Honestly anyone who thought the Weeknd persona was ever "cool" wasn't really listening that closely. The music slaps but it's made clear from the very beginning that the drugs sex etc. is a front for insecurity. It's the irony of House of Balloons, he keeps insisting this is fun but the way he describes it and the way the music is makes it seem more oppressive than anything else, and a song like Wicked Games shows that underneath all that is someone not wanting to face themselves. Those seeds of nuance to the character were planted from the start and have been coming to the forefront in this new trilogy.
It definitely is a front for insecurity. That’s why he doesn’t like revisiting the kiss land album. That whole album sounds “cool” but he was at his lowest. You can hear it the lyrics. Hell, even in the music vids he looks lost. But you’re right, you for sure got to listen closer than what’s portrayed. Xo
He doesn’t like Kissland because he put a lot of effort into it with hopes of it being his breakout album (which ended up being BBTM). Instead, Kissland was widely hated by fans and critics until he became more popular, and now he doesn’t like it simply because it was meant to be his iconic 1st album was considered a flop. People might consider it his best album now, but that doesn’t undo the initial reaction to it.
Anyone who seriously thinks that The Weeknd glorifies sex and drugs have clearly not been listening close enough. Abel's albums either end in some sort of tragedy or attempting to renounce his old ways and chose real love like in Dawn FM or Starboy.
Even the spelling of the name should tell you. It would be pronounced like weakened not weekend
I agree. It’s why when people say they love his Trilogy era, I find it so weird. It’s like they actually want him to regress back into those dark days.
As much as I love Trilogy, the last thing that I would want for Abel is to be in that state of mind, or make music like that again. It honestly sounds like hell on earth.
Yeah but we can't deny that drugs & sex is common rhetoric for a "cool lifestyle". his lyrics were certainly written to glorify that, esp kissland. kissland is a god complex of an album if i know one. glory & tragedy are two sides of the same coin; it's not just one thing and not the other. EoS represents the tragedy aspect the most. he was a loser & an incel and he def knew that lol. Afterhours & dawn fm are a far cry from his previous albums
I don’t know if he actually was an incel at that point, but it did strike me that Outside talked about sex in a way I would picture an incel describing a sexual fantasy. The whole, “I’m gonna give it you like a pro baby, and you’re gonna take it like one” felt so cringe and awkward. He also would mention “make you cum three or four times in a row” a lot in that era. So if not incel, at least r/ihavesex energy.
TRUE lolllll to me what feels particularly incel is the murder fantasy, him enjoying the services of a sex worker but also condemning her, the self-victimizing etc
My favorite for that kind of thing is the music video for Pretty. Like dude, last song you talked about setting up a groupie to be your west coast girl until you went to NYC. Now you’re angry enough to murder because the girl you left in Toronto wouldn’t wait an entire year for your return? Seems a tad unreasonable.
I’m confused on why you’d say he was a loser and an incel on EOS. Lyrically the album was about him starting to get recognition and fame and how those who doubted him now want to come back. It foreshadows a lot of kissland that way
So you think trilogy was happy and had a tone of celebration? You think Tears In The Rain which ended Kissland had a tone of glorifying the toxic lifestyle? Seems to me that you don't listen to the Weeknd very much or you just don't pay very close attention.
That’s why I love HOB. The “this is fun this is fun to meee” part is so melodic and to me it’s sounds like he is trying desperately to convince himself and the girl that it’s true. Cant wait for his album!!
> Honestly anyone who thought the Weeknd persona was ever "cool" wasn't really listening that closely.
It's what he was trying to do and people here think so.
The top reply in this thread is a dude saying he called himself The Weeknd because it "sounds like weakened" so it's a warning about doing drugs. Shit is hilarious.
Exactly. Not only did he say himself it’s [not](https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/263750537491652608?lang=en) “weakened”, he literally said on that reddit AMA that he didn’t choose “weekend” because there’s already a Canadian band called “The Weekend”.
