In a music industry driven by algorithms, playlists, and viral repetition, Tyler Joseph has chosen a path that feels almost rebellious. While most artists absorb the sound of the moment, Joseph has openly admitted there is one category of music he never bothers to listen to: current radio hits. His reason is simple—and uncompromising. “I avoid every radio hit just to keep my internal melodies pure.”
This philosophy reached its most extreme form during the creation of Trench, a record widely regarded as the band’s most ambitious and introspective work.
Musical Fasting in an Age of Noise
During the Trench writing period, Joseph practiced what fans now call “musical fasting.” Instead of studying charts or keeping up with contemporary pop trends, he deliberately cut himself off from modern radio altogether. The fear wasn’t competition—it was contamination. Joseph has explained that even passive exposure to catchy hooks could subconsciously shape his songwriting, pulling it toward formulas he was trying to escape.
Rather than chasing relevance, he retreated into isolation, working from his home studio in Columbus, Ohio. There, he constructed the fictional world of Dema—a symbolic city representing control, anxiety, and internal conflict. For Joseph, silence wasn’t emptiness; it was protection.
Building Trench From the Inside Out
Co-produced with Paul Meany, Trench was intentionally darker and more complex than its predecessor, Blurryface. After the massive success of “Stressed Out,” Joseph felt pressure to repeat the formula. Musical fasting became his defense mechanism against that expectation.
The result was an album that openly defied radio logic. Songs like Jumpsuit fracture traditional structure, swinging from aggressive bass to fragile falsetto without warning. Neon Gravestones confronts the media’s treatment of death and celebrity with unsettling directness—hardly the stuff of chart-friendly escapism. Meanwhile, Pet Cheetah turns writer’s block into metaphor, portraying creativity as something slow, difficult, and deeply internal.
None of these choices were designed to compete with what was “poppin’.” That was the point.
Rejecting the Algorithm
Joseph’s refusal to listen to radio hits is not arrogance—it’s discipline. He has spoken about the constant tension between what the industry rewards and what his conscience demands. By shutting out the noise, he preserved what he calls his “internal melodies”—ideas that come from instinct rather than imitation.
This approach has cemented Twenty One Pilots as genre outsiders, blending rap, rock, electronic, and pop without fully belonging to any lane. It’s also why Trench doesn’t sound like a 2018 album—it sounds like a closed ecosystem.
The Cost of Purity
That level of isolation came at a price. Joseph has acknowledged the intense mental pressure of the Trench era, pushing himself to extremes in pursuit of honesty. But the legacy speaks for itself. By refusing to listen outward, he learned to listen inward—and in doing so, created one of the most distinctive albums of his generation.
Sometimes, the song you never hear is the one that protects everything you write.