What does Car Radio mean?

Twenty One Pilots: Car Radio Meaning

Album cover for Car Radio album cover

Song Released: 2014


Car Radio Lyrics

I ponder of something great
My lungs will fill and then deflate
They fill with fire
Exhale desire
I know it's dire
My time today

I have these thoughts
So often I ought
To replace that slot
With what I once bought
'Cause somebody...

  1. anonymous
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    Nov 21st 2017 !⃝

    I think that this song is about how someone stole his car radio in high school and now he just has to deal with his thoughts and and depression and can’t get away from his it because he has no radio for songs and background music to get away from his thoughts.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  2. anonymous
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    Nov 20th 2017 !⃝

    He is sad someone stole his car radio.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  3. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2017 !⃝

    This is just an interpretation so I might not be completely right. To me this song is about Tyler and his mind whom is trying to take over his thoughts. The radio he talks about is the only way to keep his mind away from him which is through his music. Then someone steals that away from him so now his mind starts to attack... Giving him bad thoughts and forcing him to think about negative things which is also called anxiety (I know this from experience). That's all I have to say.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 2nd 2017 !⃝

    I think maybe Tyler(or someone else) has been listening to music and blocking out life. Then someone comes and steals his radio and he suddenly has no more music and is now looking at life from a New Perspective(sorry) and he sees how bad life has gotten. He sees how life has gone horribly wrong. He shaves his head which is saying how he has changed his lens on life. When he puts on the ski mask he's putting on his new personality and when he goes out onto stage all the people standing still are people dealing with everyday crap and he goes out to join them because he now sees how they see. He then realizes how he could actually leave this place and then the crowd pushes him on stage and they push him towards his goal(the stage) and at the end he realizes how close he was to giving up. His hair has grown back which was his lens at first. Or maybe someone really did steal his Car Radio. But I think mine might be correct.

  5. 21pilots
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    Oct 19th 2017 !⃝

    I feel like the car radio in the song is supposed to show that he has things in life to distract him from his thoughts where In the song when he say "somebody stole my car radio and now I just sit in silence" it means that something took away the things he used to rely on to pass time so he's left with his thoughts where they would be mostly negative with some positive points. Then when he says, "sometimes quiet is violent" it means that his thoughts can scurry so much that it makes him think about suicide or jumping the grid or killing someone. Along with that he states that he hates the person he killed in his sleep with the car that he is driving meaning that he killed his past self the one who would make songs for fun instead of a living, the one who would just take it easy with his songs, the one who didn't have a group of fans telling him what to do instead of the ones supporting him to follow his own path. He states that "my lungs fill and then deflate, they fill with fire exhale desire I know its dire my time today." this states that he is filled with passion for his music and that they would expel his desires for other meaningless things like hobbies. along with other songs by him he wishes could go back and change see If he were to have been better but he is stuck. hence he is stuck driving this car but he can control the steering wheel, he can decide what to do in his life the razor is him changing his personality along with the ski mask to one that is more appealing to his fans. His fans follow him like god that's why he raises his hand up in the air and at the end he repeats the phrase "my lungs fill and then deflate they fill with fire exhale desire I know its dire my time today." this means that he strives for his passions even if it means that his hobbies are suffering from it or In other terms his desire. also at the end he embraces himself his old self the one with his views top priority instead of playing the act on the stage.

  6. anonymous
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    Oct 6th 2017 !⃝

    This guy has a mind that is often running at high speeds thinking about every aspect of his life, some things positive some things (most) negative. His car radio is the only thing that stops his mind from going crazy and when someone steals it he has no way to stop his thoughts. (i'm not going into my theory about what the car radio represents) he realizes that the quiet he faces now will be his undoing because he cant stop analyzing. He doesn't like what he see's in his head the ugly truths about life. He no longer finds pride in what he does with his life because he realizes that it comes with the price of hurting others and himself in order to reach his dreams. He has to deal with his guilt because he cant hide behind his music anymore. He could kill himself so he doesn't have to deal with it.

