MIND BLOWN!!! | FIRST TIME Hearing Aerials by SYSTEM OF A DOWN | Music Teacher Reacts

[@PristineTX]

The child in the video represents fame. The circus imagery is all around because fame is like living in a circus. The boy is unique. He stands out. He’s rare in this world. Everybody wants something from him and they give him everything that THEY think he should want. (Even though most of these images contain things that would be highly inappropriate for a child.) But instead of making the boy happy, the “rewards” he has heaped upon him make him miserable and exhausted. The question at the end of the video is whether the child finds an escape in sleep, or if he (his fame) has burnt out so quickly and died.

[@zqrn]

this

[@hendrixraven]

Piggybacking on this....notice the ladies in the red dresses. You'll see different faces when they're out in public, but less "conventionally" pretty behind closed doors (for lack of better words). It's another way of showing how what we see is the "perfect" version and not the real one.

[@happyninja42]

I always took the final image to be him literally leaving behind the world of celebrity, and going back to his roots to find peace

[@renanvcb]

The first time I listened to Aerials, I cried a lot. The melody, the harmonies and the lyrics are so powerful... But I screamed with them when they build up.

[@franzrogar]

This' one of his most cryptic songs. Some people choose to think as a song about individuality (hence the face) and loosing our personality for the masses (river). Others think it's related to "famous" people (up high), untouchable and disconnected from Earth ("aerials"). EDIT: in the video, the user @AlfredosMovieFactory wrote "For those that don't understand the music video, it's the story of the circus freak that looks up to the aerials performers. He closes his eyes and imagines a world where he is wealthy and powerful, however, his limited knowledge of real life frustrates him even in his imagination, like when he is questioned by the other kid." You can choose your poison ;-)

[@naro818]

Don’t think it’s about drugs. It’s much more philosophical. He’s basically saying when you lose small mindedness and free your eyes from the day to day BS of life, you gain perspective and you free your life.

[@b1jou123]

Great reaction! Just subscribed...hoping you'll go wayyy down the System of a Down rabbit hole!! You won't regret it!

[@dereknowak6458]

Spiders and Question, you won't regret

[@matchu.j]

Yeah those are my favorite vids...toxicity has an honorable mention...empty walls live philharmic is another... wish they made more music after serj left....scratch that wish serj never left...

[@aranthur]

One of my reads on the meaning of this song is that, essentially, most people have the wrong priorities in life The time you spend alive is incredibly brief compared to the amount of time the universe existed before you were born and how long it will exist after you die. Life is the "waterfall" where for just a moment we are each separate drops of water, while the time before and after is the river, where we lose our individual "selves" but are one with the rest of the universe and humanity. This is scary but also what makes life precious, and so many people waste their short life putting up walls between themselves and others and focusing on pointless things that don't matter, like fame and money, etc

[@happyninja42]

Elizabeth from The Charismatic Voice, made an observation about that opening cello part, that it's basically the DUH DUH duh DUUHH of Beethoven's 5th Symphony opening, but without the different notes. It's more stretched out, but has the same note progression. Instead of being 4 separate notes per measure, it's just 1 note, held for the entire time of the measure. But that it's the same sequence of notes. Which I thought was a very good observation.

[@SoroshPalid]

I love your reactions man. Others are so cruel and soul less to my fav music. Well done mate❤

[@gegart01]

Thanks!! Great song. I adore this song and video

[@JollyTheTiger]

The instrument at the end sounds like a sitar to me

[@takeyourheart1]

Their harmony in the second verse of the song “Streamline” is heavenly for me. Highly recommend. That song also has a really weird meter. You HAVE to do “Sugar” at some point.

[@frankh9600]

The visuals of the boy in the video is their bassist Shavo whose face and body is computer alienated. Shavo is sorta visual art director of SOAD.

[@ellliecopter]

would love to hear your thoughts on B.Y.O.B. by SOAD!

[@rahbeat9785]

it's a masterpiece !

[@heloiselopes9793]

Pls react Serj Tankian - Empty Walls - Elect The Dead Symphony

[@gNome_5]

As well as the live version (with the Auckland NZ, Philharmonic Symphony) of the song Lie, Lie, Lie, by Serj Tankian! 🤘🏻♥️⚛️

[@heloiselopes9793]

🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏻​@@gNome_5

[@stanley-i6f4w]

Im thiking the little boy is some type of hybrid , I noticed he seems to be lifting the car up in the air with his hand and his picture is plastered everywhere.

[@adammichener987]

This album came out my first year of college...the CD was playing in my car almost non-stop that year

[@AB-te1ci]

Bravo 👏

[@makisback]

Do "Spiders" next !

[@Pushing_Pixels]

This is the first time I've seen the video, but my take is that his unusual face is meant to be alien, however his clothes show that he's actually human. He's alien to the specific "world" he finds himself in (i.e. LA/Hollywood). He's an outsider being seduced and maybe assimilated by that world, which has perhaps plucked him from obscurity and thrust him into a life of celebrity (for their own benefit, not for his). That's a cold read though, so it's probably wrong.

[@ofthenearfuture]

System's self-titled album came out when I was in grade 6 and their music was on heavy rotation after that, I went downtown to the headshop and bought one of their hoodies lol, etc., and along with other rock and metal bands informed my musical taste for quite a few years. Toxicity is definitely my favourite of their albums, however Spiders might just be my favourite song. I find a lot of SOAD's songs to be sonically (and often lyrically) quite dichotic with intense juxtapositions. Daron has said "this song is about nothing" lol, and SOAD never really explain what any of their songs are about, but I do think this song has a lot of themes in it's lyrics and especially in the imagery of the music video... dealing with fame and industry pressure, the idolization of fame or ability, greed and lust, and your public image, of having impossible dreams but being self-critical, feeling like an outcast or othered, feeling alone even when surrounded by people, (individualist and social) anarchism... but on the flip side I think the chorus is about shifting that perspective and about gaining enlightenment, or potentially spirituality, of mediating and letting go, of accepting that everything is maybe ultimately "nothing"... which I do think 'Aerials' is a nod to acid as you said, or "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (tho maybe ending with the sitar creates that connection for me lol), and the death of ego that can occur... And ending on the Om lends me more credence to it's potential spirituality. And maybe it's just about the nothingness of what we find after we die

[@bogden9585]

How have you not heard this song before? Lol

[@guillaumemichaud720]

Nothing to do with drugs. Rather, I think this song describes the journey of a living being through the stages of its life. The flow of water, the uniqueness and the return to the great source represents consciousness and its duality facing itself and the immensity of the universe.

[@codirennke1109]

I think about someone like justin beiber when watching this video. Hes dehumanized from a young age and exposed to women, drugs, parties, adults who just want something from him, etc.

[@LowriTackett]

Their alien

[@bendon82]

This song is about bigotry. The band members are all Armenian immigrants, hence, the "aliens" in the video. "Life is a waterfall, we're one in the river, and one again after the fall." We are all connected before life and after death, a very Buddhist view of the world, which is where you hear the eastern influence in the music. But we put up our walls and shut each other out. He's saying we need a bird's eye view of things, aerial, seeing the bigger picture, the Pale Blue Dot kind of thinking. "When you lose small-mind you free your life." If you're into mind- blowing time signatures, check out their song "Question!" You'll love it.

[@ShawkaReacts]

Love this! Thank you!

[@henrykosky3919]

The price of fame

[@tracimac6210]

Do Tool !!!!

[@tnightwolf]

It is about much more than just drugs. Not saying they didn't do it, but usually drugs are not even close to the core message in their songs.