History Music / Waterparks

* NoPronunciationGuide: Geoff is pronounced like "Jeff" (in the same way that Geoffrey is pronounced like Jeff-frey), but often gets confused for other pronunciations like "GEO-ff" based on how it's spelled.

--> ''"AND IF I SEE YOU IN PERSON''
-->''I'M TAKING TEETH''
-->''TRUST, YOU'VE EARNED THIS!"''

* CaptionHumor: The Pop Up video for "Lowkey As Hell" mixes actual production factoids (The sky at the end of the video was inspired by VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon, with screenshots from the game put on Awsten's moodboard) with BlatantLies. (The band didn't actually have to be shrunken down in post for the video, because the woman who played the gardener was actually the Guinness World Record holder for Tallest Woman in 2004.)

* ''INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY'' (ETA: 2023)

* [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents American Accents]]: The Waterparks members don't have super noticeable accents that would stereotypically be associated with Texas. The closest that they get is rare instances of [[https://youtu.be/a_ubTKwMiqM?t=2982 it coming out when Awsten is excited]]. Awsten says "y'all" and "all y'all" a lot (even in written conversation), whereas Geoff (not a Texan native) and Otto rarely if ever use the terms at all.

** This has become so expected that there was heavy speculation that the scrapped original third album, ''Friendly Reminder'' was going to be associated with red and that Awsten would dye his hair accordingly. He did, briefly, on the final dates of opening for One OK Rock. Then ''Friendly Reminder'' got scrapped and green was revealed as the era/theme color for the album that would eventually become known as ''FANDOM''. On top of the prior blue and green associations, green and red play a slight thematic role in the lyrics of ''FANDOM''. He would later switch to red for real in the leadup to PARX5.

* HotterAndSexier: While there were occasionally allusions and mentions to sex in previous Waterparks songs, the singles and teased songs in the leadup to [=PARX5=] are far more direct about Awsten's (largely dysfunctional) hookups with women.

* LiteralistSnarker: Featured in a tweet Awsten made in response to guilt-tripping fans:

* The Good Charlotte version of Self-Sabotage features a rerecorded version of the intro from Awsten but otherwise reuses his vocal parts from the original song. Good Charlotte provides a new second verse.

After scrapping the previously recorded version of their third album, commonly referred to as ''Friendly Reminder'', Waterparks released ''FANDOM'' in 2019, now on Hopeless Records. A month after ''FANDOM'''s release, the band released "Entertainment 2019" and "Double Dare 2019", re-imagined and re-recorded mashup tracks of the first two albums in the style of ''FANDOM''. 2020 featured the release of the single "Lowkey as Hell" and the band's first live album/concert film, ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK''. Their fourth album, ''Greatest Hits'' (Not a GreatestHitsAlbum, a regular studio album) was released on May 21, 2021 on 300 Entertainment, a predominantly hip-hop label. 2022 featured their first singles on Fueled By Ramen, "Funeral Grey", "Self-Sabotage", and "FUCK ABOUT IT", the latter featuring Music/{{Blackbear}}, in the lead up to a new album.

* DenserandWackier: While Waterparks is known for their irreverant sense of humor, their music up until Greatest Hits generally stuck to more "grounded" songs about relationships, Awsten's feelings towards the alt rock scene & where he currently was in his life, and increasing criticism towards darker aspects of fame. While jokier moments were there, they were usually more brief. Greatest Hits features far more "out there" lyrics including in-jokier ones that wouldn't be out of place on his Twitter (Numb, See You In The Future), stream of consciousness (The Secret Life of Me, Fruit Rollups), and more gratuitious swearing instead of it being used for sporadic emphasis.

** Through a mildly creepy song, a weird amount of affection, and persistence, Awsten has somehow convinced people to make him or help him make his then WeaponOfChoice: the toothbat. It's [[BatterUp a bat]] with fake teeth embedded into it. People consequentially began to send real baby teeth to him for his toothbat, much to his chagrin. The fun never ends...?

