Released November 26, 2015 Recorded 2015 | Format Digital download Length 3:16 | |
Published Listen to This Shhhh, Songs Music Publishing, BMG Platinum Songs, Manes and Reins Publishing Genre Alternative rock
power pop
ska | ||
"LA Devotee" is a song by American rock band Panic! at the Disco. It was released as the second promotional single from the band's fifth studio album, Death of a Bachelor, on November 26, 2015 through Fueled by Ramen and DCD2. The song was written by Brendon Urie, White Sea and Jake Sinclair and was produced by Sinclair.
Contents
Background
"LA Devotee" was written by Panic! at the Disco lead vocalist Brendon Urie throughout 2015. The song's inspiration derives from Urie's passion for Los Angeles and is about someone who has fallen in love with L.A. and will stop at nothing to survive and succeed in the city. A video of the audio for "LA Devotee" was uploaded to Fueled by Ramen's official YouTube channel on the day of its release, November 26, 2015. It has been streamed over thirteen million times on YouTube and over 44 million times on Spotify as of March 2017.
Music video
The song's official music video was released September 22, 2016, starring Noah Schnapp, an actor who is known for his role in the Netflix series Stranger Things. The video starts with a young girl nervously trying to cross a field with a dog barking in the background. The girl falls down and gets kidnapped by an unknown cloaked figure as the camera shows a shot of the mysterious "Join Us" logo cropped into the field. The next scene shows a young boy being strapped to a chair singing the song while experiencing bizarre things, with Brendon also singing the song on a screen. The young girl also makes an appearance forcing the boy to drink something. The last scene shows four cloaked figures strapping two mechanisms to the boy, causing him to be electrocuted and then suffer a seizure. Afterwards, the video ends with Brendon walking up to him with rubber gloves in a menacing manner. It is unknown what Brendon is to do next.
Between shots of Noah being tortured we can see several disturbing images, including men dressed having animal heads, blood poured over a skull, children with black holes for their eyes, and a symbol of the Church of Satan (featuring a Baphomet's head inside an inverted pentagon) projected over Urie's face.
According to conspiracy websites, taken together with the lyrics, the video alludes to the ability of the media to brainwash and create fans that mindlessly worship media figures.