The 1975's “Still... At Their Very Best”: Context in the Age of Social Media and Our Consumption by the Media

The first part of this article was written and published elsewhere on Oct 3rd, 2023. At the end is a revisitation of the show a full year later.

I’ve been familiar with The 1975’s music since their debut album was released in 2014, but it wasn’t until fairly recently that I became as big of a fan as I am currently. What drew me closer into the complex web and thicket that is a fandom was actually thanks in part to viral social media clips of their previous tour “At Their Very Best”. While some looked in disgust at these videos of Matty Healy eating a raw steak or putting on an oxygen mask while sitting on a couch I was incredibly intrigued. I wanted to look closer. I wanted to see this full performance in person and more importantly put in context these short 15 second clips.

Like context in a modern debate, I just took it out - “Give Yourself a Try”

Trying to find the context for anything you find on social media is like going to a 1975 show and finding someone who hasn’t gotten stoned out of their minds and listened to “Chocolate.” It’s impossible. Or at rarity at the very least. When Twitter (X) started to add community notes to certain posts I was elated because I finally saw a social media company doing something to stop the spread of disinformation by adding context to tweets that are written in a way to get a strong reaction. 

These strong emotions we feel when it comes to these types of posts whether it be anger or confusion is unfortunately an intoxicating feeling. We engage in these types of posts because they make us feel something and we hope that by engaging we’ll be cured from the anger that we initially felt. And we often convince ourselves that the response and interaction did help. Or so we think. Until we scroll and see another post that brings back that original feeling of anger. Everything from that original post to the post we made about that post is rooted in a lack of context. A lack of understanding of the full picture. And often when we get context and the full picture, if we ever even choose to see it we actually get a better understanding of the whole thing. It’s through understanding the context that we sometimes even end up agreeing with the original poster we vehemently hated five minutes ago.   

Like I stated previously it was seeing those out of context clips from the 1975’s “At Their Very Best” tour that intrigued me so much. While others spoke out calling Matty’s actions on stage crazy and weird I wanted to know more. I wanted to know what was making Matty Healy do these seemingly outlandish things on stage. I wanted context for these Healy-isms. And what better way to get context than to listen to the 1975’s entire discography in one day and immediately buy tickets to their next tour when they were released. 

With Matty specifically being quite in touch with the Internet and virality in particular, the intent of these moments is something that I wonder quite a bit about. In doing these “wild” things that he knew would be captured on people’s cell phones and posted on social media (more on that in a bit) did he use social media's greatest flaw to his advantage? Did the band know that there would be people like me who would see those out of context clips and be intrigued enough to purchase a ticket to their next tour. And even if someone who posted about them on the Internet were bashing them and weren’t ever intending to buy tickets at the end of the day they were being spoken about. And in the age of social media, what's better press than thousands of people talking about you?

Consumption- Interlude during show

Whether it be scrolling on TikTok, watching a television show on Netflix, or even attending the concert of your favorite artist, you're a consumer of media. Although, what makes the 1975 so interesting is they themselves as a band lie at the intersection of the consumer and the consumed. And this idea of consumption is prevalent throughout the entirety of “Still… At Their Very Best”.

The screen is often the biggest tool of our consumption. Two specific screens that are integral to not only the stage design but the overall experience of the live show is the television screen and the cell phone screen. Television’s litter the set and as the show progresses more televisions are brought onto the stage. By the end of the show there are nine tv’s on stage right stacked on top of one another. One key moment of the show was one of my favorites and included Matty being consumed by the television. During the lead up to this moment Matty is enamored by the television which is playing newsreels that feature a myriad of political figures. As the clips end the television screen features a green landscape. Matty who is also shirtless at this point starts to do push ups in front of the television screen. The crowd keeps count as Matty does each push up. 1, 2, 3, 4… After Matty does as much as he could physically muster he crawls through the television and becomes consumed by the media he was just obsessing over to the point of exhaustion. It’s after this moment that attention is brought to the opposite side of the arena where a B stage (previously hidden) features a lifelike figure of a naked Matty in fetal position lying on a patch of grass. The real Matty then appears on the stage and looks at the naked figure of himself in a way that portrays longing and loss. As this moment nears an end Matty lies down also in a fetal position alongside the naked figure of himself. This entire moment is underscored by melodic music and for one of the first moments during the show I’m dead silent. This idea of vulnerability as it relates to consumption is multilayered. In the figure being both naked and in a fetal position this brings up this idea of an adult going back to utero, a point of innocence. The only point in our lives where we were untouched by the woes and troubles of daily life. When Matty looks at this naked form of himself he’s faced to look at the result of his consumption by the media. But what’s interesting about this is he’s experiencing this touching and personal moment for the consumption of the entire audience (and their cell phones recording this moment) even after he was just consumed and spit out by the media. Matty’s telling us that even when he’s naked, even when he’s in a fetal position, even after he was just consumed for their pleasure we’re still choosing to stick our phones up in the air and cheer and scream for more

We're just left to decay, modernity has failed us - “Love It If We Made It”

I don’t think I’ve ever thought so much after a concert until seeing “Still… At Their Very Best”. This idea of consumption and social media are things I often think about especially since I post quite a bit on TikTok for the consumption and enjoyment of others. Towards the latter half of the show Matty does a speech about how we should find love and sympathy from the people around us rather than random people on social media. During the entirety of the speech though videos of dance dance revolution and people cleaning up beaches are split screened onto the screens overhead. This is a direct parody of numerous videos on TikTok in which entire television shows are split screened with the mobile game Subway Surfers. In Matty doing this he’s once more bringing in the idea of consumption but this time tying it in with how many young people consume traditional media on TikTok. 