* AwesomeMcCoolname: "Awsten Knight"? "Geoff Wigington"? "Otto Wood"? These guys were walking around with cool names before they even started the band!
** It gets cooler: Awsten's full name is Awsten ''Constantine'' Knight. His first name's spelling [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude wasn't because of his parents either]].[[note]]It would have been this trope if they chose Thor, which was one of the alternative options. No, really.[[/note]] His birth name was actually Austin, but he started writing his name as Awsten in his tweens. Eventually, it stuck so hard with everyone else around him that he got the spelling of his name legally changed.

After scrapping the previously recorded version of their third album, commonly referred to as ''Friendly Reminder'', Waterparks released ''FANDOM'' in 2019, now on Hopeless Records. A month after ''FANDOM'''s release, the band released "Entertainment 2019" and "Double Dare 2019", re-imagined and re-recorded mashup tracks of the first two albums in the style of ''FANDOM''. 2020 featured the release of the single "Lowkey as Hell" and the band's first live album/concert film, ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK''. Their fourth album, ''Greatest Hits'' (Not a GreatestHitsAlbum, a regular studio album) was released on May 21, 2021 on 300 Entertainment, a predominantly hip-hop label. 2022 featured their first singles on Fueled By Ramen, "Funeral Grey", "Self-Sabotage", and "FUCK ABOUT IT", the latter featuring Music/{{Blackbear}} in the lead up to a new album.

* AWildRapperAppears: Music/{{Blackbear}} on Fuck About It. In line with his other alt music guest features like on Music/AllTimeLow's "Monsters" and good friend/rapper-turned-rocker Music/MachineGunKelly's albums, his verses and delivery fit with the song without any awkwardness.

After scrapping the previously recorded version of their third album, commonly referred to as ''Friendly Reminder'', Waterparks released ''FANDOM'' in 2019, now on Hopeless Records. A month after ''FANDOM'''s release, the band released "Entertainment 2019" and "Double Dare 2019", re-imagined and re-recorded mashup tracks of the first two albums in the style of ''FANDOM''. 2020 featured the release of the single "Lowkey as Hell" and the band's first live album/concert film, ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK''. Their fourth album, ''Greatest Hits'' (Not a GreatestHitsAlbum, a regular studio album) was released on May 21, 2021 on 300 Entertainment, a predominantly hip-hop label. 2022 featured their first singles on Fueled By Ramen, "Funeral Grey" and "Self-Sabotage" in the lead up to a new album.

** More traditional clean versions of Waterparks songs started to come out after the switch to Fueled By Ramen, ranging from the sensible (Self-Sabotage switching out "what the fuck" for "what the hell") to the nonsensical (Funeral Grey switching out the infamous "baptized in my spit" line for "baptized in my kiss", breaking the metaphor). The clean version of the Good Charlotte version of Self-Sabotage just beeps the f-bombs out...even though Awsten's vocals during the chorus are the same as in the original song, meaning they could have used "what the hell" from the original song's clean version.

** Awsten previously made clean versions of Parx songs as a joke, but Waterparks started putting out regular clean versions after signing to Fueled By Ramen. The clean versions of "FUNERAL GREY" and "SELF-SABOTAGE" feature replacements for sexual innuendo and cursing.

** More traditional clean versions of Waterparks songs started to come out after the switch to Fueled By Ramen, ranging from the sensible (Self-Sabotage switching out "what the fuck" for "what the hell") to the nonsensical (Funeral Grey switching out the infamous "baptized in my spit" line for "baptized in my kiss", breaking the metaphor)

** The first verse of "I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don't Want To Die" addresses Awsten's annoyances with surface-level questions ("How'd you get your band name?" "Is that your real first name?") and superficial fan requests for his attention ("Can you text and follow back, cause it's my birthday"). While the song starts off addressing people not considering his wants and needs in favor of their demands, it goes from bad to worse when he mentions getting death threats so often, he's starting to get desensitized to them.

