016 // TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME

i'm joined by fellow 1975 fan Amanda to talk TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME music video (which is all about the fans)

follow the podcast on IG @televisionofyourmouth

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hi, and welcome to episode sixteen of Television of Your Mouth, a nineteen seventy-five podcast. Another first of June has come and gone without a peep from the band. I personally wasn't surprised. I can only speak for myself. When they announced their indefinite hiatus from shows, I said the break would be three to five years, and some people said I was crazy, and that was too long for them. But sometimes I'm right. You know, good things take time. Last week we talked a lot about politics and some heavy world events, but this week we are shifting to a lighter topic the fans of the band. Because the next music video in our timeline is two time, two time, two time. I can't remember the last time I said the full title of that song, and that's the last time I will say the full song title this episode. Um two time, released on August 29th, 2018, directed by Adam Powell and Maddie. A vertical video was released on the band Spotify on August 15th, 2018, to accompany the single being released. I asked for fans' favorite two-time related memories. I put out a call for fans who are in the two-time video, um, but no dice. I swear I don't bite guys. But I am having a fellow 1975 fan and Boston area girly, a friend of mine, Amanda, on to chat about this music video later in the episode, which I'm very excited about. We talked about a lot of things. We talked about a two-time video, of course, but we also talked about how social media has changed since that video came out. If a brief inquiry were released today, what you know technology angle would it take? We talked about a little bit about AI, um we talked about crazy concert ticket pricing, we talked about kind of the social currency of fandom and the different flavors of fan you can find in fandom. So we talked about a lot of stuff, and it was great. So that I'll that'll be coming up a little later in the episode. But first let's talk a little bit about two time. So the song was born from a happy accident. George and Maddie were working with fellow dirty hit artist No Rome on the song Narcissist, Love Narcissist. It's probably my favorite collab the 1975 has ever done, although they haven't done too many. But the beat came from that session, so they created a skeleton song structure around it, and Two Time was born. Also, Pan is the only member of the 1975 who doesn't have a song credit for the song. There was so much tropical house music happening then. Like thinking back to that period of time in music, I will always think of Justin Bieber's Purpose era and the work acrylics and Dipolo did on that. I still love that album, by the way. Other popular examples from that time, and by stream number, maybe the most popular example is Ed Sharon Shape of You. And of course, some of Drake's songs like One Dance and Passion True. When Two Ten was released, some critics actually likened it to some of Drake's work, uh Passion Fruit specifically. In July 2018, the band invited fans to apply to be in their next music video that was being filmed in London that month. And looking at the timeline for brief inquiry, music videos, the guys are pretty buttoned up at this era. Every single video and single, obviously, was created and released before the album was released. Unlike the previous albums, where they would try and squeeze in recording music video days while on tour. That's growth, you guys. That's growth right there. Okay, I think it's time to go a little bit more in-depth on the music video itself. So enjoy my conversation with a fellow 1975 fan, Amanda.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Hi, hi friend. No, but okay, not saying hi to a person in Thriveway. Okay, so he thinks sorry about that.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Who do we have here?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

This is Bailey. Bailey! Come say hi. Come on, say hi.

unknown 4:38

Hello.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Hi, Bailey. Oh, it's an adorable, not a golden doodle. What is Bailey? Is it golden doodle? I was right. My golden doodle, hi. Oh, I'm sorry for the listeners who can't see this adorable dog right now. Thank you so much for willing to chat with me. Of course. So we are both New England girlies, both live in Massachusetts, both have been at 1975 shows and multiple different concerts at the same time, but haven't gotten to link up. Um you'll be like, you know, further into the crowd and I'll have a seat, or you'll be in the crowd and I'm up on balcony. But um it's so nice to be able to see you and and and have this convo. So I always like to ask people how they first were initiated into this cult.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

