research and planning - analysis of song

Before writing down the ideas I have for the music video and clearing up the plot, I decided to analyse the song in detail. I think understanding the song better and writing down mine and other people's interpretations of it will help me a lot with coming up with the best ideas I can for the video.

First some general information:

Credits

• Released on - May 21, 2021

• Producers - Tyler Joseph and Paul Meany

• Writers - Tyler Joseph and Paul Meani

• Mixing Engineer - Adam Hawkins

• Mastering Engineer - Chris Gehringer 

• Vocals - Tyler Joseph

• Copyright © - Fueled By Ramen

• Drums - Josh Dun

• Label - Fueled By Ramen

• Phonographic Copyright ℗ - Fueled By Ramen

• the structure of the song is: intro - verse 1  - chorus - verse 2 - chorus - bridge - chorus - outro

information taken from genius including statements from the lead singer Tyler Joseph about the song:

• tells the story of three people and the thoughts that go through their heads before they die as they worry about the impact this will have on their families. These worries are symbolized by the future purpose of their bedrooms and as the characters will not be using them anymore, they feel the urge to tie up loose ends before they leave, something that can be applied to both personal belongings and emotional unfinished business.

• Tyler Joseph: "I had a friend of mine whose son passed away and they would keep his room the same way that he had left it. I remember thinking how crazy powerful a story that is, and how it makes me wonder, like, ‘What will people do with my stuff?’ It can actually bring you back down to earth, make sure that you don’t make any horrible decisions. I’m realizing now how difficult it is to talk about, but this song is really important to me. I love the messaging of it, and I hope that our fans hear what it is I’m trying to say in it. Because it is a bit delicate, but it’s one of my favorite tracks and it’s pretty powerful if you let it.” - via apple music

• Another statement from Tyler Joseph: "When I was putting this record together I knew two things: “Good Day” was going to be the first song and I kind of knew “Redecorate” was going to be the last one. On a sound design level “Redecorate” was the song I worked with [frequent collaborator] Paul Meany on, we did Trench together. I introduced this brand new, sparkling, happy, colorful record and I hope that people understand that the reason I’m ending it with “Redecorate” is that we’re headed in another direction after this. That is an intentional hint at what I want to try to do next. It’s not really a cliffhanger, but it is a precursor and lyrically it’s such an important song for me."

Lyrical analysis:

(these interpretations are inspired by genius annotations, reddit posts and mostly my own interpretations of the lyrics)

• over all, the song fits in the alternative hip-hop and indie rock genres

• it has a moody atmospheric sound; the main element is a trap beat

• it reflects both emo rap influences and the band’s signature experimental style

• these 3 protagonists all try to run away from their true problems, they isolate themselves and their problems build up so much that they get to this really dark point of contemplating ending their own life. But they all come to realise that facing your problems is the only way to heal and ignoring them and refusing to talk about them will only create more problems - and i think that’s the message of the song that people should take away: even if it’s hard, there is a way out and in time, if you face your fears, with the help of others you will get to a better place mentally.

INTRO : “There was a wonderful structure to the city / And it put my cares to rest”

• twenty one pilots is a band that has a lot of hidden meanings in their songs, but the biggest and probably the fan favourite is the story of dema. it is told through songs, music videos, cryptic images and letters on a website

• redecorate doesn’t relate to the “lore”, but the album scaled and icy is quite lore heavy

• this quote is taken from a letter sent by the main character “clancy”

• it doesn’t really relate to the song at all, but this being the final track on the album they wanted to include something lore related to really close the album properly

• note: while i am a big fan of the dema story, i will not be relating my music video to the story; this is one of the reasons why i chose a song that is unrelated to the "lore"

VERSE 1 : "Takin' inventory of his life 

Seein' snapshots chronologically inline"

• from the perspective of the first protagonist, this could mean that he is visibly seeing photos from his childhood up until his adulthood

• it could also allude to the idea of “seeing your life flash before your eyes” before you die

• twenty one pilots have a long history of talking about “taboo” topics surrounding mental health and suicide; they have been advocates for combatting suicidality and fighting to stay alive

• in my opinion, while it is hard, talking about these kind of topics is very important. I think a lot of the stereotypical ways in which suicide is portrayed in the media are quite harmful (ex: people who are suicidal are "selfish" and "attention seeking", the romanticisation of suicide, etc) and I will try my best to avoid giving into those stereotypes in my video.

"Something told him he should look around and tidy up

He collected many things but never quite enough"

• these lines refer to the idea that no matter how many material objects he collects, nothing will ever be enough if he is not happy with his life; it shows that we should value our mental health and the people around us rather than material objects who at the end of the day can be insignificant

"Tried lookin' at it from a new perspective

Flat on his back but he still heard the directive

Orders from that corner where that shadow always lived

Never asked permission, he just hopes that they forgive"

• the idea of hearing “the directive” and “orders” from a shadow in the corner that “never asked permission” implies that it feels like an outside force that he can’t control has completely taken over him; in this context i think “the shadow” symbolises depression

• twenty one pilots has used “shadows” to symbolize depression in other songs; for example:

• semi - automatic: “my shadow grows taller along with my fears”

• hometown: “my shadow tilts it’s head at me”

• levitate: “ don’t let the shadow through”

• “they” probably refers to the protagonists family and he wonders if they will forgive him for what he did

• for context, twenty one pilots approach a lot of topics related to religion in their songs and both members come from very religious family and backgrounds; traditionally, suicide is often considered a sin by a lot of christians, so this could also refer to the protagonist feeling a lot of religious guilt (another common theme in their music) and hoping his family will forgive him in a spiritual sense

CHORUS : "I don't want to go like this

At least let me clean my room

I don't want to leave like this

'Cause the last thing I want to do is

Make my people make decisions, wondering what to do, oh

Should they keep it on display

Or redecorate?"

