Car Radio Analysis

Music has the power to change an individual's life, especially when they are in need of guidance. In the Twenty-One Pilots music video “Car Radio” the loss of music has a huge impact one's life; without music one becomes weaker when facing problems and becomes confused, because there is no longer a guide as to how to deal with the difficulties of life.

As the music video begins, the main character is in a depressing looking bathroom shaving his hair off, in preparation to put on the symbolic ski mask. He is doing this because of the unexpected loss of his car radio, which was a form of safety in his life. Assuming music is his escape from the world, he no longer has a way of listening to it. This forces him to be in silence with his thoughts, having to face his own problems. “I have these thoughts so often I ought to replace that slot with what I once bought cause somebody stole my car radio”(2:09-2:14 Twenty One Pilots). He wants to replace those troubling thoughts, but can only do so through music. The ski mask he puts on symbolizes the fact that he wants to hide himself from the world, in an effort to avoid confrontation with his problems. If he had music to help him through
The crowd appears to be in a deep, silent trans, which cannot be broken. The crowd is symbolizing how essential music can be to the everyday life. In our world many artist are seen as life savers because of the impact of their musics. As seen by the reaction of the crowd without music many are lost. “And now I just sit in silence” (3:50-3:34 Twenty One Pilots). In the music video the crowd is standing still in silence, but automatically comes out of the confusing trans as soon as the beat drops ending the silence. The main character is clearly passionate about his hatred of silence and the crowd seems to agree with him. This symbolizes how music has the power to guide one out of a challenging