I love that you call it a cult because I stop and remind myself constantly that that's what it is. Um I think our origin stories are very similar. Um, so you're from this area, you're familiar with what was once the greatest radio station of all time, 955 WBRU was an alt-rot station uh run by students. I believe it was Brown University. Yes. Um, every summer they held their free summer concert series, and I believe it was 2013 that it was the 1975. And at that point, I had heard, I think chocolate was the only song I was familiar with. And I was like, oh, I dig this. I'm gonna go check it out. It's free. So if it's not great, who cares? Uh so I went down to Waterplace Park, I saw the show and was instantly hooked. Um, and I've been trapped inside the box ever since.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Yeah, I miss WBRU every day. Um, yes, so that's also I wasn't at that summer concert series, but I first heard the 1975 on that radio station, and it was chocolate, and I wasn't immediately hooked. So that's where our stories kind of differ. I know I thought chocolate was catchy, but it was a little too like, I don't know, poppy for me at the time. And I was thought I was like so cool going to see like Bonavere in 2013 and 2012. But then I like it when you sleep came out, and I was like, okay, I really fuck with this. So yeah, and now we've been in a cult ever since. But yeah, so we're gonna talk about two time today. And obviously, as you know, it's off a brief inquiry, which is so um technology, social media in the in the current age and how that affects relationships. And I'm like, you're the perfect person also to have on for this because you are a college professor. You messed art myth, right? And you see how technology is affecting the youth. Oh, yes, that could be on a daily basis. Yeah. So this is kind of perfect. So I had to rewatch two time. I know you had to rewatch two time because it'd been a while for you as well. What was like your first um after rewatching it back, first thoughts, impressions, likes, dislikes? What was jumping out of you?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

My first impression watching it again after a couple of years was actually a lot different. Um, I think I went into it kind of thinking, okay, there's probably going to be some sort of theme behind it, some sort of purpose, even though it's one of those typical, oh, it's fans lip syncing the song. I think my original reaction to it was like, oh, this is kind of a cop-out. Like that's really all he's doing. But the more I started thinking about it, the more I started thinking, as we'll talk to about the, you know, the two time and two timing. I'm like, is this his way of saying, hey, it's not just me, everybody is out there, you know, two-timing their partner. Uh so that was kind of a new thought that I had this second time around.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Yeah, yeah, agreed. I I mean, at first glance, right, the video is just, it's it's pretty simple, it's fun. I think in the interview Maddie did with Vivo when he's re-watching all the brief inquiry videos, he's like, I've been more clever, right? But this is probably my favorite video to rewatch. Um I even though it is so focused on like how social media affects your relationships and how like the most um easiest thing to do, which is what, like a post or whatever, has holds so much weight these days in a relationship. And there is not one phone in this music video.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

Yeah, that's that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I mean So it's people like it look, like people know phones in the moment, like, but for real, like there's not one phone in this music video.

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I mean, if you consider how many times now, like a newer phenomenon in the past like 10 years or so that hey, you liked so-and-so's picture or you commented on so-and-so, what does that mean? And that can become like a tension point in the unraveling of a relationship. Yes, something that would not have been an issue. Well, maybe in like early 2000s, hey, you're in that person's top bait on MySpace. What does that mean? Um, but you know, a relatively new phenomenon.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah, exactly. I also was thinking about because there have been music videos where there's there's fans in the past, and but a lot of it is mostly in like a very story context, like the the band will be like doing a show in the video and the fans are like in the crowd. This is very um, dare I use the word parasocial way of using fans in your video. You know, Maddie is in it with them and singing and dancing, and it's a very 1975 way to put fans in a video.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And you know, jumping off that parasocial thing to use Maddie's favorite words, it's very meta. You know, you are in you are in this with us. Yes, you and you see me, and we're in this box together.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, we are in this box together, which doing this podcast and going back and watching videos, uh, I think I've said it before. It's also it's also made me like a little sad because and and I and I think it's for the for the better for the most part, but I think that relationship between the band and the fans has changed since the brief inquiry. Um, Maddie has been primarily off social media, and I think that is the right decision for him.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Um it's just been, I I thought it was just really strange the past month that Ross was the one that was the most active, you know, the one that tends to be the quietest and doesn't really participate. Um, but then he was like every day posting a story in a reel, you know, for the fundraiser. And I was like, this is bizarre.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