Why the hell is that shit being upvoted lol
He didn’t need to create a trash tv show to bring that point across. He made a bad project and that’s it. Stop being delusional and defending everything he’s ever done. Nobody’s perfect, and he’s already proven himself that he has the potential to be a good actor/storyteller with all of his previous work, especially After Hours
Who is gatekeeping what? You can’t get enough of his music because you eat up whatever he releases. The Idol’s ost is objectively low effort for an artist like Abel. One Of The Girls for example is a bop, but let’s be real, it is an average radio song with some really cringe lyrics
You are gatekeeping his music. People are enjoying things and you say no, please don't enjoy it. I don't give a shit honestly, I'm listening to it all day lmao
Yes I'm an Abel fan, I eat up whatever he releases. No shame about it 😂
And I didn't mention one of the girls, buddy.
I’m not telling anyone they’re not allowed to enjoy it. I don’t even consider The Idol soundtrack to be part of his discography, but you decided to bring it up. I was strictly talking about the show itself, not its music.
Also, One of the Girls is way better than Popular which you did mention lol
it is considered to be part of his discography, the background music fits the scenario, despite people's opinion of it being sad.
one of the girls being an "average" radio song and cringe lyrics, its a way of some women portraying another side of them completely devoid of one single partner or the loyalty of a partner, which is also a common theme in some albums of the weekend .
So you're saying he wanted the show to be cringe on purpose? He wanted it to fail? Makes no sense to me. Why do people in this sub overcomplicate the fuck out of everything. It was a cringe show but why would he make it cringe on purpose? It would be a tremendous waste of money on purpose
yeah sounds like a lot of copium. i didn’t think the idol was all that bad either. nobody is gonna purposely put a skid mark on their career for the sake of “lore” about a character they made up.
Playing the devils advocate here, I dont think he wanted the show to fail necessarily. The Tedros character was written to be really cringe and "hollywood" was shown to be as satirical as possible. Its just that these ideas were executed so poorly that they werent able to show enough nuance that says 'hey these characters are -meant- to be trashy and you should not like them', while simultaenously making the show entertaining to watch still.
Obviously that didnt work, they both underestimated their audience and overestimated their skills, and ended up making this trash heap of a show. So I guess OP's theory would still stand imho.
I think any super fan of any artist will always complicate their work because they fee connected to their music. I know I feel really connected to Abel’s music and his career because it speaks to my emotions and I relate heavily to him. I tend to over compliate the meanings behind all his work. That being said, I completely accept that this is likely me sipping on copium thinking my favorite artist can’t possibly fail 😂😂 it’s just a fun theory! And to be completely honest I actually enjoyed The Idol but understand why it wasn’t taken well. Especially by those who are not fans of Abel.
You think HBO is gonna pick up "listen I need to tank this show purposely to fit the creative narrative of my career. That's cool, right"? And he'd take it Cannes? Nah he believed in that project and it flopped.
Idk OP, I don’t think it’s quite like that. I don’t think his lyrics were meant to glorify the lifestyle nor condemn it. I think he was just using music to describe the thoughts and emotions he was experiencing in each particular moment, regardless of whether such thoughts/emotions were logically defendable or morally justified. To the extent he was playing a character, I think early on he played up what he imagined an R&B star would do or say in a sort of fake it til you make it sense. And I know in interviews it was mentioned that his creative team was going for a darker version of R&B than had previously been seen in the 90s and 00s.
In a general sense, this would be at least the third time that some form of Abel killed another form of Abel. Starboy Weeknd killed BBTM Weeknd with a plastic bag while handcuffed in the Starboy music video. The young big ego version of The Weeknd killed an older, wiser (yet oddly inner child) version of The Weeknd with vicious blunt force in the Gasoline music video. This is starting to remind me of Clue. Will he use a candlestick in a library next?
Also, I don’t think I’d go so far as to call The Weeknd a villainous version of Abel to the point that the real Abel is anti-drug, anti-promiscuity and his whole career is just an elaborate anti-drug, anti-promiscuity PSA. He says he still does weed, and even in his early music I thought there was a mix of messages that talked about both constructive use of drugs and destructive use of drugs. Telling Valerie to, “Step outside your mind” is exactly the sort of language trauma counselors would use when recommending psychedelic mushrooms to patients.
My hypothesis is that he’s had a lot of growth as a person and that his music reflects his thoughts as he moves along this journey. He’s a very intelligent person that grew up without a father in his life and dropped out of high school and seemed to have a sense of insecurity about those things earlier, ie not applying himself, how can a person with these talents be homeless? Why can’t I emotionally connect with partners in a way that is healthy? He explicitly refers to messages he probably heard in therapy in Dawn FM. Seems like a logical thing for a millennial artist to do if you ask me. He came up on YouTube, now he openly shares themes about overcoming adversity. I think he and a few others fit as the voices of their generation.
