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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    Oct 3rd 2014 !⃝

    Idk for certain but I think the car is his body and the radio is his mind*

  2. anonymous
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    Sep 1st 2014 !⃝

    A lot of people have different meanings to the song, by what they can relate to... for example, I see it as the car radio being something that distracts me from the real world (problems) and with no car radio well, there is no distractions and you just keep thinking 'bout your problems, and about your life in the killing silence. Other people can interpretate it as the car radio being something important to you that you lost, Like your parents o a close family member.

  3. anonymous
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    Jul 28th 2014 !⃝

    I read the other interpretations, and some of them are too deep- not everything needs to be metaphorical, and others are too shallow (meaning they take the meaning from the song. Personally, I think that he's sitting in his car, and he's thinking about life in general, but it's quiet. I don't know about you, when but it's quiet I think more. He's driving along, and the longer that things are quiet, the more he thinks. He realizes that he has to accept life as it comes and eventually it's driving him crazy, and at one point he even contemplates pulling the steering wheel and ending his thoughts, along with his life. He's thinking about impermanence- how everything ends, and nobody knows when it will end, and he doesn't like thinking like that. He's questioning whether anything has a purpose.

  4. anonymous
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    Jul 14th 2014 !⃝

    This song really made me think. I DO NOT PROMOTE SUICDE OR ANYTHING LIKE IT In the first verse I think he's talking about life in general. Obviously he's pondering something great. He's saying he's breathing in but regretting it, But when he breaths out he's glad he did. Because he knows that nothing on this earth is permanent.The people, your thoughts, Facebook, YouTube videos, etc. Nothing in this world is ever guaranteed and you're not promised another say another second. He's saying life is like an hour glass and you never know when that last grain of sand is going to hit the bottom. He's saying he's having this bad thoughts so often he thinks that since someone took his "car radio" perhaps he's talking about his mind.. Maybe someone said something nasty to him and it made him go a little mad. He says "I have these thoughts so often I ought to replace that slot with what I once bought" Well. Let me suggest he bought the car. And what else could you buy? a gun.. You can buy a gun.. The car could represent a gun. Why do I think the car represents a gun? I think it represents a gun because in the next verse he says "I could pull the steering wheel." The steering wheel could represent the trigger to the gun. Because you drive the car with the steering wheel and you can drive a bullet through your head with a trigger. He wants to replace his mind with a bullet. He could also be saying that music is what once gave him hope and now that his car radio is gone bc someone may have actually stollen it. He doesn't have anything to take his mind off of these thoughts. He knows that the sad truth is, this world is a piece of shit with everything that's going on behind closed doors. He could be saying, he's afraid to die and afraid to live. And that's why he thinks were all here. We're battling fear. He liked it better when he could hear music because his thoughts get so bad he was thinking about the meaning to life. He's saying sleep brings peace. And that's why fear is going to lose. Bc he wants to go to sleep forever. Thus again why the car could represent a gun and the radio being his mind. - Erika Royal

  5. anonymous
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    Jul 12th 2014 !⃝

    Car radio is about everything wrong in his life that he dismissed with ease because of music. He's in a band, he knows that music can save and really has its affects. Once it's gone all of the things that it could make okay was suddenly the most not okay thing. And while ending it was an option now that he didn't have this music, he instead decided to make music out of this dilemma and bring back the peace it gives.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Jul 10th 2014 !⃝

    I just thought it meant that with his car radio being gone, he has time to sit and really think back on life. He has nothing to mask the thoughts he's been having. All his happiness was hidden behind the radio because the radio was distracting him from thinking about the negative outlooks on life, which is why he says "I'm forced to deal with what I feel, there is no distraction from what is real." The whole time he was blind and distracted, but now he's not, and there's nothing he can do about it.

  7. anonymous
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    Jul 3rd 2014 !⃝

    I think this song means exactly what it says. Your whole life, you have this simple life, with a house, job, and of course a car with a radio. Everyone motivates you to click with the world, to be normal, don't question athority. When you do, you develop a routine and never question it because you have everything you need, and your trained by society to feel like that's all you want. However, this guys routine was broken and he was 'woken up' from the endless pattern of his life because someone stole his car radio and there was no sound to fill his mind, and so it's gears started turning. When the rock in between the gears fell, they started turning and he started seeing everything wrong with the world and he developed ideas. From my experience, it gets overwhelming when you realize that life as a whole is even more depressing than realizing how much your life sucks and no one will ever care about you ever and no one will care if you die besides your closest family who will die off eventually and you'll just be another name on ancestry.com. It all makes you wonder what the point of life really is.

