The 1975 are a band who are very modern and in touch with social issues addressing hot topics like the refugee crisis, racism etc. They also have addressed this feeling amongst the youths of ‘wanting to die’/joking about death. Their song ‘I always wanna die (sometimes)’ sums up the general feeling of the youth who rather don’t want to die but escape from their current situation and take a break from life.

They also inspire this project due to the subject matter of their songs and also their aesthetic. During one of the concerts that I recently attended, they used many text displays in the same fashion as Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger.

At the end of their show they flashed up “ROCK AND ROLL IS DEAD GOD BLESS”

This statment was very impactful and left me wondering what it meant, much like what Kruger and Holzer’s statements do.

They also explicitly referenced Kruger’s style by incorporating her text style into their show while also referencing the brand Supreme which as mentioned earlier stole their logo design from Kruger.

(photo credit – Sophie Watts on Youtube)