This is bizarre, but I love that it there was a purpose to the posting, and it was for a really good cause. Oh yeah. And um, he survived that bike ride. Incredible. This video it starts with just Maddie, and this is the birth of blonde Maddie. I think this is the only music video we see Maddie with blonde hair. No, wait, when he's in Love It If We Made It, I think he might be blonde as well. But he's not in it that much. Yeah, yeah. Every band member has had their blonde era except Ross.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Well, please, Ross, don't, don't, don't do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

The long hair look just completely blonde, but keep but keep the beard dark. Yeah, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Like Steven Segal or something. Yeah, think about it. Um what's interesting about that though is I think because of the color scheme of the video, that blonde hair just pops that much more, and it's that much more obvious.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Oh my god, yes. Because we get a lot of pastel backgrounds in this video. Um, and then you have No Rome with his blue hair. Um, so yeah, a lot of hair modeling going on this in this video. Whole video is really like a party, a relic of the late 2010s. I think there's a moment where Maddie flosses in the video. And I haven't seen somebody floss probably since 2018.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

So and that's a great point. It is like a just kind of very specific product of its time. Um, yeah, which is really interesting. Also, think about how the dynamics of social media were a little bit different back then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I like it when you sleep was very like 2016 curated, right? There's like an aesthetic to everything, and that's kind of what Instagram was like then. Everybody would have a, I didn't do this, but a lot of people use like a consistent filter, or they would crop photos the same way with white borders. And then when a brief inquiry came out, you got later into the 2010s, it started to become a little more it's like fell apart a bit. Yeah. Yeah. Um looking back at a brief inquiry in that time compared to social media now, like how do you think it has changed? And if a brief inquiry was released now, like what different direction do you think it would have taken?

SPEAKER_00 13:59

That's a great question. I'll start with the second one. Like if released now, um, thinking about the way, you know, for example, you brought up Instagram. Instagram now is more like TikTok. It used to be just photos, like you said, with filters and borders, kind of like a culture, you know, a cultivated aesthetic. Where now it's like, how many views and likes can you get with these short reels? You have to get attention, you have to stitch something, you have to bring in, you know, whatever the phrases that everyone's saying. Um, so I think there, you know, if it had come out now, there would be, I don't know, music video that's almost done like a TikTok. Like you're just scrolling and like watching, you know, the people singing, or you know, that one time where he annoyed the hell out of me, Maddie, when he was doing his speech during, I think it was the second, uh, still at their very best, when he had like a TikTok up of like a subway running. Cheat people's attention. Oh my god. And I got the I got the joke of it. It's like, hey, I'm gonna try to capture your attention here. This is how I get your attention. But I could see something like that happening in the video. Um, and because Maddie likes to juxtapose things, you know, you have this upbeat song, this song about the lyrics about you know a relationship, about potential cheating, people dancing, and you would have that, you know, maybe with some sort of like TikTok-y as aesthetic would be. Um, but in terms of like how things have changed, I mean, I think you pretty much nailed it. That was more of the era where Tumblr was was really the thing. It was like Tumblr and Instagram, and like TikTok, I think was what, 2018, like a couple years later. Yeah. Um, so that whole way, I mean, even some parts of Tumblr are are a little more like TikTok now. So that TikTok really is the thing that changed a lot about how social media was. So it's kind of hard to like think about pre-Tik tock versus post-Tik tock. Um I think that's like the biggest change that is how TikTok has impacted the way other social media apps.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

Yes, and like the attention span of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yeah, yeah, the short the shortening of attention spans too. And I could definitely see if the album came out today, you know, some sort of like opening self-titled lyric about like lack of attention span or or something like that. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

My own students, yeah. Dude, I see your Instagram stories about the stuff you have to deal with with like chat GBT and kid and kids are literally not having critical thinking.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

