lane boy is about tyler’s constant battle with the mainstream music world and media. as the fanbase and awareness for the music grows, twenty one pilots is propelled more and more towards fame, which ruins so many people. grassroots fanbase and feel has always been an integral part of the band, and tyler seems very afraid to lose that freedom of being a small group.
the song begins with “they say stay in your lane boy… but we go where we want to,” which shows one side of the music industry, which tries to put down the music and the band, probably for being too unusual and new
then tyler delves into the lyrics, “If it was our way/ We’d have a tempo/ change every other time change/ ‘Cause our minds change on what we think is good,” which is indicating that he wants to make music the way he feels, no matter how cohesive the song is. the “if it was our way” part shows that they’re almost starting to lose this battle, because there is a push for them to sound more mainstream, and so they have given into that.
The “I wasn’t raised in the hood/ But I know a thing or two about pain and darkness/ If it wasn’t for this music, I don’t know how I would’ve fought this” part references to the fact that even though some people will label him or try to pin him down for his rapping, he wants to stress that it’s not about being “hood”, it’s about the music itself. the music is what saves him time and time again, which is a common theme that ties together the majority of twenty one pilots songs
The song then delves into one of the more explicit themes: mainstream music.
“Regardless, all these songs I’m hearing are so heartless
Don’t trust a perfect person and don’t trust a song that’s flawless
Honest, there’s a few songs on this record that feel common
I’m in constant confrontation with what I want and what is poppin’
In the industry it seems to me that singles on the radio are currency
My creativity’s only free when I’m playin’ shows”
tyler admits that he doesn’t like the empty feel of pop songs, because when a song is too average-sounding or “flawless”, it doesn’t shake anything up. it doesn’t mean anything.
this is also another testament to his fight with the main stream. the industry, and probably the higher-ups at the label, push the band to become more successful, which to them is synonymous for becoming mainstream. tyler is trying his best to not listen to this, but he admits that even some songs on blurryface sound too “common” for his tastes. this ends with the statement that when recording, he feels trapped. the only place he can be truly free is during shows.
the chorus here ends with the question “will they be alive tomorrow?” which is tyler’s way of saying “these songs are popular now, but they’ll never last.”
in the next rap, tyler talks about how he understands that this statement was shocking, but he’s like “whatevs lol"
“If you ask Zack
He’s my brother, he likes when I rap fast
But let’s back track, back to this
Who would you live and die for on that list
But the problem is, there’s another list that exists and no one really wants to think about this
Forget sanity, forget salary, forget vanity, my morality
If you get in between someone I love and me
You’re gonna feel the heat of my cavalry”
This is a similar theme to ride: with nothing else, who would you live for? tyler is stripping away every other part of his life, and at his very core, there’s a list of people that we don’t like to talk about, but it’s the people you cherish most. the people closest to him love his songs and love his style, and if anyone, his label, the media, his producers, get in the way of who he loves, then he’ll take them down. this is about persisting through what so many people are saying, to stick with the few people he would live for.
the song ends with the idea that people in the mainstream think that it’s easy to make it into the music industry, but in reality, those people’s music won’t last
They say stay in your lane, boy, lane, boy
But we go where we want to
They think this thing is a highway, highway
But will they be alive tomorrow?
