Who is Blurryface?
Ever listened to “Stressed Out”? Did you hear the line “My name’s Blurryface and I care what you think”, and wonder: Who is Blurryface? Ever watch the music video and wonder: What’s up with the black neck and hands? Ever ask why they are called twenty one pilots if there are only two of them? Has someone online corrected “21 pilots” to “twenty one pilots” and you think: Why does it matter?
The line, “My name’s Blurryface and I care what you think” originates in the album title. The album, “Blurryface”, has lyrical content that is focused on insecurity. This insecurity is personified as the main antagonist called “Blurryface,” thus, the lyric, “My name’s Blurryface, and I care what you think.” Blurryface is personified with pitched down vocals which appear on a number of tracks, including “Stressed Out”. The question arises as to who this being is, and what does he want? These questions are partly answered on the album.
If you’ve watched the music video for “Stressed Out,” you may have noticed that there’s black paint on Tyler Joseph’s (the band’s front-man) hands and neck. When asked this question, Joseph replied to MTV News: “When I think about insecurities and my insecurities are getting the best of me, the things that I think of are kind of a feeling of suffocation and then also the things that I create with my hands.” The paint, much like Blurryface, represent Joseph’s “suffocating” insecurities.
But wait, there are only two of them? How can they be called TWENTY ONE pilots? And why can’t it be “21 pilots” instead of the spelled out “twenty one pilots”? The name of the band comes from Arthur Miller’s play “All My Sons,” in which twenty-one WWII pilots died after a contractor knowingly sent faulty airplane parts out to fly. The contractor needed to decide what was best for his family: admitting his company made a mistake or knowingly send out faulty parts? Joseph takes this idea of right versus wrong and puts it in the band name to help guide him and the band in making the right decisions. Joseph saw the words “twenty one pilots” spelled out in the script and decided that was how it should be in the name. As the band has grown, fans have become very defensive of having the name spelled out in order to keep Joseph’s frame of mind intact.
So, click the links below and decide: What do you think of their music now? After all, Blurryface certainly cares what you think.
Check out the band on Twitter.
Image captured from original Stressed Out video viewed on YouTube.
