Niko DeAthos

English 1101-02
Prof. Sally Lahmon
February 20th 2021
Hearts of Gold
“She asked me, Son, when I grow old; Will you buy me a house of gold?

And when your father turns to stone; Will you take care of me?” "House of Gold"

by Twenty Pilots was released in 2013, and currently has two music videos that

convey the same lyrics but have different meanings. The first video would

convey a story with a playful video while the second would convey the dark,

cold lyrics that was produced by the artists within that video. The artists use

pathos in order to put the audience in this scene with them with lyrics and visuals

that will make you question a lot of reality. Ways they do this is with their lyrics,

like the first quote I mentioned. This quote is an important part in understanding

the central theme of the two videos and the song, which is that the protagonists (21

Pilot Band Members) are having trouble deciding whether they stay and take care

of their mom or go and live their dreams. In the first video, it depicts a very vivid

story of the band members lower halves journeying across the mountains to live

out their dreams, while their upper halves stay with their mom to support her. This

is very different from the second version, which took place in a dark, musty room;

The band members were performing the song very eerily, which may have been
after they left to live out their dreams, which did not come true. These lyrics and

heartfelt videos reach the empathy of the viewers because a lot of people

understand what it is like to be stuck in a contradictive decision.

The first video is very well put together, in the manor which is that it tells a

story, unlike the second version. It starts off with only showing the upper half of

one of the band members as he is performing the song in front of a field and house.

We then discover that the other band member is crawling with half of his body

missing towards what appears to be the house. This is important to note because in

hindsight it appears as if one of the band members already tried to set out and

reach their dreams, but came back to support the other. The upper halves end up

staying while performing the song, while the lower halves travel through the fields

and mountains in order to reach their dreams. Suddenly, the legs drop and the

upper bodies drop as the song ends, which we can assume that they couldn’t handle

the pressure of two halves wanting to achieve something that is contradicting the

other. The two dreams that they had were to become famous and perform music

away from their hometown where their mom wanted to stay. This leads to the other

dream which was to be there for the mom since the dad passed away. Clearly,

those cannot be accomplished unless the mom is willing to go with them on that

journey, but that seems like it is out of the picture. Dealing with that much pressure

of not knowing what to do or what dream to go after was shown metaphorically in

the music video when two halves were running around, and when the two halves

dropped that would represent the dreams being crushed, which brings us to the

second video.

The second video takes place after the first, in a dark room, the musicians

from the last video perform the song again. As they are preforming, it is shown that

they are having a troubled time and are a lot less stable than they were in the last

video, which is not surprising considering the trauma that they had to deal with in

the last video. This is important to note because this video takes place after the

first, which we can decipher that this video is after they have failed to live out their

dreams and now, they are at rock bottom. After knowing this, it tells a message

about what happens if you try and live out both of the dreams you have, which is

that you are going to end up turning insane and lose most of everything you have

worked for. The second video does not go as in depth into a story like the first one

did, but that is because it is supposed to show the loneliness and despair after the

fall. This helps show who the audience is, which would be people just like

themselves, younger adults trying to make it out in the world and figure out what

they want from life.

The two videos are a part of the same storyline, which is really important to

understand. After trying to live out two dreams that contradicted each other, the

two band members would lose everything that they worked for, their family, house,
money and happiness. The lyrics alone are very emotionally appealing to the

young adults that are struggling out there trying to make the right decision in their

life. With the visuals from the first one, it really makes you question what is going

on, which is a very good technique used by the artists to inquire you to think

deeper. Pathos plays a huge part in reaching out to the broken audience for them to

feel the same pain that the artists feel. The band members chose their audience

very well, which were young adults and older teenagers making those types of

decisions like whether to go to college or stay home with the family.

When you have more than one dream, it is hard to differentiate between

which one may be the better decision, and sometimes there is not always going to

be a “better decision.” When the band members from the 21 Pilots understood this,

they decided to set out to make a song to represent that, along with music videos to

help appeal to those emotions. The first music video does an insanely well job

conveying the main points, while the second video takes a little bit more thinking

to understand the context behind it. The band members were able to emotionally

appeal to young adults and aspiring youth in order to convey their point. Living

with more than one dream is very contradicting and you need to take action before

you fall into a dark pit of despair.

“House of Gold.” House of Gold, 2 Oct. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDyxykpYeu8.

“House of Gold .” House of Gold, 7 Nov. 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xETC86u7eJo.