Early this week, Grammy-nominated, Billboard Music Award-winning, and Dove Award-winning band Skillet announced the release of a new single, “Unpopular,” and a new album, “Revolution.”
ChurchLeaders spoke with Skillet frontman, John Cooper, regarding the band’s new music and the meaning behind the album.
Cooper described Skillet’s new song as a “bit more raw” sounding in contrast to their last record, “Dominion”—in other words, it’s more “rocking,” he said.
“Unpopular” was written with both a funny and serious attitude. “It’s saying the world’s gone so nuts that the things the world loves are so disgusting and so crazy—like, in a world gone mad, would you really want to be popular?” said Cooper. “That’s kind of the joke of the song.”
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For instance, do people really want to be on the popular people’s side, Cooper suggested. “Do you want to be on the side of the people cheering for—Oh, it’s so great! Getting to watch the Olympic ceremony with my kids and seeing drag queens act like they’re doing a Lord’s Supper imitation. Isn’t that great? We’re so popular.”
“So we’re like, no, I don’t wanna be on that team,” he added. “I want to be on the side of like normal people.”
The lyrics of the chorus read:
“Unpopular, unpopular / Call me out, clasp down / Can’t supplement true facts / Have you heard? I’m a commoner / Got my family, sanity, everything I need / If freedom is disease / Who would ever want to be Popular? / For what it’s worth I think today’s a good day to be unpopular”
Cooper said the song conveys how the band’s message is that the members “want to be on the side with people that are like, ‘Oh, I still kind of like raising my family and going to church and loving my kids and not being weird and loving freedom.’”