    Then he thinks about how in every life there is a battle against doing the things we are afraid of people don't understand why they are alive and are afraid to face the unknown of living. So they kill themselves, this scares him and he wants to stop thinking.

    Now here comes the positive spin. He realizes we have two options to end the pain we live with. 1. Have faith that you can make it and life will get better and 2. Sleep (suicide?) and ignore the pain. Faith=being alive sleep= to be dead. Being awake is to think things through and not let the easy thoughts take over and end it which would to being alive. He wants to get us to see that we have to think and not just take the easy route and sleep it off or kill ourselves. He ends on a positive note saying he ponders of something great again and he will continue to think things through instead of numbing it out..... Hard to explain and I hope I did adequate... This is just my take. Please people just think before you make the decision to "pull the steering wheel"....

  7. anonymous
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    Jul 27th 2017 !⃝

    This song (I think) is about depression. I mean, the first part 'I know it's dire my time today' to me, it means that it's his time to go. (die-I just didn't want to be harsh) Because no one wants him anymore. Some one stole his car radio, aka the only piece of hope and pride that he has left. His life is the car, and he's the steering wheel. He gets to choose where he goes, what he does. But then he says 'I could pull the steering wheel' that obviously means that he could commit suicide. He says 'My pride is no longer inside, it's on my sleeve my skin will scream' I think he's slicing his wrists. 'I ponder of something terrifying, cause this time there's no sound to his behind' He can't hide behind the hope anymore more. He can't hide the darkness with a smile because someone took all he had left. 'And I will try with every rhyme, to come across like I am dying' that's pretty deep bro. Correct me if I'm wrong but... I'm pretty sure this is accurate

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 10th 2017 !⃝

    The car radio is like the soul of your car. It's like losing your soul. Someone stole his soul.

  9. anonymous
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    Jun 9th 2017 !⃝

    I was looking for music. Anything that i liked and from this decade. I remember coming across this song. I listened for less than a minute before downloading every song they had (4 yrs ago). This was always my favorite because how much it completely summed up my head some times.

    I ponder of something great
    My lungs will fill and then deflate
    They fill with fire
    Exhale desire
    I know it's dire
    My time today

    -This is trying to show the chaos in some peoples heads. how you can be over come by thoughts in a second. How you can drown in deep thoughts or ideas. one second your fine, the next second your filled with dread about something far away or insignificant.


    I have these thoughts
    So often I ought
    To replace that slot
    With what I once bought
    'Cause somebody stole my car radio
    and now i just sit in silence.

    - Tyler knows these thoughts can be chaotic and harmful. He knows he needs music or something to block it out and distract him. But there is no music. (the car part i think is important because driving can end up being kind of mindless so its like just sitting there forced to hear the crazy ideas, theories, and worries your brain creates.)

    Sometimes quiet is violent
    I find it hard to hide it
    My pride is no longer inside

    - First line of this part alone. Damn. His thoughts are killing him. the more he thinks about them, the more he lets there ideas settle in, the more he cant control it. Eventually, his "pride is no longer inside it", meaning he eventually doesnt bother trying to hide the face that his head and thoughts are fighting him.

    It's on my sleeve
    My skin will scream reminding me of
    Who I killed inside my dream

    - Maybe this means when the pain becomes too much, his skin shows it (self harm). Kind of like when your start to get depressed but you don't know why. and you know things are okay but for some reason you cannot make yourself feel that way. so the depressed part of you is like -wouldnt it be easier to just, give up-.

    I hate this car that I'm driving
    There's no hiding for me
    I'm forced to deal with what I feel
    There is no distraction to mask what is real
    I could pull the steering wheel

    - Its about knowing that your head is not thinking clearly and knowing that the feeling is temporary. Knowing you have to fight this irrationality but you dont even have music or a distraction to help you. So as if things werent hard enough...

