YMMV / Waterparks

• Angst Aversion: A segment of Waterparks fans who appreciated the more empowering mental health lyrics on songs like "Easter Egg" or the more nuanced approach to break-up related emotions on FANDOM didn't like Awsten getting a little too real for them about suicidal ideation on "You'd Be Paranoid Too" and "Just Kidding", with the less charitable seeing it as trauma dumping.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: Greatest Hits was well-received by critics and the core Waterparks fanbase and was a modest success on streaming and the charts. Pop punk fans expecting something more along the lines of the band's previous albums hated Greatest Hits due to its hyperpop and bedroom pop influences taking most of the album out of pop punk territory completely.^note For prior releases, these fans often treated genre experimentation and poppier songs like "Stupid For You" as flukes. Awsten has previously mocked these fans for complaining about a lack of heavier songs on albums...even when they do exist on those albums.This lead to tension over Waterparks billed as a co-headliner along with Neck Deep for the 2022 edition of Sad Summer Fest^note a smaller scale Spiritual Successor to the Vans Warped Tour. While Waterparks still attracted large crowds, alienated pop punk fans no longer saw Waterparks as a musical fit for the festival, in comparison to preferred acts like Neck Deep and State Champs. ^note This in spite of Parx's SSF setlist leaning heavier towards songs from INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY and FANDOM, with Numb as the only Greatest Hits representation. In true Waterparks fashion, this inspired a gag t-shirt design. Alienated pop punk fans also walked out en masse on some dates where Waterparks was the final act performing, leaving immediately after Neck Deep's set.
  • On the regular critical reception front, Awsten was hoping the album would be more than just a modest success...which was probably impacted by how it was marketed. Unlike Hopeless Records with FANDOM, 300 was very reluctant to promote it outside of in-person events and much of the press was with scene focused news outlets Parx had previous history with (and random podcasts). This lead to the album having an Uncertain Audience, as it was marketed to the groups most likely to either enjoy it no matter what or to be alienated by it.
• Awesome Music: Black Light, Cluster, Double Dare and Entertainment are consistently enjoyed by fans, though some have a soft spot for Airplane Conversations. Fan favorite songs include "Crave" (especially since Geoff sings a whole verse for himself) and "TANTRUM" (for its aggression and how well it goes over live). Singles like "I'm A Natural Blue", "Stupid For You", and others are also well liked. A particularly vocal portion of the fandom (at least on Twitter) really wants "Pink" back on the live setlists.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A certain vocal delivery on "Ritual" was a BLAM on Intellectual Property with some hating it either because they thought Awsten was imitating Corpse Husband's distinctive vocals, because they thought it was actually Corpse on the track, or because they saw it as pandering to Gen Z listeners on TikTok.^note The vocal delivery might not have actually been Awsten, as Vincente Void (previously of cult favorite metalcore act Darke Complex) also features on the track. Awsten is a friend and professed fan of Vincente's work. Their presence on the album is still a surprise as an underground indie act of which Awsten has talked about comparatively less to other pop, rock, and hip hop acts he admires.
  • "Real Super Dark" was seen as this in context to the pre-album release promotion. After multiple super poppy singles co-written by Julian Bunetta, "Real Super Dark" was divisive as a single due to being a more dark and absurd version of "You'd Be Paranoid Too" off of Greatest Hits. Those in favor of the song frame it as Awsten being "allowed" to make goofier songs. Those not in favor of the song think the lyrics are either too dark to be laughed at or too asinine to be taken seriously, with one infamous one involving driving a jet-ski into the Alternative Press offices.