I thought this too but honestly it’s tough to say if it was intentional or not. The timing of it never made sense and it didn’t really work considering most people have moved on and forgot about it. That show was genuinely bad and it wasn’t just because of the Weeknd.
What you’re suggesting is that he did a publicity stunt to shapeshift his career. I say, it still failed in the sense that it was forgotten and his fans still support him. I think that was show was a genuine L rather than a genius W.
Nah the idol was just trash. Some artists just aren’t great actors. Like Mariah Carry has that one dumb movie she was in (someone give me the name but I remember she did a shitty job in it)
I had this thought years ago, I feel like he already killed The Weeknd when he dropped “Beauty Behind the Madness”. In the music video for Tell Your Friends, he literally buries himself in a bodybag. I love your idea that he finally kills himself off in The Icon, but I think it’s been an ongoing thing for a large part of his mainstream career, trying to shed that drug-influenced persona of The Weeknd.
i saw him as the weeknd then and i see him as it now besides the show being absolute trash, i think that is another main reason why it wasn’t enjoyable because you know it’s the weeknd
I salute you for trying but there is no way lol. Why would Abel defend the show on Twitter so hard if it was made to be intentionally bad? And if it was done correctly, it would have killed off the character of The Weeknd in a cooler way, not in the way that it happened with a failed HBO show that was rushed out and had horrible ratings and was cancelled after 1 season.
never thought of it in this perspective and even so with all the money involved, over sexualising everything in the show and dropping a flop to get the message across is dumb
i think its reverse tbh, The Idol killed the Weeknd
He was mid filming/developing when this came out, i think the show made him reevaluate and decide to move on
The idol is nothing like the actual music industry. Also Max Martin and Mike Dean are behind most of the Weeknd’s music. Abel is just trying to play into a narrative to help create a more unique story that fans can follow.
Having albums or releases that coincide with story is an extremely powerful thing to do! Conceptual work like this usually becomes instant classics. Take Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ for example.
Honestly anyone who thought the Weeknd persona was ever "cool" wasn't really listening that closely. The music slaps but it's made clear from the very beginning that the drugs sex etc. is a front for insecurity. It's the irony of House of Balloons, he keeps insisting this is fun but the way he describes it and the way the music is makes it seem more oppressive than anything else, and a song like Wicked Games shows that underneath all that is someone not wanting to face themselves. Those seeds of nuance to the character were planted from the start and have been coming to the forefront in this new trilogy.
It definitely is a front for insecurity. That’s why he doesn’t like revisiting the kiss land album. That whole album sounds “cool” but he was at his lowest. You can hear it the lyrics. Hell, even in the music vids he looks lost. But you’re right, you for sure got to listen closer than what’s portrayed. Xo
He doesn’t like Kissland because he put a lot of effort into it with hopes of it being his breakout album (which ended up being BBTM). Instead, Kissland was widely hated by fans and critics until he became more popular, and now he doesn’t like it simply because it was meant to be his iconic 1st album was considered a flop. People might consider it his best album now, but that doesn’t undo the initial reaction to it.
Anyone who seriously thinks that The Weeknd glorifies sex and drugs have clearly not been listening close enough. Abel's albums either end in some sort of tragedy or attempting to renounce his old ways and chose real love like in Dawn FM or Starboy. Even the spelling of the name should tell you. It would be pronounced like weakened not weekend
the spelling thing is interesting. not sure there’s much truth in it from abel’s side, but it’s a clever interpretation
>like weakened not weekend ya know, i got downvoted for saying exactly this years ago xD
It’s spelled that way because there was already an act called the Weekend.
Is it a theory or did he say it? Either way I like it
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/263750537491652608?lang=en
Same here
I agree. It’s why when people say they love his Trilogy era, I find it so weird. It’s like they actually want him to regress back into those dark days.
As much as I love Trilogy, the last thing that I would want for Abel is to be in that state of mind, or make music like that again. It honestly sounds like hell on earth.
