Celebrating Ten Years Of Blurryface

By Kayla Harper

It’s 2015 and the lyrics “my name is Blurryface and I care what you think” are blaring out of every radio in the city.  Normal people are singing along, laughing to themselves at the use of the word Blurryface and wondering what the hell it means.  However, a niche group of people known as the Skeleton Clique are realizing they’ve just been introduced to the main antagonist of a story that’s been slowly developing and are dying to know more.  At the time the song “Stressed Out” was simply a hit single off of Twenty Øne Piløts third and latest album, Blurryface –ten years later it’s the groups most successful song to date, winning them their first and only Grammy award, and fifty times more nostalgic and relatable for everyone who’s been listening that long.

Ten years ago today, on May 17, 2015, the alternative rock duo formed by lead singer/bassist/pianist/ukuleleist, Tyler Joseph, and drummer, Josh Dun, released their third album, Blurryface. Blurryface was recorded like all of their other albums to date, primarily by Tyler and Josh alone with little outside influence, if any.  At the time of writing and recording Blurryface, a successful music career was still a dream that may or may not come true.  Although the two had been touring and expanding their circle of fans slowly with the release of their album Vessel (aka Regional At Best) in 2011, they had still not gotten much mainstream attention.  Blurryface would change everything.

Blurryface would become Twenty Øne Piløts breakthrough record, seeing them soar to the top of charts and take over the industry as we knew it: they won many awards for the album including a Grammy for Best Pop/Duo Performance for “Stressed Out” in 2017; embarked on their first world tour, travelling to over five countries; and introduced fans to a complex storyline that would still be going on ten years later.

From beginning to end, Blurryface hooks listeners in with its rhythmic beats, melodic instrumentals, and confrontationally honest and figuratively intriguing lyrics.  Immediately in the opening track, “Heavydirtysoul”, Dun’s drumming and Joseph’s fast-paced rapping have listeners questioning their mortality, righteousness and morals, all of which will only be intensified as it continues throughout the record.  Like most records, Blurryface also has its moments that find the band criticizing the music industry and in the bigger picture, society, on tracks like “Lane Boy”, “Fairly Local”,  “We Don’t Believe what’s on TV” and “Message Man”.  Like many Twenty Øne Piløts albums, previously unreleased tracks, or official tracks were re-worked and included on Blurryface, such as 2007’s “Goner”. Of course, there had to be one love song thrown in there for Joseph’s wife, Jenna, which is “Tear In My Heart” on Blurryface.  “Tear In My Heart” ended up becoming another popular song off the album, however, the entire record was so huge and iconic that most of the songs became recognizable on a mainstream-scale gaining global attention. The one thing every track has in common, is they all tie into a deeper, more complex story.

Blurryface is not just the name of Twenty Øne Piløts’s biggest and most successful album to date, but it’s also the nickname of an important character in the tøp lore, Nico.  The Twenty Øne Piløts lore is a detailed storyline that is ultimately about one’s internal battle between their good and bad self, told through the perspective of three main characters, Tyler Joseph himself, Clancy and Nico (Blurryface), however, we learn eventually that all of these characters are ultimately the same person. Taking place in the vast world of Trench and the dystopian city of Dema, the storyline is a little too familiar to real-life society.  However, these worlds are not introduced until 2018’s Trench, Blurryface simply introduces us to the character.

Blurryface or Nico represents Joseph’s insecurities, demons, fears, anxiety, bad-self, whatever you want to call it.  He is represented by the pitched down vocals throughout the record.  Mimicking arguments and internal conflict throughout the record. However, Joseph is consistently trying to overcome this darkness and be the best he can despite it.  The message conveyed through this album and the story behind it is deeply inspiring with its underlying hope and positive tone that insists we can overcome ourselves and we must to survive.

None of what’s been stated about Blurryface so far is nearly as important as the impact it had on the lives of thousands of people.  Whether they were only casual bandwagon listeners during the Blurryface era and have since moved on; or became lifelong fans because of it; or recently discovered twenty øne piløts and Blurryface; or have been longterm fans long before Blurryface was released like myself; Regardless of how each person fits into it, Blurryface has been the soundtrack to many people’s lives, struggles, triumph and more.  I could go on and on about how I think this album impacted the twenty øne piløts fandom, but it seems better that I let them say it for themselves:

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Thank you to everyone who contributed to this article and fan project; for coming together and showing the boys what Blurryface means to us.  One of my favourite things about this fandom is how strangers you meet at the shows, online or in random public places feel like family, despite never having met previously, all because of this common interest we share and in turn, the morals to treat each other right.  Stay alive, stay alive for me frens | – /