• the writer Tyler Joseph places himself in the shoes of his friend’s son and imagines how his loved ones would react to his own death, whether the life he lived was something worth keeping on display or something his family would “redecorate.” 

• the reason hw wants to clean his room can be interpreted as a metaphor for the things in his personal life that need “cleaning up”—rather than continuing to allow regrets to build up in his life.

• for the choruses and intro, Tyler purposefully utilized the pronouns I and my to separate his own perspective from the voices he utilized for the verses and bridge. 

• this was best illustrated in the lyric video for redecorate, which features his handwritten notes, as at 0:30 he crosses out ‘my’ and writes ‘his’ instead.

  
  

VERSE 2 : "Blankets over mirrors, she tends to like it

She's not afraid of her reflection

But of what she might see behind it"

• this verse refers to a different protagonist that is going through a similar situation to the protagonist in the first verse

• the concept of covering the mirror isn’t about her not wanting to see herself passing by, it’s more about not wanting to see who she really is and focus too much not just on her appearance but on the dark parts of her mind

• i think the line “what she might see behind it” refers to the “shadow” from the first verse

• the whole idea of stories from 3 different people and then the comparison made by Tyler Joseph in the chorus where he refers to himself reflects the idea that while these people have different life experiences and circumstances that brought them to this point, they are all going through the same thing and feeling similar things

"She had plans to change her name (yeah)

Just not the traditional way (yeah)"

• this person seems to be metaphorically changing their name as a form of evasion, or redecoration, as if having a common name brings out an insecurity of not being exceptional compared to others.

• a “name” can also be a person’s brand, or the way everyone remembers them. If the person talked about here is changing their name, it could mean that they are trying to change the way they present themself to others or even their personality. This would make sense since the next line states that they’re not changing it in the traditional way (which would be by either getting married and changing their last name or legally changing their first name) and the line before this states that they don’t like what they see behind their reflection, or they don’t like who they are.

"Haunted by a couple big mistakes

She covers all the dents with the way she decorates"

• these lines suggest that the protagonist is haunted by certain “big mistakes” she has made in the past; however instead of facing them which would be way too scary, she “covers all the dents” and “decorates” them meaning pretending they haven’t happened

• for example, covering a hole in the wall with a painting doesn’t fix the hole; from the outside it might look like there is nothing wrong with the wall, but that doesn’t mean the problem is fixed 

"Then one night, she got cold with no blankets on her bed

So she ripped them off the mirror, stepped back and she said"

• i think in these lines the protagonist realises that by covering her mirror with blankets because she doesn’t want to see her reflection (which symbolises her fears and past mistakes) she has created an even bigger problem - she has no more blankets to keep her warm during the night

• while she initially thinks that she can solve her problems by covering her mirror and decorating the dents, when she realises that she created this problem herself, she rips the blankets off the mirror and steps back - i think this relates to the fact that you can’t solve a problem by pretending it isn’t there; you have to face it head on and deal with it instead of ignoring it (just like the example I gave for the previous verse)

BRIDGE : "With the bells and the whistles scaled back

Like an isolated track"

• this is a reference to the album’s title “Scaled and icy”

• in an interview Tyler Joseph explains how he came up with the album title: “The word ‘scaled’ and ‘icy’ actually stands for ‘scale back’ and ‘isolated,’ which is kind of how we all found ourselves this past year—scaled back and isolated ( he album was written during the COVID-19 pandemic). And so I took those two words that were very, I dunno, negative. And I tried to put a spin on it that was the opposite of [it], and when I thought of ‘scaled and icy,’ which is shortened versions of the word ‘scaled back and isolated,’ I just immediately thought of this dragon (the original cover of the album shows a dragon). And so he really brings home why we named the record ‘Scaled And Icy’ and I think that when you listen to the full record, it’ll start to make sense.”

"And he feels trapped when he's not inebriated

Fair to say he's fairly sedated most days of the week"

• this suggests that the third protagonist struggles with some form of addiction like alcohol or drugs and he tries to escape his problems by using, so much so that it ends up being an almost daily thing for him to be on some kind of substance

"He might have made it if he lived on a different street"

• if the protagonist had “lived on a different street” meaning in a different area, or in a more rich neighbourhood, or in a home without neglect and abuse (the “different street” can refer to a lot of similar things like the ones i listed) maybe he wouldn’t feel the need to always be “inebriated” and “sedated”

• i think this lyric shows a wider perspective of how much the environment we grow up in affects our mental health and decisions in life and who we grow up to be

"I repeat, scaled back and isolated"

• same idea as the first lines in the bridge

"He says he likes an open schedule, but he mostly hates it

If you're running to his room, take a breath before you break in

Put your ear up to the door, tell me, can you hear him saying?"

• the protagonist feels isolated by his open schedule despite saying to everyone else that he loves it, as a way to deflect from his real problems

• i think it’s also important to understand that this song was released during the pandemic, which caused a lot of deaths, a lot of people being isolated in their rooms with not a lot of social interaction, and this impacted everyone so those feelings are found in the song too and in general in the album scaled and icy and other albums released around that time