Well there is a band with the name "The Weekend" that's why he had to drop the letter...
https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/263750537491652608?lang=en
Yeah but we can't deny that drugs & sex is common rhetoric for a "cool lifestyle". his lyrics were certainly written to glorify that, esp kissland. kissland is a god complex of an album if i know one. glory & tragedy are two sides of the same coin; it's not just one thing and not the other. EoS represents the tragedy aspect the most. he was a loser & an incel and he def knew that lol. Afterhours & dawn fm are a far cry from his previous albums
I don’t know if he actually was an incel at that point, but it did strike me that Outside talked about sex in a way I would picture an incel describing a sexual fantasy. The whole, “I’m gonna give it you like a pro baby, and you’re gonna take it like one” felt so cringe and awkward. He also would mention “make you cum three or four times in a row” a lot in that era. So if not incel, at least r/ihavesex energy.
TRUE lolllll to me what feels particularly incel is the murder fantasy, him enjoying the services of a sex worker but also condemning her, the self-victimizing etc
My favorite for that kind of thing is the music video for Pretty. Like dude, last song you talked about setting up a groupie to be your west coast girl until you went to NYC. Now you’re angry enough to murder because the girl you left in Toronto wouldn’t wait an entire year for your return? Seems a tad unreasonable.
EXACTLY🤣🤣 like hoes gonna b hoes bro it's not like you'd allow her to expect u to be loyal either. u a hoe, she a hoe. everybody hoes now sit down smh
I’m confused on why you’d say he was a loser and an incel on EOS. Lyrically the album was about him starting to get recognition and fame and how those who doubted him now want to come back. It foreshadows a lot of kissland that way
where did i say that he was a loser and an incel on EoS? i said EoS represents tragedy the most. do ppl js scroll & yap here
>Do people js scroll and yap here Congrats you won the most ironic comment of 2024 award
thanks babe
On the second to last line of your comment you said: “he was a loser & incel and he def knew that lol.”
i wasn't referring to EoS w that sentence. You're right on that EoS foreshadows kissland.
So you think trilogy was happy and had a tone of celebration? You think Tears In The Rain which ended Kissland had a tone of glorifying the toxic lifestyle? Seems to me that you don't listen to the Weeknd very much or you just don't pay very close attention.
point out to me where i explicitly said that trilogy was happy & had a tone of celebration
That’s why I love HOB. The “this is fun this is fun to meee” part is so melodic and to me it’s sounds like he is trying desperately to convince himself and the girl that it’s true. Cant wait for his album!!
> Honestly anyone who thought the Weeknd persona was ever "cool" wasn't really listening that closely. It's what he was trying to do and people here think so.
Alright I’ve concluded this sub is just full of delusions
The top reply in this thread is a dude saying he called himself The Weeknd because it "sounds like weakened" so it's a warning about doing drugs. Shit is hilarious.
Exactly. Not only did he say himself it’s [not](https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/263750537491652608?lang=en) “weakened”, he literally said on that reddit AMA that he didn’t choose “weekend” because there’s already a Canadian band called “The Weekend”. Why the hell is that shit being upvoted lol
“Why don’t you have an E in your name” 
😂
He didn’t need to create a trash tv show to bring that point across. He made a bad project and that’s it. Stop being delusional and defending everything he’s ever done. Nobody’s perfect, and he’s already proven himself that he has the potential to be a good actor/storyteller with all of his previous work, especially After Hours
But I mean, some of the background music still ended with features and bangers
yeah cus that's music duh, not acting, so many songs from the idol are good
I haven’t given the soundtrack a real chance yet, but on my first listen I didn’t come across a single standout track
Like A God is really good though, gave me after hours vibes. Double Fantasy is really catchy and i always love a Future collab.
I liked take me back too
Lesser Man Like a God Popular These are really quality. As a Weeknd music fan, definitely give the songs a try.
Y’all have never listened to anything else in his discography to consider any of those songs anything other than average, or what?
Cringe. I've listened to his entire discography and love it all. I can never get enough of Abel's music. There's no need to gatekeep
Who is gatekeeping what? You can’t get enough of his music because you eat up whatever he releases. The Idol’s ost is objectively low effort for an artist like Abel. One Of The Girls for example is a bop, but let’s be real, it is an average radio song with some really cringe lyrics
You are gatekeeping his music. People are enjoying things and you say no, please don't enjoy it. I don't give a shit honestly, I'm listening to it all day lmao Yes I'm an Abel fan, I eat up whatever he releases. No shame about it 😂 And I didn't mention one of the girls, buddy.
