Entry #2: My Big 3

     From a young age I've been drawn to specific musical artists of all genres. Out of all these artists I've become obsessed with there are three that really stand out in my head. One of them being My Chemical Romance, the next being twenty one pilots and the last being a band called The Maine. There is one thing that these artists have in common when it comes to their work and it's that they have brilliant concept albums. I will give you some info on these albums then at the end tell you how they inspire me.

    First I want to talk about The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance. This album means a lot to me as it's one of the first full albums I ever really loved end to end. This album is about a character called the patient who dies tragically young of cancer. The story is most felt in the song Welcome to the Black Parade as that song marks the moment where the patient dies and death comes for him in his fondest memory. I've always loved the story in this album and it can really be interpreted in many different ways. There are songs like teenagers which at first listen might be hard to fit into the story as it's talking about how teenagers scare him, and that would be unusual as the protagonist is likely a teenager himself. However if you consider the protagonists position you can say that since he knows his days are numbered he sees how teenagers act, that being usually selfish and reckless, as something that scares him. Being able to come up with my own meaning to a song as a listener has always been fun for me, and this album is a perfect example of that. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8&list=OLAK5uy_kf2mr4s7G3ErS-ruCXgDFFwY8HyHQijfA&index=5)

    The next artist I want to talk about is twenty one pilots, and I could probably write a whole novel on the story this band has been telling but I will do my best to summarize. This band talks a lot about mental health and suicide, and their message is very clear if you dig into the lyrics. Their message is just simply put to stay alive, even if things are tough. The concept that they built started with the album "Blurryface" in 2015 where Tyler, the frontman of the band, took all of his insecurities and personified them into an alter ego named Blurrface. This is when he started to cover his neck and hands in black paint to represent the suffocating feeling he gets when he gets anxious or insecure. Now in their following album Trench they expanded the idea of Blurryface to be the leader of the antagonist group of Bishops that look over the citizens of "Dema" which is a fictional city on the continent of "Trench". They also introduced the character Clancy who is a citizen of Dema and is the protagonist of the story as he has escaped the city and is looking to be free from the Bishops rule. Now with their most recent album called "Clancy" we got the conclusion to the story. This whole story is a giant personification of the battles we fight in our heads. It's about overcoming our insecurities but also realizing that they never fully go away and will always be a part of you. Their whole discography is honestly some of the most profound and meaningful creative works I've ever listened to. (https://www.youtube.com/@twentyonepilots)

     The last band that has really inspired me is a band called The Maine. When it comes to this band they don't really have the complex character driven stories like the other two, however they do a really good job at making an album an experience through sound. The best example of what I'm talking about is their album Lovely, Little Lonely, as every song bleeds into the next perfectly and makes it a great album to listen to front to back. Each song sounds like it belongs next to the others however most can still stand on their own as great single songs. It's very impressive to me that they were able to make an album with a bunch of different songs but make them all flow together for one crazy experience of highs and lows. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI395cuu7Dc&list=OLAK5uy_kXnY_G4a4F9xfzovSqHEpOlTRf0QqxUn8)

    One day I hope to create something that I can look back on and be proud of. The artists and albums I just mentioned are all examples of what I hope to accomplish one day. I want to create an something that tells a deep story while having multiple styles and weaving it all together into one cohesive experience. I want to start working on this project but I'm not sure what I want to say yet, so for now I will continue to try and make music and hope a story eventually comes to mind.