Right. And I think that would be another big focus of an album like that if it came out today, Maddie. You know, bringing that, you know, AI culture into it, that like you're letting AI into the thinking for you. And um, so I'm actually redesigning some of my fall classes to be less tech reliant, which is also kind of hard because um I teach research methods in one of my classes. So I have to teach them how to look up sources online, how to determine if it's a valid source, how do you vet this source? How do you know it's credible? How do you know you can trust, you know, things like that. Um, so that's gonna be like the sticking point of like how do I do that in a kind of like mostly tech-free classroom.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

And what you said me about um vetting sources and making sure they're legit and truthful, and love it if we made it when Maddie said truth is only hearsay. I think I can only hypothesize that that was referencing, you know, the fake news that was happening with the Trump administration and all that.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Now I feel like truth is only hearsay is like, is this AI image real? Oh my gosh, absolutely. Is this video real?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Like, what is and that yeah, I mean, yes, definitely agree. I'm actually gonna be using um Love It If We Made It in my protest song class. Um, and it's gonna be because I'm teaching this class based on the context of when a song came out, it's gonna be more focused on like fake news and stuff like that. Yeah. So the students will be reading an article on how miss and disinformation impacted the 2016 election. We're gonna listen to that song, we're gonna look at the lyrics, they're gonna try to make some sort of connection. But it is really interesting to think about that song in the context of AI now. So it's like now we have another level of miss and disinformation, of fake news, of you know, videos that we can't trust, whether or not they're real. I really hope, Maddie, that you're taking notes and that this becomes, you know, the basis of another project uh that the band puts out. Yeah. There's a lot to explore.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

I agree. And you know, 2023 was a really and into 2024 was I mean, not to sugarcoat it, it was like a hate campaign against Maddie Healy, and some of it's still happening. And some of it is rooted in true facts, a lot of it was not. So I and I hope he I hope the band explores that and the idea of um, you know, what you read online and fandoms becoming like gospel, and and that translates to how you view an actual human being in real life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

I mean, and think about like some of the more recent like campaigns online have turned out to be, you know, complete nonsense. Think about like Chapel Rowan, where it was the whole, let's all hate on her because she told this child, you know, I'm not gonna take a photo with you. Uh that kind of spread. And then it turned out that's not really what happened. Um, but the Maddie thing is absolutely true. I remember the thing that was trending was that one split second of him, you know, doing the salute uh during Love It If We Made It. Um, obviously not a good move on his part, and it's not something that I agree with. Um, he was doing it in reference to his line about Kanye. So the suggestion he was making is that Kanye is a Nazi. But you can take something like that, remove every context around it, isolate it, and then it becomes Maddie Healy is a Nazi. Look at this, let's post it over and over, let's share it, let's turn it into a smear campaign. And that is, you know, just the one thing, like one little thing like that can like completely alter a person's life. You know, even now it's like, oh, Taylor Swift was dating a Nazi, and like it's like, okay, like, whoa.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

It's like we went from how did we get here?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Right. I mean, it's like a two parts to the parasocial relationship, is one like wanting to be up that person's butt, and the other is wanting to find a flaw in that person so you can bring them down.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

And there seems to be like no like happy medium in between.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

And what there's a there's a third, there's a third flavor that I've just kind of um discovered, and it deals with Phoebe Bridgers, for those who don't know, doing her um pop-up shows, surprise shows day of. And I've seen on Reddit fans taking this other stance in the fandom, which is I am better than all of you guys. I am yeah, I am cooler. You all complaining about the shows and following the tour bus, like you guys are all insane, and like, you know, I'm I'm a more like sane fan. So there's this other like flavor coming out now.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, and it's like you're almost expected to. It's like you can't just be a casual fan of something. You either have to be all in and be like, you know, the camping on the sidewalk for every show, and like knowing the band member's best friend's middle name from when they were in third grade or whatever. Um it's like you have to be that or you have to be the nonchalant, I don't care, like I like this one song. And it's like you can't just be a casual fan of like anything more.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, I know we're going on a tangent here, but the idea, no, but like I'm very we've talked about this. The idea of casual fan. Like there are artists, absolutely I'm a casual fan of. And but I have not seen them in concert because the prices do not justify my level of devotion in that artist. So it sucks that though those artists that are not in my like top five kind of get like pushed to the side because ticket prices are so expensive now. So I don't get to see them.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Um, no, no, but it's absolutely true. Like, you know, in the past, um just to use an example, like I think like 2014 at the muse concert I went to, there was a couple sitting behind me and they're like, we only really know two of their songs, but you know, the tickets for that show are like 45 bucks, like whatever. That's something you can't do now. Like, I want to go to hear this one or two songs. It's like I'm not gonna pay $287 plus parking and like everything else to hear like the one or two songs that I know. And it's almost like going back to the I'm a better fan than you, there's almost like a competition now of like I paid $8,000. I paid like it's like bragging rights that you paid a ridiculous amount of money. Yeah, like you're in debt, like you're in credit card debt.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