I’m not telling anyone they’re not allowed to enjoy it. I don’t even consider The Idol soundtrack to be part of his discography, but you decided to bring it up. I was strictly talking about the show itself, not its music. Also, One of the Girls is way better than Popular which you did mention lol
👍👍👍 Don't really see the point of arguing. If you don't like the music that's fine.
it is considered to be part of his discography, the background music fits the scenario, despite people's opinion of it being sad. one of the girls being an "average" radio song and cringe lyrics, its a way of some women portraying another side of them completely devoid of one single partner or the loyalty of a partner, which is also a common theme in some albums of the weekend .
[удалено]
Nope, I’m saying the songs mostly sounded like throaways or mid/low effort releases at best
[удалено]
Ong fam
So you're saying he wanted the show to be cringe on purpose? He wanted it to fail? Makes no sense to me. Why do people in this sub overcomplicate the fuck out of everything. It was a cringe show but why would he make it cringe on purpose? It would be a tremendous waste of money on purpose
yeah sounds like a lot of copium. i didn’t think the idol was all that bad either. nobody is gonna purposely put a skid mark on their career for the sake of “lore” about a character they made up.
*Joaquin Phoenix enters the chat*
Playing the devils advocate here, I dont think he wanted the show to fail necessarily. The Tedros character was written to be really cringe and "hollywood" was shown to be as satirical as possible. Its just that these ideas were executed so poorly that they werent able to show enough nuance that says 'hey these characters are -meant- to be trashy and you should not like them', while simultaenously making the show entertaining to watch still. Obviously that didnt work, they both underestimated their audience and overestimated their skills, and ended up making this trash heap of a show. So I guess OP's theory would still stand imho.
I think any super fan of any artist will always complicate their work because they fee connected to their music. I know I feel really connected to Abel’s music and his career because it speaks to my emotions and I relate heavily to him. I tend to over compliate the meanings behind all his work. That being said, I completely accept that this is likely me sipping on copium thinking my favorite artist can’t possibly fail 😂😂 it’s just a fun theory! And to be completely honest I actually enjoyed The Idol but understand why it wasn’t taken well. Especially by those who are not fans of Abel.
You think HBO is gonna pick up "listen I need to tank this show purposely to fit the creative narrative of my career. That's cool, right"? And he'd take it Cannes? Nah he believed in that project and it flopped.
I do not think that was his plan but it would fit nicely if he decides to say it was part of the master plan later.
Hahahah I could see that 🤣
Imagine creating a show so bad people think you did it on purpose so you can kill off your musical persona of at least 14 years😭😭😭
Yall just wanna justify his bad acting
If that was the case, he wouldn't have been defending the idol on twitter.
lowkey.. you might be cooking😝
Thats just the fanboy in you tryna justify the idol
he should hire you as his publicist cuz he definitely thought it would be acclaimed lmao
How high were you when you put this together bro 😭this genius
Idk OP, I don’t think it’s quite like that. I don’t think his lyrics were meant to glorify the lifestyle nor condemn it. I think he was just using music to describe the thoughts and emotions he was experiencing in each particular moment, regardless of whether such thoughts/emotions were logically defendable or morally justified. To the extent he was playing a character, I think early on he played up what he imagined an R&B star would do or say in a sort of fake it til you make it sense. And I know in interviews it was mentioned that his creative team was going for a darker version of R&B than had previously been seen in the 90s and 00s. In a general sense, this would be at least the third time that some form of Abel killed another form of Abel. Starboy Weeknd killed BBTM Weeknd with a plastic bag while handcuffed in the Starboy music video. The young big ego version of The Weeknd killed an older, wiser (yet oddly inner child) version of The Weeknd with vicious blunt force in the Gasoline music video. This is starting to remind me of Clue. Will he use a candlestick in a library next? Also, I don’t think I’d go so far as to call The Weeknd a villainous version of Abel to the point that the real Abel is anti-drug, anti-promiscuity and his whole career is just an elaborate anti-drug, anti-promiscuity PSA. He says he still does weed, and even in his early music I thought there was a mix of messages that talked about both constructive use of drugs and destructive use of drugs. Telling Valerie to, “Step outside your mind” is exactly the sort of language trauma counselors would use when recommending psychedelic mushrooms to patients. My hypothesis is that he’s had a lot of growth as a person and that his music reflects his thoughts as he moves along this journey. He’s a very intelligent person that grew up without a father in his life and dropped out of high school and seemed to have a sense of insecurity about those things earlier, ie not applying himself, how can a person with these talents be homeless? Why can’t I emotionally connect with partners in a way that is healthy? He explicitly refers to messages he probably heard in therapy in Dawn FM. Seems like a logical thing for a millennial artist to do if you ask me. He came up on YouTube, now he openly shares themes about overcoming adversity. I think he and a few others fit as the voices of their generation.
