I have a lot to say about this song.

 

‘People’ was unleashed to the world on August 22^nd 2019, with its music video premier occurring at 7:30 pm. Like most of their fans, I was sat in front of my TV staring at the yellow screen, awaiting to see what the visual and sonic aesthetic of this song was going to be. As it seems that with each lead single, the band go in a totally new direction and look. But none have been more out there than the release of ‘People’. Because this time, The 1975 took it a step further than before.

While ‘Love Me’ saw glammed up funk in 2015 and Give Yourself A Try’ gave us a lo-fi post-punk song (according to Wikipedia at least) in 2018, ‘People’ was much more reminiscent of their earlier emo-punk days as Drive Like I Do with its short but aggressive sound. The visuals seem like a continuation of their last album, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’; I say this because the band can be seen performing in a box that’s flashing several different random images, along with the songs lyrics, and lead singer Matthew “Matty” Healy can be seen with a filter over his face- eagle eyed viewers can see that said filter has different names in the top corner, indicating some kind of electronic database and facial recognition system.

The colour for this song is predominantly yellow, a very bright and eye-catching yellow. It features on the teased artwork for their next album, the single cover, and the band transition from black suits to yellow suits during the video. But like a few other aspects of the song, I feel like the use of a bright yellow is to grab attention and demand to be listened to. Hear me out:

 

Before ‘People’ was released, it was proceeded by the newest version of their album opener ‘The 1975’. This new incarnation of the song is 5 minutes long, with Climate Change Activist Greta Thunburg reciting a vocal essay over the soft instrumental heard behind her. Within the track, she contributes facts and statistics alongside her telling us that we need to “wake up” and help save the environment, and the track ends with Thunburg saying that “it’s time to rebel”. This new version of ‘The 1975’ will be the opening track on the album, which is soft and atmospheric in sound while carrying an important and crucial message; this is then directly followed by lead single ‘People’ in relation to the album, which is a stark contrast with its shouting vocals, distorted guitars and aggressive drumming. But it still carries the same message I feel.

 

“Wake up, wake up, wake up/It’s Monday morning and we’ve only got a thousand of ’em left” is telling us to wake up as a planet and a society. After a thousand more weeks, there will be so much damage done to our planet that we won’t be able to save it. Or worse, we will all be dead.

“I know it feels pointless and you don’t have any money/But we all have to try our fucking best” is Matty encouraging us to do little things. There is so much poverty in the world, and so much of the population doesn’t have the money to make the changes they want, but just by putting litter in bins and recycling can make so much difference than discarding it onto the streets to lay around for years.

“My generation wanna/Fuck Barack Obama/Living in a sauna/With legal marijuana” sounds like Matty recognising that Donald Trump is a misogynistic, sexist, racist president who is bad news for America. Everyone loved Obama because he was such a good, supportive and progressive president in comparison to Trump. The part about “living in a sauna with legal marijuana” made me think of relaxing and unwinding, treating and distracting yourself to avoid the worlds problems.

“Girls, food, gear/I don’t like going outside so bring me everything here” is a perfect depiction of the youth of today. Most of us just want to eat, fuck and get high. And almost all of us just want to stay at home because of depression or the fear of leaving our house.

 

“We are appalling and we need to stop watching shit in bed” is more self awareness that we just sit around and do stuff. We need to get up and do more to help, rather than just watch Netflix and sleep.

“I know it sounds boring and we like things that are funny/But we need to get this in our fucking heads” is more sympathising with the audience and appealing to youth. Matty knows how much we love memes, and he probably does too, but we also need to WAKE UP! and realise that we don’t have long left.

“Economy’s a goner/Republic’s a banana/Ignore it if you wanna” is Matty saying that the state of the Economy and Republic are both on the decline and basically laughable at this point. “Ignore it if you wanna” is pretty obvious. You can ignore the worlds problems as much as you like, but it’s not going to stop or help them.

The chorus also features the line “stop fucking with the kids”, which I love and think is so important. The kids are the future. Matty even said to a little boy at a concert that he needs to change the world because Matty is too old now, and seeing people like Greta Thunburg joining forces with such a progressive and well known band to carry the message of trying to save the planet is amazing and the right thing to be doing. Its not guns that kill people, its kids that don’t get listened to. You have a bad childhood, you’re going to end up rebelling and getting your own back. But rather than doing it for a personal cause full of revenge, do it for one that will help us all stay alive and continue to progress toward harmony as a planet full of humans.

 

Within a short space of time, Matty manages to cram in so many references to the youth and how we need to get our act together. In context of the album’s tracklist, I think it works perfectly because ‘People’ still carries the same message heard in the Greta version of ‘The 1975’, but does it in such a rebellious way, just like Thunburg says. Punk and Emo music have been associated with the outcasts of society, and the loud and aggressive music is always guaranteed to get some kind of attention because of how different it is in its sound to soft pop music. If you hear ‘People’ on the radio, from the instant Matty starts shouting he will have your attention. Nobody is going to play the Greta version of ‘The 1975’ on the radio to spread awareness of saving the planet. So instead, The 1975 made an extremely attention grabbing punk song with a catchy chorus that is laced with pop culture references, self-awareness, encouragement and sympathy to take its place. It’s the same message, but a completely different sound and a more edgy way to go about it.

I wasn’t going to write this review at all. I was just going to let this track slide, but after sitting and reading the lyrics the night it came out, I had so many ideas and possible meanings rush to mind that I had to write this and share it. And The 1975 have been a crucial part of my life since I was 13, but due to people and experiences, listening to them started to hurt and I gravitated toward a heavier music sound. But this song has ignited my love and passion for them. I can’t stop listening to the song, and they’re making music that fits perfectly in with my heavier music taste. There are probably so many casual listeners that have heard this song and thought “that’s not them”, preferring their more pop sound; a lot of fans have thought the band have “lost their mind” with this song, and maybe they have. But after delving so deep into every word, and aligning its sound against context, I see so much purpose in this song.

 

‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ will be released on February 22^nd 2020

Watch the music video for ‘People’ below