One last thing I want to speak about the show is a moment in which Matty gets close to the barricade and looks out into the crowd. During the show I was about two people from the barricade but this specific moment was happening a couple feet to the right of me. As Matty’s looking out and observing the crowd dozens of cell phones are pulled out and looking back at him. The man who was aiming to achieve a genuine human connection and lock eyes with someone was again being consumed by the media, this time our own cell phones and all because of our need and want for clicks and views. At the end of this interaction though Matty makes the camera gesture with his fingers. In this moment he’s turning the camera onto us and making us the consumed. Making us the consumer feel uncomfortable. Making us feel naked. Making us the one being consumed.

Encore

As I reflect back on the show I went to less than a week ago I’m still interpreting different parts of the show. In my opinion great art has a constantly evolving interpretation. How I might interpret the show right now may be different than how I interpret it next month which will definitely be different than when I interpret it next year. The 1975 is in my opinion one of the most theatrical bands in the industry right now and I urge anyone and everyone to see them live. 

Signed, 

Kid who has the box tattooed on his arm

Update- One Year Later (10/07/2024)

In the year I saw “Still… At Their Very Best” in San Jose I still think often about the show. Although my interpretation hasn’t changed drastically in the time since the show I still think the themes are just as if not more relevant today. With it being only a month to the general election we’re constantly inundated by everything and anything political. We’re texted daily by politicians telling us to donate to their campaigns or else the opposition will win and we watch videos of the candidates telling us everything we already know. On top of that we have X (which is much different than what it was only a year ago) filled with posts full of political disinformation, and as much as I thought community notes would help with the spread of lies I know now that just isn’t true. Even though I’m able to determine what is true and what is false through secondary research I know that there are many others who choose to consume what they see on social media at face value and without any context whatsoever. For example, if they see a tweet that says that as a prosecutor Kamala Harris shut down a BBQ restaurant that had been in the same family for 50 years they’re going to believe that. Why? Because they saw a viral tweet about it. 40k other people wouldn’t have retweeted the post if it was a lie. And I know people, young people especially love to make jokes about how only boomers are susceptible to political disinformation I can let you know firsthand that Gen-Z are just as gullible. I’ve seen my own friends my own age repost things about Kamala Harris and Joe Biden that could easily be disproved with just two minutes of research. But people choosing to believe everything they see online is at the end of the day how some people choose to consume media. I may personally find it extremely frustrating that people will post things out of context with the intention of it getting mass engagement but at the end of the day I know I can’t do anything about it. But at the same time I also know people will consume media the way in which they deem the easiest. And until social media companies, the literal gatekeepers of media, decide to make changes to their platforms so political disinformation can’t be spread nothing will change. If lies and mistruths are everywhere on the platform people will choose to believe it, simple as that. 

In reflecting back to the Consumption part of the show I look back at it now a little bit differently. In the part with Matty being consumed by the television many of the things being shown on it before he was consumed were political. I remember specifically seeing videos with such figures like Ben Shapiro, Zelenskyy, and Trump. In my interpretation what the band was saying is that we’re constantly being consumed by the media that is politics and the politics that is media. Whereas politics and media were once separate entities we’re now in a place where both are intertwined. Hell, our previous president was literally on one of the most popular reality shows of the early 2000’s. This shows us that even our leaders are ones that have a deep past with the media. 

Once we’ve become fully consumed by our screens and media we become stuck in a sort of a limbo. It’s in this limbo where Matty first discovers his naked self on the B stage. The design of the stage specifically is something else that I find fascinating because it helps further the point that I believe the band is trying to get across. While the mainstage is a house littered with televisions and crew holding cameras the B stage doesn’t have any of that. It’s a small patch of grass with a naked Matty lying in the fetal position. When Matty first gets to the stage after being consumed and sees himself he’s awestruck since he’s for the first time found a form of himself that isn’t tainted. One that hasn’t been consumed and spit out by the media. One where people aren’t following him around with cameras. At the end of the day this form of self Matty found is innocent and that’s one of the reasons why there’s that touching moment near the end where he lies down next to his naked self. It’s a form of longing. It’s this idea that there’s nowhere else on this Earth except this patch of grass where I can be untainted by the massive media landscape that now includes politics. As beautiful as the moment is, it's at the same time horrifying. Horrifying that the media which already consumes us and everything in our daily lives are also an integral part in how we get our information and elect our leaders. 

One year later I still think very fondly of Still… At Their Very Best. It’s one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to and I truly don’t think that’ll be changing anytime soon. I absolutely can’t wait to see what the 1975 are going to do next and I'll stop at nothing to see them live again. 

Signed, 

Kid who still has the box tattooed on his arm