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.
@zqrn7 ай бұрын
this
@hendrixraven6 ай бұрын
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.
@happyninja425 ай бұрын
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
@JBjopa86 күн бұрын
Great explanation 👍🏻
@Jotared8 күн бұрын
This album was always on my backpack in school
@renanvcb5 ай бұрын
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.
@Sentient_Rationality7 ай бұрын
Great reaction! Just subscribed...hoping you'll go wayyy down the System of a Down rabbit hole!! You won't regret it!
@franzrogar7 ай бұрын
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 ;-)
@happyninja425 ай бұрын
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.
@naro8186 ай бұрын
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.
@charlielynch39162 ай бұрын
Yeah I think a few of their lyrics are pretty anti drugs. Especially the unthinking majority (I know that's from Serj solo stuff but still) "Anti depressants, controlling tools of your system, making life more tolerable." Literally saying that antidepressants (which are drugs, just the legal kind) are there to make people less depressed at how the world is, instead of actually changing the system so people don't need them.
@aranthur6 ай бұрын
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
@SoroshPalid7 ай бұрын
I love your reactions man. Others are so cruel and soul less to my fav music. Well done mate❤
@gegart017 ай бұрын
Thanks!! Great song. I adore this song and video
@zhamirdiaz31963 ай бұрын
System of a down will go down in history as one of the greatest bands ever! All their songs are bangers!
@frankh96006 ай бұрын
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.
@takeyourheart14 ай бұрын
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.
@JM-wr2fo2 ай бұрын
You deserve way more subscribers!
@ShawkaReacts2 ай бұрын
I appreciate that!
@ellliecopter6 ай бұрын
would love to hear your thoughts on B.Y.O.B. by SOAD!
@JollyTheTiger6 ай бұрын
The instrument at the end sounds like a sitar to me
@deadlyredly14 күн бұрын
This above all is what I love about good music. You can be a music teacher or a 15 yo kid - you can listen to it in 2004 or 2024 - but if you really listen to it, the impact is the same. Music/Art is truly one of those transitional things that is independent of time/space and the ears of those listening to it
@ShawkaReacts3 күн бұрын
Well said!
@dereknowak64586 ай бұрын
Spiders and Question, you won't regret
@matchu.j6 ай бұрын
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...
@ViVaLaRan2 ай бұрын
Please do Hypnotize next ! Has alot of that amazing system harmony :D
@adammichener9876 ай бұрын
This album came out my first year of college...the CD was playing in my car almost non-stop that year
@AB-te1ci7 ай бұрын
Bravo 👏
@rahbeat97855 ай бұрын
it's a masterpiece !
@stanley-i6f4w4 ай бұрын
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.
@heloiselopes97936 ай бұрын
Pls react Serj Tankian - Empty Walls - Elect The Dead Symphony
@gNome_55 ай бұрын
As well as the live version (with the Auckland NZ, Philharmonic Symphony) of the song Lie, Lie, Lie, by Serj Tankian! 🤘🏻♥️⚛️
@heloiselopes97934 ай бұрын
🙏🏻👏🏻👏🏻@@gNome_5
@WitchRinnie29 күн бұрын
I think the instrument is a sitar? They are of Armenian origin by the way (someone probably already told you that lol)
@codirennke11096 ай бұрын
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.
@makisback5 ай бұрын
Do "Spiders" next !
@ofthenearfuture6 ай бұрын
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
@guillaumemichaud7205 ай бұрын
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.
@Pushing_Pixels6 ай бұрын
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.
@bendon824 ай бұрын
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.
@ShawkaReacts4 ай бұрын
Love this! Thank you!
@tnightwolf7 ай бұрын
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.
@LowriTackett6 ай бұрын
Their alien
@henrykosky39196 ай бұрын
The price of fame
@bogden95857 ай бұрын
How have you not heard this song before? Lol
@nerothos6403 ай бұрын
Oh yeah, annoyed my parents more than once singing SOAD at full voice