    I ponder of something terrifying
    'Cause this time there's no sound to hide behind
    I find over the course of our human existence
    One thing consists of consistence
    And it's that we're all battling fear
    Oh dear, I don't know if we know why we're here
    Oh my, too deep, please stop thinking
    I liked it better when my car had sound

    - he's listening to his thoughts. Without a distraction tyler begins to think of these deep thoughts that are too deep. I dont know how to explain it, kind of like, the deeper the thought the less important the real world seems. everything else seems insignificant. So tyler is trying to push those thoughts out saying he wished he had something to distract him.

    There are things we can do
    But from the things that work there are only two
    And from the two that we choose to do
    Peace will win and fear will lose
    It is faith and there's sleep
    We need to pick one please because

    - two ways to deal with these thought without giving into them (faith, sleep).

    Faith is to be awake
    And to be awake is for us to think
    And for us to think is to be alive
    And I will try with every rhyme
    To come across like I am dying
    To let you know you need to try to think

    - solution 1. faith. meaning power through it. Don't get lost in the thoughts, remember what is important and what is real. (solution 2. Sleep i think is to like try to ignore it or do nothing to stop it)

    -- the rest of the song is mainly "sitting in silence". I think this is actually tyler saying that he is fighting the thoughts. He doesn't have music but he's trying keeping the thoughts away at all times.

    This is my interpertation

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2017 !⃝

    the song has a good meaning that makes you think a lot. i think the meaning is that the music in his car acted as a barrier of sorts to block his thoughts from flooding in and "suffocating" him.

    and when it gets stolen he is left to think in the silence. and not having music to occupy him or draw his attention away from his possible stressful and bad past, it can slowly mentally destroy him.

    think if he is a war veteran, he has to possibly deal with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which is caused by things like constant gunfire or seeing people like friends or otherwise being killed.

    the silence could bring his past back to his head and give him an anxiety attack, and in return a panic attack. which if he experiences this daily it could bring him to insanity.

    well this took a dark turn didnt it? then again, Car Radio isnt supposed to be a happy song anyway...

  11. anonymous
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    May 31st 2017 !⃝

    More symbolism where a car represents life. The radio represents therapy or expression, just something in your life to distracts you from your inner demons. The man feels conflicted when his "radio is stolen" (he is unable to access the distraction he needs) because he realizes he's been missing a plethora of poetic thoughts interludes with darker messages. His mind is scattered in a thousand directions for a period in life.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    May 16th 2017 !⃝

    I think it means that without something to distract him,his thoughts go deeper and darker than he wants it to. But he can't stop because there is nothing to distract him so he has to think about all the dark and complicated things in life. When you have distraction you can be thinking about your uncle that has cancer to random thing like why are flowers different colors. He means he would rather be awake and thinking things through than privy to confusing and scary nightmares. When you have no distraction from dark things,human curiosity gets to you and makes you think about something that's supposed to be shallow have a deep and dark meaning.

  13. anonymous
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    May 13th 2017 !⃝

    to me, this song means so much because of how i interpreted it. What i think Tyler (the dude singing this song) is saying, is that he needs music. He uses music to get him through life. I listen to twenty one pilots and they write some depressing songs. They write them to help other people with what they are going through. When Tyler doesn't have music, his depressing thoughts taunt him. "i have these thoughts so often i ought to replace that slot with what i once bought, 'cause somebody stole my car radio, and now I just sit in silence" This line explains the whole song. what he once bought was the radio, but since it was stolen, he has had no music to listen to, and since he has no music, the depressing thoughts are flooding his head. I have this problem too. That's why I listen to Twenty One Pilots.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  14. anonymous
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    Apr 10th 2017 !⃝

    God stole somebody important from Tyler. Tyler now wants to maybe commit you know what

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
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    Apr 7th 2017 !⃝

    When i listen to the song, it makes me think, suicide itn't always the answer. You can have faith in u.The person in the song was feeling crazy but when he listen to his car car radio, he feels so calm. When it got stolen, he just sat in silence. He keep thinking about when he got his car radio stolen.
    When the person said"Because faith is to be awake, and to be awake is for us to think, and for us to think is to be alive"= it mean that we need to make to right choices. The choices that you you will not regret

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway



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