Twenty One Pilots, the band responsible for hits like “Stressed Out”, “Heathens”, “Tear in My Heart” and “Ride”, started receiving spikes of public attention starting last year. Though they have been around for a while, only recently has their music started coming to light.

Twenty One Pilots (also known as twenty øne piløts or tøp) is a band consisting of Josh Dun (drummer) and Tyler Joseph (lead singer). Their music style has been classified as alternative, alternative hip hop, electropop, indie pop, and rock.

The band was formed in 2009 by high school friends Tyler Joseph, Chris Salih, and Nick Thomas. They built a large fanbase across Ohio where they began by use of social media, constant touring, and a devotion to fans. They released their first album of rap-infused alternative that year. While Thomas and Salih left the group in 2011, Joseph carried on with new member Josh Dun.

The group began to see a rise in popularity through the release of their second album, Regional at Best, and publicly releasing videos with the help of friend Mark Eshelman. In 2012, they signed to Atlantic subsidiary Fueled by Ramen, releasing the Three Songs EP in the summer of that year. They, then, started working with Adele producer Greg Wells for their debut album, Vessel, on the label. Vessel was released in 2013, and plans were to have an international tour later that year.

Blurryface, their most popular album, came out in 2015 and featured songs that received major attention. The duo shot to larger fame when “Stressed Out” reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2016, with “Ride” following at number six that summer. Their addition to the Suicide Squad soundtrack, “Heathens”, was a Billboard 200 chart topper and reached number four on the Hot 100, making them the first alternative band to have two Top Ten singles at the same time. Their success has led them to five Grammy nominations and winning one for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

The name Twenty One Pilots stems from the play All My Sons by Arthur Miller. The play, which Tyler Joseph was studying at the time, focuses on a man who must decide what is best for his family after knowingly sending out faulty airplane parts for the good of his business, consequently causing the death of twenty-one pilots during World War II. Joseph explained that the story’s theme of moral dilemma and choosing between the easy and the right decision inspired the name and formation of the band.

Blurryface’s meaning was also up for debate amongst fans. The album was named after a character devised by Joseph, which is his polar opposite. Blurryface is not necessarily a real person, but more of a mental, intangible character. The character is negative, causes doubt, and is motivated by money and other people’s opinions, as shown through songs such as “Fairly Local”, “Tear in My Heart”, and “Stressed Out”. Blurryface is designed to represent the darker side of a person where all their doubts and fears linger. Brandon Rike, who worked on graphic design on the album, described the character as “sad, angry, evil, or deceptive. He has a tendency to draw you in, but only to pull you down.”

The band’s logo, |-/, was also a subject of thought. The logo has no specific meaning, but Tyler did explain that it has to do with their song “Kitchen Sink”. Joseph explains: “A lot of kids and people my age struggle with “what’s the point,” and with the logo, what it really means is it’s an encouragement. When someone asks me what the logo means to me, the logo means something to me because I made it mean something to me. That’s the point. The point is that I created something that only I understand and whether or not I decide to disclose the meaning of it, that’s the beginning of purpose for me.”

Journalism teacher Ms. Valenti is a big fan of the band and attended their concert in June 2016. She described the concert as “Insane! Probably the best concert I’ve ever been to and I’ve been to 15, 20 concerts. There was one point where Tyler was on the stage and they put a sheet over him and he was gone. He was literally singing one of the lyrics and disappeared and then showed up on the other end of the stadium.” Her favorite song is, “Migraine, because he raps really fast in it and I finally figured out all the words so I can rap it now.” As for her favorite album, she says, “I love Vessel. It was just weird because I started listening to Blurryface first and then I found Vessel. But I feel like a lot of my feelings resonate with Vessel more than Blurryface.”

Eighth grader Chantel Estep says her favorite song by the band is, “Doubt. It has a nice tune and if you actually listen to lyrics it has a nice meaning. It’s also just catchy.” She says she discovered Twenty One Pilots because she heard their song “Stressed Out” and thought it was good. Another student, eighth grader Laila Raines, says her favorite song is Kitchen Sink, explaining, “It has a deep meaning. And it causes you to think. That’s what I like about them, it’s not just drugs, drugs, drugs, it’s about real things.” She discovered the band when she heard their song, Car Radio, and liked it so much that she started looking up their music on YouTube.

Student Courtney is also a major fan. Her favorite song is “Kitchen Sink” because, “It has a deep meaning that people can take into different forms and make it their own song, and it helps people get through hard times whether it’s your parent’s fighting, getting bullied at school, or having your own problems, this song should help you through hard times because everyone has demons and they are fighting them in different ways, whether it’s someone who’s already fought them or is fighting them and the song helps people realize that other people need help and changes the way other people think.” Though she doesn’t have a favorite album, her favorite verse is from “Kitchen Sink” also: “Because a kitchen sink to you/Is not a kitchen sink to me, OK friend?/Are you searching for purpose?/Then write something, yeah it might be worthless/Then paint something then, it might be wordless/Pointless curses, nonsense verses/You’ll see purpose start to surface/No one else is dealing with your demons/Meaning maybe defeating them/Could be the beginning of your meaning, friend.” She also explains how she found the band: “I discovered it through my older brother and he told me, ‘you should look up this song’, and it was a cover. Then I saw Car Radio and I started getting into them when they weren’t too popular and it helped me through my problems, making me a stronger person and so I showed other people hoping it would help them. And so it helped them through what they were going through and so more people discovered it.”

Overall, Twenty One Pilots is appreciated by not only students at MMS, but teens everywhere because of their passionate and meaningful music.