** For example, clean version of "Turbulent", features reworked lyrics like "and you never bad word answer" that fit the production of the original track. In contrast, the clean version of "I Miss Sex, But At Least I Don't Wanna Die" just features Awsten screaming "WHAT" in place of sex.

** If you're the kind of fan that is begging the band for attention on Twitter or sending Awsten death threats, you got a Take That on "I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don't Wanna Die". [[https://www.loudersound.com/features/waterparks-interview-inside-the-dark-side-of-stan-culture-and-the-neuroses-that-follow-fame Unfortunately]], these kinds of fans haven't gotten the hint yet, but at least the band won't just put up with it.

** More traditional clean versions of Waterparks songs started to come out after the switch to Fueled By Ramen, ranging from the sensible (Self-Sabotage switching out "what the fuck" for "what the hell") to the nonsensical (Funeral Grey switching out the infamous "baptized in my spit" line for "in my kiss", which means the kiss would have to be ''incredibly'' sloppy for the metaphor to continue to work)

* More traditional clean versions of Waterparks songs started to come out after the switch to Fueled By Ramen, ranging from the sensible (Self-Sabotage switching out "what the fuck" for "what the hell") to the nonsensical (Funeral Grey switching out the infamous "baptized in my spit" line for "in my kiss", which means the kiss would have to be ''incredibly'' sloppy for the metaphor to continue to work)

After scrapping the previously recorded version of their third album, commonly referred to as ''Friendly Reminder'', Waterparks released ''FANDOM'' in 2019, now on Hopeless Records. A month after ''FANDOM'''s release, the band released "Entertainment 2019" and "Double Dare 2019", re-imagined and re-recorded mashup tracks of the first two albums in the style of ''FANDOM''. 2020 featured the release of the single "Lowkey as Hell" and the band's first live album/concert film, ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK''. Their fourth album, ''Greatest Hits'' (Not a GreatestHitsAlbum, a regular studio album) was released on May 21, 2021 on 300 Entertainment, a predominantly hip-hop label. 2022 featured their first single on Fueled By Ramen, "Funeral Grey", in the lead up to a new album.

** With the number of rock videos mocking pop stars, you might assume that it's intended to be a slam towards boy bands. Waterparks actually likes them! Awsten was also [[https://twitter.com/waterparks/status/794958678248005632 very proud of being called "the boy band to take the place of One Direction"]]

* LiteralistSnark: Featured in a tweet Awsten made in response to guilt-tripping fans:

* ArcNumber: 7 (As in Saturday at 7PM on the cover of FANDOM) and 103 (originally introduced in the video for We Need To Talk, but used more frequently for Greatest Hits)

** Since ''Double Dare,'' Awsten also tends to dye his hair [[KaleidoscopeHair different colors to reflect the moods and themes of each album cycle.]] He's gone from blue, for ''Double Dare,'' to purple, for ''Entertainment,'' to red, for the scrapped ''Friendly Reminder'' and currently has neon green for '''FANDOM.'' For the release of "Lowkey As Hell" as a single, it went back to his natural brown for the first time since the [=EP=] days, then ended up blue mixed with spots of red and yellow.
** This has become so expected that there was heavy speculation that the scrapped original third album, ''Friendly Reminder'' was going to be associated with red and that Awsten would dye his hair accordingly. He did, briefly, on the final dates of opening for One OK Rock. Then ''Friendly Reminder'' got scrapped and green was revealed as the era/theme color for the album that would eventually become known as ''FANDOM''. On top of the prior blue and green associations, green and red play a slight thematic role in the lyrics of ''FANDOM''.

