In 1979 David Byrne and the Talking Heads had a hit with “Life During Wartime” which was on the soundtrack of the film “Stop Making Sense.”
Today, Twenty One Pilots’ “Heathens” is #1 and it, too, was featured in a film–“Suicide Squad,” a summer blockbuster that’s taken in over $732 million worldwide…but “Heathens” probably would have been a hit anyway, even if it weren’t on the soundtrack, because the band’s two previous releases were also chart toppers.
(Both of those songs were featured in past Boomer Music Updates “Stressed Out” https://boomermusicupdate.com/top-40/a-case/ and “Ride” https://boomermusicupdate.com/weekly-whatever/pop-music-thinking-man/ )
Popularity aside, the connection between “Life During Wartime” and “Heathens” is their intensity and power. Primal. Tension. You can feel the pent up emotion, the longing if not for utopia, than at least rationality and kindness. These songs are pleas for humanity to do the right thing.
The lyrics in both are creative/artistic/free-form, not that literal, mostly inferences –like an impressionist painting, which only makes sense when you stand back and see it whole because up close it’s just a bunch of unconnected dots and dabs.
Twenty-One Pilots is a duo out of Columbus, OH: lead vocalist and keyboardist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun. Joseph, who both sings and writes, has talked about how important and personal “Heathens” is, touching on the the moral issues that address modern (read digital) culture.
“Heathens” is charting on both Alternative and Top 40 formats.