• Common Knowledge: Greatest Hits interviews with Awsten where "The Secret Life of Me" is discussed usually have the interviewer treating it being about Awsten's experience Meditation as a positive self-care action. This matches how meditation is usually seen by the general public. The catch here is, the song is about Awsten's experience with using solo Transcendental Meditation...to cause disassociation to avoid dealing with real life stressors. (Said TM phase was thankfully brief.) This is the absolute opposite of mindfulness practices the mainstream associates with meditation.^note While mindfulness practices focus on bringing your awareness to the present moment without judgement on thoughts or bodily sensations, Transcendental Meditation focuses on silently chanting a mantra, bringing attention back to the mantra when distracted by thoughts. The adverse effects of meditation on people with psychiatric issues, especially based on improper practices, is understated in the media. Transcendental Meditation is notorious for cult mysticism and high financial costs when practiced in groups and also lacks substantial scientific support showing its positive effects beyond studies touted by those involved with TM.
• Continuity Lock-Out: Waterparks have managed to achieve this with two t-shirts, one sold on Warped Tour and the other sold when they were opening for One Ok Rock. Written in the style of an avid Twitter stan mixed with Awsten's caps lock and sense of humor, understanding what the shirts say is dependent on multiple factors.^note Besides knowing who Waterparks even are, understanding the first shirt is dependent on you: knowing that the first paragraph is talking about Warped, that the band has progressed to bigger stages on Warped as they've gotten popular, that Entertainment is Waterparks second album so some fans were concerned it wouldn't deliver compared to their first album Double Dare, that Awsten loves him some caps lock to the consternation of others, and that Geoff is cute.^note The second shirt is even harder to parse if you're not a huge Parx fan, as you'd have to know that: The tour you could get the shirt on started around the time that Waterpark's second album Entertainment was released to the public the previous year, that fans were eagerly awaiting the third album which already had three previously released named demos, that Awsten dyes his hair thematically for album releases, that fans had been speculating about Friendly Reminder being a "red" themed album, that people love it when the guitarist Geoff plays solos, that Awsten being "a poser" is a reference to yet another Waterparks t-shirt, that Awsten being "problematic" is a reference to his Twitter, the existence of the Ottoparks performance videos made for Alternate Press featuring Otto on lead vocals, that Crave is a popular song with fans, what the other tour merch was like, that Awsten designs most of the Waterparks merch including this very shirt, and that Waterparks was opening for another band so they wouldn't be able to play a normal sized set. Phew! Oh yeah, and Geoff is cute.
  • Another shirt was released during their One OK Rock support dates. This shirt features a tweet Awsten made on the band account of a "member map" for the "benefit" of new 2018 fans. All of it is intentionally inaccurate, with the exception of Awsten and Geoff's Twitter handles being correct and of Corbi—I mean, Otto not having social media. Some could argue that Awsten being "VOTED PRETTY BY THE COMMITTEE" is also accurate. Not only does it intentionally not serve its purpose of avoiding lockout for new 2018 fans but most people reading it aren't going to make much sense of it unless they already know why the shirt is inaccurate.
  • Much of FANDOM is informed by Awsten's prior relationship, as covered in Double Dare and Entertainment, as well as increasing spats of toxic behavior from Waterparks fans, which might not be immediately picked up upon by newer/casual fans.
  • The "THIS IS NOT G, OR EVEN AN ALBUM" part of 1 (A COLLECTION OF UNRELEASED HOME DEMOS, THIS IS NOT G, OR EVEN AN ALBUM, SHUT UP ENJOY) won't make that much sense without some awareness of the band's alphabetical naming order or how the collection came to be.^note Parx fans catching Awsten by surprise after getting 20k retweets on a joke tweet he made about releasing an album that day if he got to that amount. Similarly, if you had noticed Parx's alphabetical naming order but didn't read INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY era interviews, you wouldn't know that Greatest Hits counts as both the G and the H album.
• Epileptic Trees: One specific Parx fan theory involved the colors of the backdrop in the Blonde music video (white, yellow, orange, red, purple, and blue) was equivalent to how many albums they would release before breaking up. Blue and purple were associated with Double Dare and Entertainment respectively, so the third album was speculated to be red. This got jossed by the band around the time that the first version of the third album got scrapped. While Awsten teased and briefly sported red hair, Turbulent revealed the true era color: green, which was nowhere to be found in the backdrop.^note The color scheme design for Waterparks is actually related to Awsten's synesthesia, which is why Airplane Conversations and Black Light are more "rainbow" in comparison to the other straightforward color choices. Some long-term planning is involved, but it's less over-the-top than fan theories.