* KaleidoscopeHair: Awsten's dyed his hair blonde, pink, blue, silver, purple, red, neon green, and as Greatest Hits, a multicolor blue/red/yellow hearts with alternating patterns including hearts and leopard spots.. Since he dyes his hair to coordinate with album cycles, which hair he'll go with next is a common speculation topic. He even has his own brand of Manic Panic hair dye, Knight Bright Purple.

After scrapping the previously recorded version of their third album, commonly referred to as ''Friendly Reminder'', Waterparks released ''FANDOM'' in 2019, now on Hopeless Records. A month after ''FANDOM'''s release, the band released "Entertainment 2019" and "Double Dare 2019", re-imagined and re-recorded mashup tracks of the first two albums in the style of ''FANDOM''. 2020 featured the release of the non-album single "Lowkey as Hell" and the band's first live album/concert film, ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK''. Their fourth album, ''Greatest Hits'' (Not a GreatestHitsAlbum, a regular studio album) was released on May 21, 2021.

Waterparks are represented by MDDN, the management company owned by Joel and Benji Madden of Music/GoodCharlotte. The band is currently signed to 300 Entertainment, a predominantly hip-hop label.

* KnifeNut: For the FANDOM Live premiere VIP and [[https://youtu.be/8v2DbLybKy0?t=1159 a Greatest Hits promotional interview]] with The Gunz Show, he brought out a knife near his video call setup which stuck around for the rest of the streams. He also has a recurring habit of comedic but risky poses with larger knives on his Instagram Stories.
--> '''Gunz''' (confused, as he only just noticed the knife): Awsten's got a knife, so, [chuckles] he's doing pretty well.
--> '''Geoff''': Why not, you know? Pretty on brand.

* MulticoloredHair: For ''Greatest Hits'', Awsten's hair is a combination of red, blue, and yellow (with patterns differing between dyings) to go with the red/blue/yellow theming of the album.

--> '''Awsten''': It’s about being built into something, based on an idealized version of you – an unwarranted one, at that – where people look at you as a certain thing...they put what they need you to be into their heads. It’s built into this thing that you cannot live up to, and it’s ultimately going to lead to disappointment – on their end, and my end, because it doesn’t feel good to let people down. But that’s just what happens. Pop banger, dude!

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: They generally hover around 4-5, but have dropped lower on some songs.
* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Ranges from a 4-6 with an occasional veer into 7.

->''"WATERPARKS IS [[BadassBoast THE ONLY BAND THAT MATTERS]].\\
[[NowBuyTheMerchandise BUY OUR ALBUM]] SO WE CAN GET A COOL PLATINUM RECORD TO HANG ON MY WALL.\\
SO I CAN [[WellDoneSonGuy EARN MY DAD'S RESPECT]].\\

* TitleTheAdaptation: [[http://www.playwaterparks.com Play: A Waterparks Game]], the HTML5 [[WebGames browser game]] released to promote ''Greatest Hits''.[[note]]Play itself refers to an older unreleased Parx song, "Play", which Awsten has only played on an Instagram Live.[[/note]]

* [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents American Accents]]: The Waterparks members don't have super noticeable accents that would stereotypically be associated with Texas. Awsten says "y'all" and "all y'all" a lot (even in written conversation), whereas Geoff (not a Texan native) and Otto rarely if ever use the terms at all.

* IconicItem: Awsten's "toe token" necklaces. Many fans make bootleg versions of the ones that Awsten wears, to the point where the band started officially selling them. Selling them officially presented a problem; normally "[[https://www.fitnessfinders.net/Toe-Tokens-s/21.htm toe tokens]]" are actually intended to be an incentive for kids in running clubs and are sold by a company called Fitness Finders. They initially didn't take too kindly to Awsten's unintentional appropriation of their product, but eventually, they worked things out.

** A pre-''FANDOM'' example: Geoff wears a choker with a [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Triforce]] on it, though occasionally it's switched out with a [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Poke Ball]].

