Analysis Of Twenty One Pilots 'Stressed Out'

As the students in George Mason move up through high school, one important transition in their lives they increasingly think about is getting a job and assuming the responsibilities of adulthood. Many young people are afraid of growing up and leaving a carefree life for one where they will be “stressed out.” Written and performed by Twenty One Pilots, “Stressed Out” deals with that difficulty.

The song begins with a verse about songwriting and singing where Twenty One Pilots tells how they would like to sing better (“I wish had a better voice...”), write better (“I wish I found some better sounds no one’s ever heard...”), and compose better (“I wish I found some chords in an order that is new...”) in rhyming lines. The idea that this

is not something Twenty One Pilots think they can currently do is emphasized by the repetition of “I wish.” The verse ends with “I wish I didn’t have to rhyme every time I sang,” which paradoxically breaks the rhyme scheme in the rest of the verse. This also shows that there is no real constant rhyme scheme in this song, since very few of the four-line verses are quatrains.
The next three line verse introduces the theme of the rest of the song.

It’s about how Twenty One Pilots expected their childish fears to “shrink” when they grew up, but they now care about the opinion of other people. The third line in this verse is a short refrain repeated throughout the song - “My name is blurryface and I care what you think.” Blurryface is both an allusion to the name of the album the song appears in, and a symbol for the insecurities of Twenty One Pilots. In this article from Rolling Stone, Tyler Joseph talks about how he “created the character of Blurryface to address his own insecurities.” He did this so he could have a physical manifestation of his insecurity to be able to analyze it. This is significant because it emphasizes that blurryface stands for being insecure, or in other words, “stressed out,” which is the general theme of the

song.
The next two line verse is the second refrain, and the one the most often repeated throughout the song. The first line refers to the “good old days,” or when Twenty One Pilots were young, and expresses a desire to return to them. The next lines show that they want to return to the care and affection of their parents, and that they are tired and stressed by their new responsibilities, which is the main theme of the song. (“When the mom would sing us to sleep / but now we’re stressed out”) The next two verses are the reminiscences of Twenty One Pilots. The band’s vocalist sings about how he is sometimes reminded of the past by a smell, and about how he used to play with his brother. This is used to transition to yet another example of simple childhood - one where “nothing really mattered.” A metaphor is then employed in the form of a tree house - a happy place to play - vs. a student loan, a stressful and expensive thing to have. This metaphor is another nod at the theme of the song – the treehouse represents a carefree and fun childhood, while the student loan represents the taking on of responsibilities and a departure from a (mostly) stress less life.
Following another refrain, the reminiscing continues, with Twenty One Pilots remembering how they used to “dream of outer space” and “play pretend and give each other different names,” common children’s activities that remind them of a more carefree time.

The growing-up theme is again shown with the hyperbole that follows: “Now they’re laughing in our face, saying ‘wake up, you need to make money.’” Although clearly no one is actually awakening Twenty One Pilots by yelling at their faces, this certainly personifies the pressure experienced by young adults who must take on responsibilities and earn money by making the stress take on a physical form as the shouter. There is a certain irony to this, however, as children need to wake up to go to school too.

In conclusion, “Stressed Out” is an unusually rhyming song that does two things. Firstly, it acts as something of an allegory for the band’s childhood. Secondly, it explores growing up and the pain of it, and thinks back to an easier time before responsibilities were piled

on.