I was listening to the radio the other day and found this song by a group called “Twenty One Pilots,” named “Stressed Out.”
It sounds like a regular odd pop song, catchy in its own right. But if you listen to its lyrics, it goes a bit deeper. Here it is:
on Youtube: https://youtu.be/pXRviuL6vMY
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“Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots
I wish I found some better sounds no one’s ever heard,
I wish I had a better voice that sang some better words,
I wish I found some chords in an order that is new,
I wish I didn’t have to rhyme every time I sang,
I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink,
But now I’m insecure and I care what people think.
My name’s ‘Blurryface’ and I care what you think
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out.
Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young,
How come I’m never able to identify where it’s coming from,
I’d make a candle out of it if I ever found it,
Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I’d probably only sell one,
It’d be to my brother, ‘cause we have the same nose,
Same clothes homegrown a stone’s throw from a creek we used to roam,
But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered,
Out of student loans and treehouse homes we all would take the latter.
My name’s ‘Blurryface’ and I care what you think
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out.
We used to play pretend, give each other different names,
We would build a rocket ship and then we’d fly it far away,
Used to dream of outer space but now they’re laughing at our face,
Saying, “wake up, you need to make money.”
Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days,
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out.
It seems to me such a common story today, with today’s younger Gen X and older Gen Y (millennial) generations. This is a song of an entitled generation who grew up being told they could do anything they put their mind to. One problem is that the sad folks who believed this and then didn’t take any action, but sat on their false laurels are the ones who are now the “Blurryfaces” in this song. Having brought up on false reassurances of their character, and idealistic idyllic adulthoods with minimal effort, it’s no wonder “we’re all stressed out.”
When I hear a song like this hitting mainstream pop, it makes me a bit sad that this is my generation. I am within a vast swath of people who were born right at the cusp of Generation X and Y, that is, 1980 +- 3-4 years. This is the generation that didn’t quite grasp the hard-working loyal gold-watch retirement lifestyle of my predecessors, but then were also mostly digital immigrants unlike our digitally native Gen Y incumbents, who, while representing the full-fledged whininess of millennials, still had developed the skills and work ethic to get their jobs done with ease. So my mini-generation were the poor saps that pretty much got the worst of both generations we were sandwiched between, hence, the blurryfaces you see everywhere that tend to be around my age.
It’s a good and bad thing really – it means its easier to navigate amongst quality people vs. the lazy blurryfaces which are way more abundant. But it also sucks because we are competing against two neighboring generations. But that’s alright, I’m always game for a good challenge. I’m almost glad in a way that there is a realization that this sliver of a generation exists, because we’re a lost bunch, the vast majority of us.
Masamune 