** Through a mildly creepy song, a weird amount of affection, and persistence, Awsten has somehow convinced people to make him or help him make his WeaponOfChoice: the toothbat. It's [[BatterUp a bat]] with fake teeth embedded into it. People consequentially began to send real baby teeth to him for his toothbat, much to his chagrin. The fun never ends...?

* A subtle one for "VIOLET!": The song's official lyrics feature the line "I'm not leaving any signs / like the kind you think you find" at the end of the song...but they're not actually sung in the song itself, implying that Awsten expects the stalker to dig deep enough to find the discrepancy but to be self-aware enough to take the hint.

->''[[http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Waterparks:Tantrum Thank you for coming by]],\\

* "VIOLET!" shouts out Film/{{Misery}} and Series/{{You}} as a means of calling out Awsten's stalker's behavior.

** Waterparks' first full band cover has Awsten wearing a shirt saying "WHY DO THEY KEEP PUTTING HIM ON THE COVER".[[note]]Starting with issue 354 (with Awsten's first solo feature talking about Waterparks), AP introduced a redesign that increased the size of the magazine itself and prominently focusing on the cover photography. The downside of this is the redesign coincided with AP covers and their associated features focusing more on the frontperson instead of featuring the full band like before the redesign.[[/note]] Depending on the bundle one gets from the AP Store, you can even get a variant of that shirt for yourself!
** One that's not directly related to Waterparks fandom: When [=TikTok=] users made "I Miss Sex But At Least I Don't Wanna Die" into a meme on the platform, the song's popularity exploded. Awsten's response was to make a [=TikTok=] account...where he uses the song in the meme format in increasingly bizarre ways (or in otherwise normal posts that don't fit into [=TikTok=]'s expected formats) and jokes about how the label is making him do it. On the flip side, he does actually appreciate how well the song has been doing on streaming and later admitted to [=TikTok=] being good for music discovery akin to [=MySpace=] & introducing the band to casual audiences who experience Waterparks differently than your average Twitter stan. He would later start using [=TikTok=] more sincerely.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Otto occasionally gets to be lead singer during live shows, promo videos for outlets like Alternative Press, or for songs like the cover of "All By Myself" by Green Day. Alt Press has dubbed this "Ottoparks", which has been fully embraced by the fandom to the point where it got mentioned on a Waterparks tour t-shirt. Otto got to do vocals on the tail end of the US FANDOM tour to help back Awsten up due to voice issues. When Ottoparks actually happens live, it's sometimes an excuse for Awsten [[https://youtu.be/bwW3A8e3h6o to play]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqgS2FYJbao drums]].
---> I'M JUST HERE FOR OTTOPARKS. MY WIG FLIES FIRST CLASS WITH NO SEATBELT TO VENUS FOR OTTOPARKS.

--->'''Awsten''': I'd really like it if people on the internet would stop calling us pop-punk, because we're not that fucking ''basic'' and if you listen past, like, ''anything'' and you heard any of the ''fucking'' [[https://lotusmusic.com/chordtree.html chord trees]] or any of the ''fucking'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_(music) programming]] [[https://www.upsetmagazine.com/features/waterparks-oh-man-weve-learned-nothing I'm doing]], '''[[SuddenlyShouting YOU'D NOTICE THAT]]'''!

** Not everything from ''Friendly Reminder'' has been scrapped, some songs have been kept but reworked. Some of the demos for previously teased songs found themselves on ''1 (A COLLECTION OF UNRELEASED HOME DEMOS, THIS IS NOT G, OR EVEN AN ALBUM, SHUT UP ENJOY)''. The album ''does'' still exist and is in Awsten's possession...as [[https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/rough-mix/ rough mixes]] and as a mastered version he made for fun, just for himself. Deleting ''Friendly Reminder'' = deleting the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering stems]] that would allow Awsten to make an actually intended for release album.

