“Braindead!” by Yungblud

Yungblud is an artist who heavily espouses the concept of individualism.  And “Braindead!” is based on his grasping of that belief system. The title, as you know, alludes to the idea of a person being mentally inactive. And we see that in the chorus, the singer states that he prefers to be in this state. 

But more to the point, there is a specific reason why he is making this assertion. You see, all of the elaborate metaphors used throughout are meant to point to the notion that others are trying to control his thoughts. There are pressing forces (i.e. agents of socialization) who very much would like for him (and by extension his generation, “The Underrated Youth”) to conform to certain ideologies. And in the face of this reality, what Yungblud is actually asserting is that he prefers being “brain-dead” than to actually giving in to their beliefs. 

Indeed overall, he perceives the people who are trying to control his thinking as being untruthful, hypocritical and oppressive. So basically this is a song of resistance. And whom the artist is confronting are those who push certain prevailing mind frames (racism, homophobia, etc.) which he deems as being non-progressive.

Quick Facts about “Braindead!”

Although this is the opening track on Yungblud’s “The Underrated Youth” EP, it was actually the last song to be added to its playlist.

And it was released by Geffen Records and Locomotion Recordings as part of that project on 18 October 2019.

The producer of “Braindead!”, Matt Schwartz, also helped Yungblud write the song.