Shelzi - Week 5 Panic! At The Disco

I could write a book on the band Panic! At The Disco and how their music, creativity, performance, and ideology represents the current generation. I will try to keep this brief. But we all know that it won't be.

Music is full of labels. Is a band punk or pop, mainstream or indie? But one man and his band have proven album after album, even through a series of band member changes, that some bands just can't be labeled.  Brendon Urie is a 31-year-old from Vegas, most notably known for being the singer for the alternative rock music group, Panic! at the Disco. His music, energy, and dedication to causes that matter, make him, and Panic! at the Disco, the perfect band to represent the millennial generation.

A Brief History: The band, originally consisting of Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith and Brent Willson, first blew up on to the music scene shortly after graduating high school. Their debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out dropped in 2005. The album quickly hit the Billboard Top 40 and their single, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, was considered a smash hit and the video for the song won that year’s MTV Video Of the Year Award. From there, the band went on to release the album, Pretty. Odd., which strayed from their first album’s punk rock sound and embraced a folk instrumental vibe that began the long history of Panic! At the Disco doing everything in their power to avoid being categorized by genre. Three best selling albums and a Grammy nomination later, the band has created some very memorable music together.  Over their 13 year career, the band has lost members because of creative differences (Ross and Wilson) to addiction (Smith) to pressures from a religious community (Weeks). The one man who has stayed through all the ups and downs is Brendon Urie, who is now the one and only member of the band.

Urie, however, was the heart and soul of P!ATD and with the release of their 6th studio album, Pray For The Wicked, the band shows no signs of slowing down. Now, I don't believe that P!ATD is the perfect band JUST because I love them so much but rather because of the versatility of their music and the causes they support.

How the Music Defined a Generation: In this course, we have been looking very closely at how labels in music are vital. How you choose to define your music, or how it gets defined for you is directly correlated to your success, forging your own genre in the 60’s could mean the end of your career. But in 2018, the music industry thrives on the idea of “reinventing yourself” or your sound. With so many niche markets and subgenres in music, there is no shortage of creativity in the music industry, if you stick to one genre for too long, the millennial generation will tend to get bored with you. Panic! At The Disco, however, is KNOWN for never sticking to one sound, from their garage-style rock, to the Frank Sinatra inspired album to everything in between, the band brings new musical influences into each album, making them a creative force to be reckoned with in a generation that is all about “new and different”. Their latest release, Pray for the Wicked, features a full string and horn section mixed in with electric instruments and an acoustic piano number. Simply put, you can’t put Panic! in a box.

Energy: Brendon Urie is very vocal about how his ADHD diagnosis as a child merely fueled his creative and artistic nature. He channels his excessive energy into giving amazing live shows featuring backflips, fan interaction, crowd surfing, costume changes, and this past month in Boston, flying above the Boston Garden crowd on a piano suspended from the ceiling while singing. The long-running joke is that on every tour, Brendon always asks his management if they can fire him out of a cannon into the audience, every year they say no and he “agrees” to settle for something less dangerous, like a flamethrower, or a climbable tower, or in this case, a flying piano. If our generation is looking for a flashy, full production concert with amazing music and dramatic tricks and effects, they have to look no further then P!ATD.

Concerns of our generation: One of the best things about the band is their contributions to causes they believe in and the creation of the Highest Hopes organization which aims to create a safe space for LGBTQ youth in schools. Panic! has long stood up for what they believed in and used their platform and widespread success to support causes like Planned Parenthood. In the face of defunding, Panic! teamed up to raise over 1 million dollars for Planned Parenthood with an exclusive T-shirt design with all of the proceeds going directly to Planned Parenthood. When the Pulse Nightclub shooting happened, the band re-released their Girls/Girls/Boys shirt based off of their fan favorite song that celebrates bisexuality. The proceeds of these shirts went directly to the Pulse victims fund that helped pay for funeral costs and medical bills of the people affected. For the past three tours, Urie has also been working to get more of his fans registered to vote. He set up registration booths run by fans (who receive free tickets to the show) in hopes of getting more young people involved in politics and teaching them how much their voice matters in this current climate. More recently, Brendon created the Highest Hopes foundation named after a song off his most recent album. The mission of the Highest Hopes organization is to “support the efforts of non-profit organizations that lead, develop, and advocate support for human rights. This is dedicated to all people + communities who are subject to discrimination or abuse on the basis of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation + gender identity.” So far the organization has donated over one million dollars to school GSA programs. The modern generation has been the most vocal about supporting projects that matter and putting your money where your mouth is. Passive activism no longer counts in modern society, if an artist is going to sing about supporting women or LGBTQ youth, they also have to support them with their actions as well. Which Panic! At The Disco very clearly does.

For these reasons, and hundreds of others, I believe that Panic! At The Disco is the perfect rock band to encapsulate everything the modern generation looks for in a musical act. Their innovative music, high energy, creativity in performance, and active commitment to important causes makes them stand out in the music industry and beyond.