TRIGGER WARNINGS!

• mentions of suicxde

• mentions of harmful thoughts

(the lore part is all my thoughts and theories, so it might not be 100% correct)

What is TØP?

TØP is an indie pop / alternative rock duo from Columbus, Ohio. They have many popular songs (some being Stressed Out, Ride and Heathens). They have 6 albums and are mostly known for their 2015 album , Blurryface and the most recent being Scaled and Icy, released in 2021. 

Who is in TØP?

TØP consists of two members (hence the “duo”). Their names are Tyler Joseph (the singer and pianist) and Josh Dun (the drummer). Although, there used to be three members. In 2009-2011, Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas and Chris Salih were known as Twenty One Pilots. But in 2011, both Thomas and Salih left to focus on work and school. Since then, Josh joined.

History of TØP

In 2009, Tyler, Nick and Chris formed a band named “twenty one pilots”. Tyler was the vocalist, Nick was the guitarist and Chris was the bassist. They released an album by the same name on December 29th of the same year. 

In 2011, Chris left for work and Nick left for school. Before he left though, Salih invited his co-worker and friend, Josh Dun to join the band in his place as a drummer. On July 8th, Tyler and Josh released the second album of Twenty One Pilots, “Regional at Best”. They also released another single through their mailing list named "Two"

In 2012, they got signed under a label called “Fueled by Ramen”. The same year in November, the band’s first music video was posted to YouTube for the song “Holding on to you”. And was later followed by “Guns for Hands” and “Car Radio” in 2013.

In 2013, their album “Vessel” was released, and they gained more popularity. So much so that they opened for Fall Out Boy during a tour. 

In 2014, TØP performed their song “Car Radio” at the 2014 MTV movie awards and on a show called “Late night with Seth Meyers”. They also performed at many events and music festivals. On December 13th of this year, they released the music video for “Ode to Sleep” which contained old footage of a performance of OTS.

In March of 2015, they announced the release of their newest album, “Blurryface” which would come to be their most popular album and the main reason for their fame. March 17th was the release of “Fairly Local” (a really good song by the way) and on April 5th, the song “Tear in my Heart” and its music video was released. On April 28th, the band’s most popular song, “Stressed Out” was released. It hit the #2 spot on the U.S Billboard 100 and had over 2.5 billion views on YouTube. “Blurryface”’s actual release date was May 17th, 2015 and was gaining popularity quickly. 

June 15th, 2016 a song by TØP that was to be featured in the film “Suicide Squad” was leaked on to a website named Reddit.  The song was fully released the next day despite the original release date being June 24th. This situation created a hashtag on Twitter being #CliqueIsGoingToJailParty as fans (named the “Skeleton Clique”) worried if there would be any consequences for the song’s early release due to the leak, but there were loads of memes about it on twitter and other socials anyway.

In September of the same year, they released a cover of the My Chemical Romance song “Cancer”. As a tribute to the album “The Black Parade”

In 2017, the band got a Grammy (music award) for Stressed Out. And before accepting the award, they honoured their friends by stripping to their underwear (keeping their shirts on of course) and told the story of why they did this. Tyler said that one day, while they were watching the grammys, someone said “We’re always in our underwear while watching the grammys, so what if we do the same if we ever won a grammy?” it was seen as iconic (and it was iconic!!) by fans and has never been forgotten.

On October 5th 2018, TØP released their 5th album named “Trench” and there was no longer radio silence within the fanbase. In the music videos there’s a creature named Ned. On the cover of the album there is a vulture. The vulture is named Clifford.

On April 9th 2020, Tyler and Josh released the single “level of concern” talking about and depicting things about the quarantine and COVID-19. The music video depicts Tyler and Josh in their houses making music.

In 2021, their latest album “Scaled and Icy” was released. The album cover features a blue dragon who was named “Trash” by Tyler. The album is less popular among fans for its more “pop” sounding songs, unlike the rest of their songs. 

The lore

(pls keep in mind that I have basically no idea what im doing when it comes to this so it could be rlly stupid lolz)

So, starting with the Blurryface album (or just Blurryface as a character). “Blurryface” refers to a different side of Tyler and Josh, Blurryface is the characterised version of Tyler’s anxiety and insecurities. Josh has a form of Blurryface too i think??