You didn't have this money, your credit card debt, and not your credit card debt. Like yeah, it's it's it's wild. Um, bleachers bless her and Jack for continuing to fight that beast and keeping his prices reasonable. Um, I have a lot of respect for artists that do that. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I'm just gonna put it up there 1975. Please opt out of dynamic pricing next door. Please, please.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

I often kind of like daydream. I'm like, what if they did a show that was like, I don't want to say exclusive just for like real fans, but it's like, you know, you can pay like 50 bucks and get it in, but and it would just kind of be like a cool, chill vibe. I wish obviously, you know, with the way you need to make money in the industry, that would never be sustainable. But I kind of want to go back to like the 2013 Waterplace Park show where it was just like a cool vibe, and everyone was there to appreciate the music, appreciate the artists, and they weren't there to prove a point that I came to this thing, look how close I was, look how many trying to. It was right here to be there.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Yeah, uh, I would love that. I'm a controversial topic, but I think no phone that shows is I'm I'm for it. Oh yeah, I'm for it. I've been to that.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

I've been to a couple of and yeah. I I yeah, I I'm here for it. I like the like um the last time that I saw Boys Like Girls, you know, they started playing Great Escape for like 30 seconds and they're like, okay, we're gonna start all over again, but we're gonna pretend it's 2006. Everyone put your phones away. This was the um um MGM Fenway show that was got ordered for the live album, um which I thought was great. Like we like this song, you have nostalgic memories for this song, so let's pretend it's that time. So everyone put their phone away, just kind of like live in the moment and enjoy it. And it was truly enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

That's so awesome. I saw the Rock and Tours um a couple years ago, and they did do the yonder couches for it when I saw Jack White solo. Didn't, but he had somebody come out ahead of time and be like, just we want you to be mindful that like a quick photo here and there is fine, but do not be on your phones the whole time. And that was the Sinclair show, right? That was the Sinclair shop show.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Yeah, it's a small venue too, so it becomes more obvious and more apparent. Yeah, recording in like a what if a place holds like what, like 500 people? Like it's not yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Arena shows if if you're playing an arena, am I going to any arena shows? I'm going to see the strokes. So they are playing the garden. But honestly, if you're playing if you're playing stadiums, I'm not going. I mean, I will only come to a big arena show if I really like you. But my sweet spot is that like five to eight thousand size.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

Yeah. I I know, I just that's kind of like the vibe that I missed of show. It was like, again, not to be exclusive, but it was like the real fans were there because you know it was so limited. It was kind of like, especially the shows where it's like you only knew about the show if you knew about the show. It wasn't like a big advertised thing, or just this kind of vibe that like everyone is there for the sake of being there. It's not to get content, it's not to prove a point, you're just there to put the music.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I that's why I think what Phoebe's been doing is so cool. I wish we could go back to those days. Not we're like showing our like solidly millennial age right now. We're like, man. Back in 2012. Thank you for listening to Television of Your Mouth, a 1975 podcast. And thank you again to Amanda, fellow 1975 fan, for joining me to talk about two time. Episodes of this podcast are written, recorded, and produced by me, Britt. And you can follow the podcast on Instagram at Television of Your Mouth. I hope you enjoyed and see you next time.