YMMV / The 1975

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • "Medicine" was initially believed to be a love song about a girl... until Matty explicitly said it wasn't. The two prevailing theories are that it's either about a friendship/romantic relationship with a man, or drugs.
  • Is "Paris" about some kind of wild drug experience/holiday with an ex-girlfriend, or is "Paris" really just a metaphor for heroin/cocaine?
  • Are the couple in "A Change Of Heart" the same couple from "Robbers", or are the repeated lyrics just a coincidence?
  • "I'm in Love With You" is split between romanticism and pessimism as the song ends with the girl removing her makeup and the man reacting with an uneasy look. The meaning of the song is seen in two ways: "The idea of love is more appealing than the act of love itself so don't rush into a relationship without thinking WHY you want it in the first place" or "Giving a failed relationship a second chance isn't a bad thing, just remember that you're going to retread through the same hardships, trials, and tribulations as you did last time so make sure you know what you're doing this time." Making the relationship open to interpretation as it's either two exes getting back together and being afraid of taking that risk again or it's about a man blindly following his heart, only to realize that he's caught himself in a loveless relationship as he's made too many gestures to back out.
    "And yeah, I got it, found it
    I've just gotta keep it
    Don't fuck it, you muppet
    It's not that deep
    But I've been counting my blessings
    Thinking this through
    It's like one, two, yeah
    I'm in love with you"
• Anvilicious: "M.O.N.E.Y." isn't exactly subtle with its Drugs Are Bad message.
• Awesome Music:
  • Adam's very Adrian Belew-esque guitar solos during "Love Me" and "The Sound".
  • The band once turned "Sorry" by Justin Bieber into a slow funk jam. And it's awesome.
  • They did a special live show for the BBC in September 2016 where they performed with ''a full orchestra''.
  • Their Self-Titled Album includes "Chocolate", "Girls", "Robbers", "The City" and "Antichrist".
  • I Like It When You Sleep includes "UGH!", "The Sound", "A Change of Heart" and "Somebody Else".
  • A Brief Inquiry includes "Give Yourself A Try", "It's Not Living (If It's Not With You}" and "TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME".
  • Notes on a Conditional Slip includes "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" and "You & Me Together Song".
  • Being Funny In A Foreign Language includes "I'm In Love With You" and "About You".
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: That one part in the "Girls" video where a woman randomly pukes pink fluid.
• Black Sheep Hit: "Chocolate" and "Sex" are different than the band's usual style.
• Broken Base: There's a divide in the fanbase over the Music for Cars era, which encompasses the A Brief Inquiry and Notes albums. The general consensus is that while the band's songwriting has gotten better, their albums have gotten way less cohesive.
• Epic Riff: Lots of them.
  • The main synth hook of "Heart Out".
  • The synth solo around the midpoint on "The Sound".
  • Many of their guitar riffs, particularly "Love Me", "The City", "Chocolate", "Sex", "Talk!", "Settle Down", "Girls", "Pressure" and "You", just to name a few.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Saying '1975' instead of 'The 1975' or 'Matt Healy' is bound to get you a lot of pissed-off fans calling you out.
• Fandom Rivalry: With the One Direction fan base, mostly as a result of Matty's aforementioned bluntness when it comes to interviews, especially when asked of his opinions on his contemporaries.
  • With fans of the British indie rock band Reverend and the Makers, of all people, after a rather hilarious twitter feud between Matty and John Mcclure.
  • A somewhat one-sided example with fans of Halsey; although Halsey fans often like The 1975, many The 1975 fans despise Halsey, most likely because of Matty and Halsey's rumoured relationship.
  • With the Taylor Swift fanbase after Matty Healy's brief relationship with her, as Swifties online scrutinized Healy for his previous behaviors and comments.
• First Installment Wins: A variation: The singles from their third and fourth albums that most resemble the sonic aesthetic of their first two albums have been the highest charting of their respective albums. "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" from Notes hit #14 on the UK charts and #5 in the US, while all other singles hit #35 to #96 in the UK, and a more charitable #15 to #38 in the US.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Pale Waves: most fans of the former are also fans of the latter, and Matty having had such a big hand in discovering and promoting Pale Waves only adds to it.
• Ho Yay: "Guys", especially the lyric "The moment that you took my hand was the best thing that ever happened".
• Memetic Mutation: "Play 'Antichrist' live!"
• Misaimed Fandom: The lyrics go to excruciating lengths to state that Drugs Are Bad, and songs like 'UGH!', 'M.O.N.E.Y.' and 'Paris' centre on how ugly addiction can really be. Despite this, the 1975 fans are infamous for their fetishisation of drug culture, and many of them even claim the music made them want to become drug addicts. This position has quelled down following Matty's second stint in rehab that nearly dissolved the band, as documented across A Brief Inquiry.
• Nightmare Fuel: The first three minutes of the video for 'Somebody Else' are particularly unsettling and surreal.
  • The music videos for "People" can be a bit jarring to first time viewers as one video features the band playing in a projected cube room whilst several disturbing images are flashed around the room (including at one point a flayed, severed foot with bones sticking out) and the "Vertical Video" features close ups of the band's faces whilst performing featuring several distorted filters which morphs their faces.
    • Frail State of Mind is relatively a tame video for a tame song, but the featureless white face (possibly motion cap from Matty) that keeps popping up throughout the song (and it's live visuals) is pretty uneasy to look at. Especially when it's mouth stretches, either in a yawning or screaming motion.
    • The Music Video for "The Birthday Party" although visually stunning can be very unsettling for people who do not like uncanny valley visuals.
• Periphery Demographic: The band is very popular among scene kids, of all people.
  • A lot of heavy metal musicians are huge fans of The 1975's music.
    • One of those was the late Architects guitarist and main songwriter Tom Searle, who Matty paid tribute to on twitter after Tom passed away from cancer at the age of 28. If Tom's brother and bandmate Dan is to be believed, The 1975 are very likely to be the last band Tom ever saw live before he died. A tearjerker, indeed.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Sex" is NOT called 'She's Got a Boyfriend Anyway', nor is "Chocolate" called "We're Never Gonna Quit It' or 'Guns Hidden Under Our Petticoats'.
• Signature Song: "Chocolate", though if you read the article you might've thought it was "Sex", which isn't as famous as "Chocolate" but certainly more Troperiffic.
  • "Somebody Else", "The Sound", and to a lesser extent, "A Change of Heart" and "Robbers" have become massive hits of theirs as well.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A lot of fans haven't taken the band's second "Sex" video, which was done in color instead of the band's signature style of Deliberately Monochrome videos, very well.
  • Matty lampshades this at the beginning of the "Girls" video.
  Matty: Everything feels totally wrong. It's too...
  George: I mean...
  Matty: It's so pop...
  George: We're not a pop band.
  Matty: We're not a pop band, and it feels like a really... pop video. The whole scenario's not really what we're about. It needs to be black and white, for a start.
  • Surprisingly, averted with the transition from the black and white aesthetic of the self-titled to the neon pink of the second album. In fact, most fans seem to prefer the new era.
  • The shift to adding more UK garage and classic country music elements to their music in the Music for Cars era has split the fanbase a bit, as has their albums from this era being much less cohesive than their first two.

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