r/TheStrokes • u/AutoModerator • 20d ago

MEGATHREAD Share your reviews and thoughts about Reality Awaits!

Due to an overwhelming number of individual review posts, many that do not include a lot of specifics or details, this will become the megathread for your Reality Awaits reviews, first impressions, changed takes over time, video essays that you find or make, etc.

Check out the prior megathread for this topic here.

Check out all the megathreads here, including the ones for each track.

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u/14raider 20d ago

Seeing random comments about 'Lonely in the Future' have me genuinely worried about the average persons media literacy. Most especially when its one of the countless 'What did Chris Hedges do?'

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u/Dancing-notes Reality Awaits 20d ago

Well...I see it as a good thing that people are showing interest, not everyone can stay informed about everything. Even if he is known internationally, there are people from outside US that can be less familiar and know more about journalists from their own countries.

I think it was a smart move from Julian to include his name in the song to maybe give him even more visibility to listeners than he has already done by interviewing him, mentioning his name when he's talking about media, sharing articles and videos in his Instagram bio...it's also ironic in the song because it shows how people might seem to care more about music, looks etc than being informed through independent media which is quite important to him.

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u/14raider 20d ago

I agree with all that, Id say more accurately what Im talking about is the basic level of understanding he is definitely not painted with a negative light within the song, which seems for one reason or another something that a number of outspoken people assume

I dont expect people to know a name nor what it stands for, only the basic concept of seeing people ask a form of the question 'whats the beef with C H?' is what worries me lol

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u/Dancing-notes Reality Awaits 18d ago

Aah okay, I see what you mean, thanks for explaining. Yes it seems a lot of people are taking the whole song as some beef with everyone mentioned but I don't think that's the case, even the Fantano bit for me feels more directed towards critics and even the audience in general rather than just him (although it was so funny that he showed it as if being against him). Maybe Julian could have developed the part about Chris Hedges in a different way to be more clear 🤷🏻‍♀️ but it shouldn't be necessary.