What makes a man or a woman? What drives us to perform the necessary actions that enable us to live? We are all subconsciously driven by fear and are constantly in epic battle with not only the fear to fail, but also the fear to succeed. The thoughts swirling around our fantastically complicated brains drive all of us senseless from time to time. These thoughts can consume us if we are not careful. As an individual one must accept that “peace will win and fear will lose”. If one can accept this then the fearful thoughts persistently picking at our craniums will suddenly wear away. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, the members of the increasingly famous band; Twenty One Pilots, illustrate this concept of peace, fear, and an individual’s battle with their thoughts through their popular music video; Car Radio. By looking at both the lyrics and the visual elements complimenting these lyrics in Twenty-One Pilot’s Car Radio video, specifically the “car radio”, Tyler Joseph’s hair and mask, and the audience, we see the idea of peace vs. fear. This is important because these elements help illustrate that the only way to truly live is to constantly be thinking and facing the fears implemented throughout our thoughts. 

The car radio mentioned repeatedly during this video, and clearly the title of the track, represents the barriers which protect us from our thoughts, fear itself and the ability to truly live and connect with not only others, but ourselves. However, are these barriers, such as the car radio, really protecting us? The car radio is a perfect example of a defense mechanism we as humans consistently use to hide from our thoughts. The sound influences us to think about the beat of the music and repeat the lyrics being sung, however, in most cases never depict the meaning of these lyrics. This then simultaneously gives us an escape from all of the realities and fears swirling around our heads. Tyler states during the video that there is “no hiding for [him]” and that “sometimes quiet is violent”. The violent silence is created due to the theft of his car radio, which also hid him from the realties and fears constantly swarming through his mind. This blockade represents the problem so many of us face today; the fact that most of us are almost never truly living. The point Tyler is trying to develop is that in order for us to truly be living, we must rid ourselves of these distractions and barriers keeping us from thinking. The car radio is just one representation of these barriers that we continuously use to hide from our thoughts, most significantly our fears and realities. The barriers were removed and Tyler suddenly had to think for himself, battle all his fears and realities, and therefore, finally start living again. Tyler faced his fears by accidently shutting down the distractions in his life. As a result, the concept of peace vs. fear was introduced and like Tyler states “peace will win and fear will lose”. This clearly due to the removal of the blockade of thoughts (the car radio) and the final realization that fears must be faced in order to achieve peace, and truly be living. 

Tyler Joseph’s hair and mask play a significant role in the music video and portray the evolution of Tyler’s battle with peace and fear, his overall victory over fear, and the transition he faces in becoming a now truly living and intellectually active human. At the beginning of the video we see Tyler completely removing his hair and proceeding to put on a white mask that covers his entire head. By the end of the video Tyler removes his mask willingly and his hair looks as if it has entirely grown back. This wasn’t done accidently, this was done to symbolize Tyler’s trouncing of fear and his newly acquired ability to comfort silence and the thoughts in which he is consistently at battle with. At first Tyler struggled dealing with what he feels since there was “no distraction to mask what is real”. Due to this struggle Tyler cut his hair and wore a mask; attempting to “mask what is real” or, hide from his thoughts, particularly fears and realities. However, over the course of the video we witness his acceptance of all his doubts and insecurities, and that he does not have to go on living as a mindless zombie, hiding from all that is real. He now can think for himself, live in only the sound of his thoughts, fears, and realities, and truly live and connect with others, including himself. The growth of his hair and Tyler’s removal of his mask at the very end of the four minutes and forty seconds demonstrates this accomplishment and the overall message that “peace will win and fear will lose”, and that to only truly be living one must constantly be thinking. 

The third and final piece of evidence pointing directly to the clear message of both the lyrics written by Tyler Joseph and the music video directed by Reel Bear Media is the development of the audience and their impact on the symbolism behind the music video, Car Radio. The audience is shown in two different lights during the second half of the music video. The audience’s first movements occur when Tyler still has his mask on and appears almost schizophrenic. The audience is later shown to have disappeared by the end of the video, and coincidently Tyler now has all his hair back and the ability to take off his mask. The first shot of the audience signifies Tyler’s battle with peace and fear, thoughts, and realities in general. Whereas the second shot of the audience, (their disappearance), implies that the battle has been won and all the fears and realities Tyler had been facing are now defeated. Peace is clearly accomplished as well since Tyler can easily remove his mask, grow back his hair, and fall back to “just sit in silence”. Evidently, Tyler faced his thoughts and fears and in return was able to accept the violent silence and find peace with his thoughts, therefore, allowing him to truly live and connect with his emotions and quite possibly the emotions of others. 

Society as a whole, predominantly the younger generation, is increasingly becoming obsessive, mindless, and scared due to the simultaneously increasing market of technology. Although the increase in technology is supposedly advancing the human race to new heights, the humans using this technology are losing their true touch with reality and link to emotion. We constantly check our phones, turn on the radio, open our laptops, and in doing so, we eliminate time to simply think, reflect, and expand our brains and the knowledge held within. Car Radio, by Twenty-One Pilots, may just appear to be another catchy tune we can plug in and listen to, but it is more then just another distraction or catchy tune. The song and music video points out the problem we are all guilty of facing; that our thoughts and realities scare us to death. So we choose to hide behind the distractions in order to “mask what is real”. Tyler Joseph, Josh Dun, and Reel Bear Media do a fantastic job of displaying this problem through the “Car Radio”, Tyler’s mask and hair, and the evolution of the crowd/audience. These then help prove how one truly cannot be living until they face their fears by constantly thinking, liberating themselves from their own distractions, and accepting that “peace will win and fear will lose”.     