  Awsten: We’ve already got the plan. We know when we’re breaking up. We knew in 2015, late 2015, that green hair was going to be a thing. We’ve got the patterns, we’ve got it all set, everything’s a prophecy. At the end, we sacrifice Geoff. And then I become Geoff.
  Geoff: He’s taking my energy, and I just sit here and do nothing.
  Awsten: Like, I’ve taken so much of his everything that he can barely speak now.
  Otto: I just let this happen.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Awsten deliberately provoked this by posting a picture of Geoff at the Nintendo NY store with a statue of Link...but deliberately referring to him as Zelda, the titular princess, which is a common mistake and major pet peeve of The Legend of Zelda fans.
  Geoff: 🤭 You didn’t.
  Awsten: [picture posted of a closeup on the Link statue's face] PRETTY GIRL ZELDAN ^_^
• Friendly Fandoms: Plenty of bandom crossover with major groups like Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco, Twenty One Pilots, and 5 Seconds of Summer.
  • There's also friendly fandom crossover with As It Is, De'Wayne, Super Whatevr, Palaye Royale, and many more.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "21 Questions" is a bit harder to listen to knowing that Awsten and Ciara broke up after she cheated on him and he wondered if something like that exact situation was going to happen. Turns out, it did. She even accused him trying to pursue the relationship even when she was dating another person, which, combined with Awsten talking about "becoming what he hated", just makes it even worse.

  Awsten: PSA: IF 21 QUESTIONS IS RELATABLE TO YOU, YOU GOTTA BOUNCE. I KNOW YOU WON’T BUT MAN LOL JUST GOOOOOOOOOOO.

  • Awsten's "meh" feelings about the band being called pop punk by others get more amplified after reading Awsten in 2011 after their first song was released going "Some people called us pop-punk because our first song sounds pop-punkish but the next song should change that view of us for people."
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: While the band remains obscure there, "Dream Boy" for whatever reason went unexpectedly viral in South Korea in 2021. This lead to Awsten getting interviewed by Korean Western music YouTuber wookipop.
• Ho Yay: Just look up the band on Google Images, you'll find a few that scream this. Awsten goes out of his way to make sure that everyone knows that both Geoff and Otto are very, very cute.
• Just Here for Godzilla: One of the shirts Waterparks sold during their spring 2019 touring, supporting One OK Rock, says "I'M ONLY HERE FOR OTTOPARKS." Not Awsten (who is still problematic and a poser) or Geoff (who is still cute).
  • Waterparks sold wristbands during Slam Dunk and online saying "I'M ONLY AT SLAM DUNK FOR WATERPARKS". Slam Dunk is a rock music festival featuring a ton of artists, so going to Slam Dunk only for Waterparks would make you very hardcore (and the perfect fit for that wristband).
  • In general, Waterparks has a devoted amount of fans who are willing to go see them live, even when they're not the headliner and often without having any interest in the headlining act at all. Sometimes it goes even further than seeing them live: there were complaints during Slam Dunk 2021 when the band had to change a meet and greet to a group photo during a VIP acoustic set due to coronavirus safety concerns...from people who were only there for the meet and greet.
• LGBT Fanbase: Due to their support of LGBTQ+ fans, they've gained a large following of them. Awsten's intolerance for intolerance (even going as far as to shout out "I WILL SUCK EVERY DICK AT WARPED TOUR" out a window at anti-gay protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church) and flamboyant style certainly helps, with some trans male fans considering him a positive gender influence. This reputation has only increased after "Telephone" was featured in the Netflix series Heartstopper, already well-loved due to its depiction of wholesome romance between teen guys.
• Misblamed: Fueled By Ramen for the poppier side of Intellectual Property. The album was 95% done before the label entered the picture.
  • Since Awsten is the public face of the band and is often hands-on with things that most musicians would delegate to third-parties, he's often misblamed for problems with Parx merch bought online^note either from MDDN run limited time pop-ups where the band gets 100% of the merch sales or from label-run stores) or even things like Ticketmaster problems.