Tyler’s blurryface is recognised by black paint on his hands and neck which symbolises the fear of what he says and creates and Josh’s is recognised by red eyeshadow around his eyes. (Does Josh have a blurryface???)

The paint also symbolises the feeling of being suffocated by inner thoughts. Blurryface’s voice is deep and is shown in songs like “Fairly Local” and “Stressed Out”. In another music video, “Holding On To You” (from the Vessel album) people are holding Tyler’s neck, and he looks to Josh for some kind of support or comfort. It shows that Tyler has always had this anxiety, even before it had a face or even a name.

Later on in the music video, he switches between Tyler and Blurryface, while singing “I’ll be holding onto you”. He’s trying to hold onto someone, whether it’s the fans, Josh, Jenna (his wife) or even God. (It’s unknown who he’s attempting to hold onto). He’s trying to fight through that anxiety and those demons, which is a hard thing to do. His attempt to do this is why Blurryface may have gotten more aggressive. 

Now we move onto “Nico”. Who is Nico? Nico is short for Nicolas Bourbaki, Tyler’s bishop. It’s also worth mentioning ig that its also the name of a group of French mathematicians, who worked on topology. Nico symbolises the rejection of change. Nico and Blurryface are connected, but not the same.

Then we have the niners, Nico’s accomplices. Their names are figured out from the album cover of Blurryface (although they’re extremely small) and the lyrics of some songs in the Blurryface album. Their names are Andre, Lisden, Keons, Reisdro, Sacarver, Nills, Vetomo and Listo. They’re strange names, but they’re meant to be filled with mystery and they have meanings to them too (which I won't get into here). 

Now, we get into Dema. Dema is a city within the TØP universe that’s hard to escape. The only known ways to escape are to find people who love and support you and “east is up” (quoted from the song “Nico and the Niners”). There’s a theory linked to east is up, and it’s that you have to chase the sun when it’s setting so you don’t get left in the dark. 

Dema also has a place called the “Neon Gravestones” (song named after it). The neon gravestones are symbols of Vialism which are “feelings of hopelessness and isolation that can accompany depression” (from Google) and when you give into it, you kill yourself. This is what the bishops in Dema want. It’s seen as a respective way to die and their deaths are kept as spectacles in the Dema Necropolis. In Dema, the bishops want you to think that suicide is the only escape and that things won’t get better for you.

This is where Trench comes in. During the APMAs in 2017, they won the award for “most dedicated fanbase” and during the receiving of this award, Tyler was absent. To explain this, Josh said “Tyler can’t be here right now, he’s busy severing ties with Dema.”

Outside of Dema is the Trench. Also, there is one colour that the bishops cannot see, and it’s yellow. So in the trench, yellow is called “safety yellow” by the banditos (people who escaped Dema). The tape on Tyler’s jumpsuit is always applied by other banditos, it’s kind of a way to say “We’re here for you, keep fighting.” Also, a new character is introduced here, Ned (as mentioned earlier). He is seen by some fans as the creative process of making the music, and a friend, even in dark times. 

Finally, we move onto “Scaled and Icy”, the most recent album by TØP. On April 5th 2021, dmaorg.info (the website for lore hints) was shut down, left only with the message “dmaorg.info is in violation of Infraction NO. 3. 12. 1. 14. 3. 25. 9. 19. 4. 5. 1. 4.” If you match the numbers to letters in the alphabet, it spells out SCALED AND ICY. Scaled and Icy means “Scaled back and Isolated” said by Tyler in an interview, which is how he felt during the quarantine while making music. Tyler confirmed that the anagram (CLANCY IS DEAD) is just coincidence, and tends to ignore questions about lore during interviews, since it’s personal to him and doesn’t want to give answers to careless people or those who don’t understand it. The lore was never meant to be mainstream and this is made clear in the song “Message Man” from the Blurryface album, the lyrics being “Please use discretion when you're messing with the message man, these lyrics aren’t for everyone, only few understand.” 

Now, there's a connection between SAI and Vialism and neon gravestones. The colours of SAI are bright. The blue on the cover of SAI is actually the exact same shade as the blue of the neon gravestone in the Fairly Local music video. The blue was seen as Blurryface’s defeat, but it’s actually Tylers. The new album IS A NEON GRAVESTONE. And we’re all participating in Vialism. In the other albums, we went to Dema, in scaled and icy, DEMA IS COMING TO US. 

If you have any corrections or added theories plz LMK!!!!