Musically, Waterparks sets itself apart from similar bands through electronic elements, heavy pop influence, genre experimentation, honest to a fault lyrics, and is surprisingly heavy on certain songs. They also have an uncommonly sharp sense of humor. They often combine playful sarcasm, ComicalOverreacting, the occasional pop culture reference, [[SurrealHumor really weird shit]], and heavy doses of self-aware meta-humor at the expense of themselves, their fans, and others.

** Not everything from ''Friendly Reminder'' has been scrapped, some songs have been kept but reworked. Some of the demos for previously teased songs found themselves on ''1 (A COLLECTION OF UNRELEASED HOME DEMOS, THIS IS NOT G, OR EVEN AN ALBUM, SHUT UP ENJOY)''. The album ''does'' still exist and is in Awsten's possession...as [[https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/rough-mix/ rough mixes]], as Awsten deleted the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_mixing_and_mastering stems]] that would allow him to make an actually intended for release album.

* AlbumClosure: ''FANDOM'' ends with "I Felt Younger When We Met", a sad and raw song about the end of Awsten's relationship. Where it differs from other examples of the trope involves its emotional intensity and its very adrupt ending, which eventually ties back into the beginning of the album, providing no closure since Awsten didn't have any himself.
** "See You In The Future" provides (temporary) closure to the dream similar to a movie outro, but is incredibly chaotic, representing how real life can be more intense than dreams. The song ties up and calls back to certain thematic aspects of the album involving self-esteem and impermanance while also including stuff Awsten that wanted to rant about but didn't make it into a longer song.

** During "Stupid For You" on ''FANDOM: LIVE IN THE UK'', Awsten specifically thanks people viewing the digital and physical version of the concert film. This is turned into CheapHeat for the live album version on music streaming services. The implementation is clunky, as the originally mentioned "iTunes or something" is switched out for another service name depending on where you're listening, but Awsten is still talking about the film version on the track. These soundbites can range from still shoehorned but natural sounding Awsten [=YouTube Music=], sped up sorta robotic sounding Awsten (Spotify), and outright robotic sounding Awsten (Soundcloud). There's no soundbites in favor of the original "[=iTunes=] or something" mention on Apple Music and, surprisingly, Deezer.

* ConceptAlbum: ''FANDOM'' is about the cyclical nature of trauma and the intermingling of toxic fandom with Awsten's relationship fallout. If ''FANDOM'' is day, then ''Greatest Hits'' is the night after, representing a nightmare that's implied to repeat. This repeated cycle theme is expressed less directly in ''Greatest Hits'' than the outro of ''FANDOM'''s "I Felt Younger When We Met" leading back into album opener "Cherry Red". ''Greatest Hits'' also delves into wanting time to making up for past mistakes.

** ''FANDOM'' has the toe tag necklaces replaced with four rings and a nice watch.

* MulticoloredHair: For the Lowkey as Hell video, Awsten's hair is blue with spots of red and yellow. This tracks less with his album/era associated hair colors (which tend to be one solid color) and more with how [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM1Cotbi-3Q he's represented individual songs with synesthesia]].

* NobodyLovesTheBassist: After bad experiences with bassists, Waterparks decided to not have one as Awsten, Geoff, and Otto get along well and didn't want to disrupt that balance by having another member involved. Instead, the band use fill-in bassists in studio (and occasionally live) when it's not just Awsten playing and pre-recorded backing tracks during shows. While they might not want a bassist, questions about why they don't have one and if they'd consider having one abound, much to their chagrin. This has opened up some great collaborations, like Mikey Way performing bass on the ''Cluster'' EP and ''Greaand live for Waterparks on Warped Tour. In that case, everyone loves the bassist!

** "This line's here to say "Fuck ''Series/The100''"/

** "See You In The Future" features a straightforward diss Music/ZaynMalik, who Awsten previously complained about "breaking up" One Direction, but also features a deliberately inaccurate one towards Elon Musk and his cybertruck. The Elon Musk Take That is intended to highlight how things that are weird to be mad about can set people off as much as deeper, valid feelings.