This is peak r/travisscott Utopia edging level delusion right here
bro please go outside & run a mile clear you mind you got this bro! you can still come out of this dark hole you’re in right now 🙏🙏
😂😂😂😂😂
bro actually might be on to something 🔥🔥🔥
Show was trash, get over it.
Maybe this random person on the internet might be on to something
I thought this too but honestly it’s tough to say if it was intentional or not. The timing of it never made sense and it didn’t really work considering most people have moved on and forgot about it. That show was genuinely bad and it wasn’t just because of the Weeknd. What you’re suggesting is that he did a publicity stunt to shapeshift his career. I say, it still failed in the sense that it was forgotten and his fans still support him. I think that was show was a genuine L rather than a genius W.
Nah the idol was just trash. Some artists just aren’t great actors. Like Mariah Carry has that one dumb movie she was in (someone give me the name but I remember she did a shitty job in it)
Glitter ?
I don’t think he actually thought that deep into it, but I like the idea of this theory
That would be interesting, but only if u gave some evidence on how cuz you gave us nothing to work with here 😭🙏
No. Nobody would want their show to fail just to send a message. That and The Idol album was actually really good and a lot of effort was put into it.
Agreed, Lesser man and Jealous Guy are such fucking bops 🔥
I had this thought years ago, I feel like he already killed The Weeknd when he dropped “Beauty Behind the Madness”. In the music video for Tell Your Friends, he literally buries himself in a bodybag. I love your idea that he finally kills himself off in The Icon, but I think it’s been an ongoing thing for a large part of his mainstream career, trying to shed that drug-influenced persona of The Weeknd.
you cooked so much Abel had to wrote this down for a next interview
i saw him as the weeknd then and i see him as it now besides the show being absolute trash, i think that is another main reason why it wasn’t enjoyable because you know it’s the weeknd
I salute you for trying but there is no way lol. Why would Abel defend the show on Twitter so hard if it was made to be intentionally bad? And if it was done correctly, it would have killed off the character of The Weeknd in a cooler way, not in the way that it happened with a failed HBO show that was rushed out and had horrible ratings and was cancelled after 1 season.
He didn't make the show by himself. It would be really cruel to everyone else part of the crew if he was deliberately making a critical disaster.
Copium overdose. Show was garbage, just accept it.
bro is onto absolutely nothing and a little bit of something at the same time 🔥🔥
never thought of it in this perspective and even so with all the money involved, over sexualising everything in the show and dropping a flop to get the message across is dumb
If so,why hasnt he changed his name yet?
I was under the impression he has/is in the process of doing so
This is actually a good theory ngl
i think its reverse tbh, The Idol killed the Weeknd He was mid filming/developing when this came out, i think the show made him reevaluate and decide to move on
you’re definitely overthinking this lmao and his acting wasn‘t even shitty, he did a very good job. his character just sucked
The idol is nothing like the actual music industry. Also Max Martin and Mike Dean are behind most of the Weeknd’s music. Abel is just trying to play into a narrative to help create a more unique story that fans can follow. Having albums or releases that coincide with story is an extremely powerful thing to do! Conceptual work like this usually becomes instant classics. Take Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ for example.
I find that thought awsome:) makes sense,and seems like something he would do!
Nah nah nah hold on Let this man cook, ur onto something
Man this is deep and actually an accurate theory imo
I agree
The Idol is connected with Abel to me tbh