• Moe: Waterparks fans are endeared they are to Geoff's adorable and good nature, on top of his talent as a guitarist and how often they politely gush about him as a result...in contrast to Awsten, who go full Tsundere in their treatment of him, often when he's done something baffling or annoying. In fairness, the attitude towards Awsten is largely tongue-in-cheek and he responds in kind. Except for the fans who are a little too eager to insult Awsten based on his intentionally exaggerated online persona.
• Nightmare Retardant: While the song "Violet!" is about a legitimately creepy stalker, the video for "Violet!" shows an eyeball head person that's weird enough to be creepy but not realistic enough to look threatening. The eyeball person doesn't escalate beyond voyeurism and is seemingly disarmed by Awsten getting himself wet with a backyard hose. The "Violet!" behind-the-scenes video takes this further with the person with the mask dancing with Awsten and Otto and Awsten complementing them for stacking cups in-character.
• Pandering to the Base: Awsten has spoken against this, going so far as to say that people don't actually know what they want from creative media and that creatives should give people what they didn't know they want (as in, whatever it was they were going to make without pandering to the base).
  • Forming a large part of the criticism in "Watch What Happens Next", which lays into alternative rock fandom and a certain segment of Parx's fandom for limiting rock artists as far as what sounds they're allowed to have and how much they're allowed to publicly show how well off they are.
    Tell me all the things you want
    And I will give up me for you!
• Periphery Demographic: In 2018, as a response to people claiming that Waterparks' fanbase is tweenagers, Awsten brought up streaming analytics from Spotify. These indicate that fans under the age of 18 are actually one of Waterparks' periphery demographics, with them and 28-34 year olds making up 14% of their Spotify audience each. He also mentioned that the gender split between men and women in the fandom was near 50/50^note 56% female to 42% male, with the other 2% identifying as non-binary. This was in response to sexists disrespecting Waterparks as they perceived the demographic as "majority female". He emphasized throughout that even 'if' most of the fans were tweens/under 18 and/or women, it wouldn't matter to them at all because he's mostly just amazed anyone listens to Waterparks at all.
  • Joel Madden found a way to make being part of the most periphery Waterparks age demographic a Heartwarming Moment:
    Joel: i'm part of the proud 7% in the last 28 days
    Awsten: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
• Signature Song: "Stupid For You," with "I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don't Wanna Die Anymore" being a close second thanks to its popularity on TikTok. Turbulent is also up there, also thanks to its popularity on TikTok.
• Tear Jerker: Lucky People. The video makes it worse.
  • Also, as a result of the reasons stated above, '21 Questions,' so much so that Awsten teared up when performing it at some concerts after the fact. Him bursting into tears during shows was one of the first immediate signs to fans that something had gone horribly wrong in the relationship.
  • "High Definition", described by Awsten as both his favorite song off the album but also the one that "makes him want to die" the most.
  • With a name like "Crying Over It All", you know you're gonna be crying about it, especially as it relates to the future end of the band and who will be there for Awsten after "everyone leaves".
• The Problem with Licensed Games: PLAY: A Waterparks Game was a browser based game akin to older Flash games. Unfortunately, it fell on the jankier end of browser based games. The only real objective was to complete the four levels as fast as possible while collecting all the items, a combination of which gets you a higher score. The game had no real plot but still had cutscenes (with no proofreading). Character movement/actions were imprecise, and even after the addition of a boss level, the game had no real ending. The only character audio featured is Awsten's, since he was the only one who recorded any.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: "Watch What Happens Next" criticizes the limitations put on rock music to not have an Out-of-Genre Experience as much as hip hop does, bringing up Lil Nas X's success with "Old Town Road" and how Parx trying to pull something like that would meet with instant disapproval due to audiences not wanting to be challenged.
  And that’s fucking awesome
  We could never do that
  All the fans that like us need an easy fucking format
  They would boo that
  They’d abuse that
  It’s a cultural hold-back