    Sorry. I'm promoting suicide. Don't kill yourself. If you're Christian, remember that life is one big test and your soul will suffer for eternity if you give up. If you're atheist remember that if there's no point to life, what's the point of suicide? I mean, it's not like anyone would care about you anyways, right? You aren't born to have a good life or a bad one, you can control that yourself. That means that you are probably the reason you want to do this, not everyone else. It's not that you're not accepted, it's that you don't want to be. If you really did, wouldn't you be trying to be more social, throwing away your hate list, instead of dragging a razor across a wrist that isn't any less than anyone else's? You are the change you've been waiting for. You just have to know you are.

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 27th 2014 !⃝

    okay, this song was suppose to be used for an antisuicide message but is now in the form of a song. all of the negitive thoughts that he has about himself are continuously running through his mind because there is nothing there to take the thoughts away. as sitting there his mind wandered and thought of how hard it is and how much better it could be. he could drive off and go kill himself and its been worse because the car radio had masked these type of thoughts

  9. anonymous
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    Jun 21st 2014 !⃝

    Here comes the true meaning behind Car Radio. This person was addicted to some hard core drugs. Im talking like meth, crack, speed, ice, all the chemist creations. He was smoking this stuff cause he mentioned that his lungs would fill then deflate. Now he is trying to kick this addiction which is the empty slot but keeps thinking about filling that slot with the drugs he once bought. The Car Radio he speaks of is his Brain and not an actual Car Radio. Now his brain is not running 100 MPH and has turned off without the drugs and forced back into his reality that he was trying to mask with what he once bought.Now over time he beet this addiction and wants everyone who is addicted to these drugs to relize that their killing their dreams like he once did. Then tells them the path they should take so they can be alive instead of dead. Dark song but an Insperational song. Now with what you just read listen to the song right now then let me know if thats not the meaning. #THETRUEMEANING

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 19th 2014 !⃝

    I believe this is one of the most moving songs I've ever heard. Maybe it means that his car radio was stolen while in college and it gave him inspiration. I know that I'd be pissed if someone stole my stereo! :) and then it was a blessing in disguise.. to remind him that life is short & time is running out.. We need to dream & live & do what we wanna!:) Music is our medicine & it keeps us from coming undone. Anything else that might distract us from the hard reality of life keeps our minds closed to dream & to truly live. Silence brings out our deepest, most inner thoughts & feelings to the table. It often makes us angry and/or depressed. It makes us realize our lives. He wants us to know we can live without worry or fear of what we don't know,to break the rules, to wake up & be alive! ;)
    What would we ever do without our car radios?! :D

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Jun 18th 2014 !⃝

    When I first heard It I thought it was about a girl like his girl left him and now he is sad so he sits in silence and his car radio being gone is her. When he says he must fill the slot with what he once bought means that he needs to fill his heart because without her he feels empty.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2014 !⃝

    I think it means that someone stole his heart because he basically says that he now sits by himself because he has no one to be with. Also he says "exhales desire" which means that he wants the person who stole his heart back.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2014 !⃝

    I think this song means that without his car radio there was no music to listen to and he was trapped with his thoughts. I know when i go to bed i lay at night with my thoughts and my anxiety comes in because when you have nothing to do or listen to you just think and sometimes thinking isnt fun, "theres so sound to hide behind", he cant mask his problems through songs anymore because he doesnt have his radio, all he wants to do is listen to music and forget about the world, if you listen to the lyrics closely, "I ponder of something great, my lungs will fill and then deflate" hes trying to find good to think about but he cant because of his lack of thinking he use to just listen to music, "i have these thoughts so often I ought to replace that slot with what I once bought" he wants to replace all his thoughts with what he once bought, which was the car radio, theres an empty slot and instead of music being in it its all his thoughts, he also says,"sometimes quiet is violent", if you think about it quiet is violent. Noise distracts, especially music singing words you want to hear and need to hear. This song is amazing to me cause my life would not be the same if i didnt have music to listen to.

  14. anonymous
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    May 28th 2014 !⃝

    Means someone stole his radio as in someone shut him out so he dosent try anymore so just sits in silence, sits and ponders somthing great - as he sits in silince he ponders ideas in his head. Sick of this car I drive- sick of this life I'm living. He just wants to change his life and be somthing

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