the feeling of reflection and immense contemplation. With 14 seconds of this melody, they allow the audience to ponder as they foreshadow the entailments of the song. Interestingly, they follow this long introduction with the first two words being “I ponder” to explicitly state what they implicitly attempted to convey.

Relying on the car radio to act as a shield from his thoughts, Joseph sings “there is no hiding for me” in effect to its absence. Thus, admitting his vulnerability to the silence in “i’m forced to deal with what is real” which expresses his inability to hide. Succeeding this revelation is a long drum solo to elevate the song’s intensity, as if to allow the reader to visualize the car speeding as his mind continues to race. On the basis thereof, even an individual void of similarity has the ability to admire the brilliance of the song. Similar to the fascination of reading, escaping in a fictional world by creating a movie image, the song likewise showcases an image of a man rooted solely to his car and his mind.  

Progressing through the song, the music builds as does his words–Tyler Joseph may as well be an actor in addition to a singer, beyond doubt. Not only does he write “oh my, too deep, please stop thinking,” but he yells it, attempting to conquer the noise within himself. Subsequently, they implement multiple echoes of “woah” in the background before ascending into repeated yelling of “and now I just sit in silence!” If you don’t believe that he is legitimately yelling, please listen to the song. He yells. Confirmed in their official video is Tyler Joseph maddeningly pounding the stage, simultaneously attempting to rip off the mask that is symbolically representing the silence responsible for driving his madness.  

Finally, after a whirlwind of anxiety, the intense music ceases to continue as it dwindles into the softness of the opening melody. Coming full circle, Tyler Joseph removes his mask, signaling an end to his craze as he finishes by following backwards off the stage.

In spite of its supreme darkness, the message catches the audience’s attention by its small quality of relatability in expressing the negative consequences of thought. Although fictive to my personal experience, its ability to alter my perspective by enhancing its reality represents its brilliance as it details the complexity of the mind, making it one of my most admired songs.