Rush Fans Analysis - Why Introverts Love (and relate to) the Band RUSH

There are certain bands whose popularity and acclaim is so great, they get into a top tier of fame - basically “legendary” status. It seems like there isn’t much disagreement about some of these bands - the Beatles, Floyd, the Stones and Led Zeppelin - whether they’re your favorites or not, you have to admit they are in that tier with most people. Being a Rush fan is weird because to you there’s this band that OBVIOUSLY deserves to be thought of in the same terms as those legendary bands, but to most people they’re almost invisible.
“Ohhh… that ‘Tom Sawyer’ band? Yeah, they’re ok I guess…”
SMH

Rush are not just a band - they are a Culture

Super analysis. Are geeks and nerds possibly subsets of introversion?

Hi and thanks for this - I'm a fan and probably centered on the introvert/extrovert scale. I remember Geddy saying he appreciates that Alex generally takes the lead with adoring fans and seems to enjoy engaging with them more than Geddy. Neil def introvert, Geddy middle and Alex leans (or more) extro.

A Rush fan since 1976, and before that Zeppelin was my band, with Sabbath a close second. when i first heard Dream Theater in 1989, I was just as impressed by them as i was with Rush. Dream Theater is definitely one of those Introspective Bands that have top of their game musicians, as well as otherworldly songwriting skills. I just turned 63 not long ago, but i still have the same passion for Music as I did when I first heard White Room by Cream all those years ago... My first video with you Nena, very well presented. Subbed.

I think there can be quite an overlap in traits between introvert and autistic.

As an introvert, I love Rush for all the reasons you named. If fact, their music was my best friend while going up - spent more time with them than anyone else.

I'm definitely an introvert, but my feelings are actually extroverted, if that makes sense, so I'm constantly steiving to balance a need for time to myself with a need to connect regularly with other people.

The funny thing about Alez Lifeson , as he himself says, is that he is not a trained musician. He often says " I just put my fingers where it sounds good, I do t the names of these chords".

He is a brilliant player for someone who isn't consciously thinking in terms of music theory when he is writing his parts.

Okay. Psychoanalyze me. I am a total introvert with tendency to being an extrovert...but not too much.

I like other bands but I love rush feels as if everything is lesser from other musicians as in the 3 man orchestra vs more band members making far less noise.....does that make sense 😂

eh, i think the appeal is really to intellectually minded people. a lot of intellectuals are introverts

i never thought of it this way but i'm a huge rush fan and an introvert.

Thanks for this intelligent & thought provoking video, Nena.

For me, Lifeson definitely has extrovert tendencies. He's a storyteller & perpetual joker, two things not generally associated with introverts.

Great video, thanks!

All the rush fans that say Neil Peart is a god are the introverts

I do believe myself that Rush is a introvert’s paradise. I’m somewhat of an introvert. Rush has always spoke to me so directly!

I definitely appreciate what you said in this video about introverts. For me personally you really nailed it. Music is very much a part of life for me. Infact, I have a master playlist with very specific songs I call Silence The World. Thanks so much for taking the time to do these videos.

Introverts huh? I prefer the term intelligent. Quite the opposite of....Never mind.

I just subscribed based on you being a Rush fan. :) Your point that being introverted is not the same as being shy is one I never considered but I believe is correct, especially in my case. I'm an introvert based on my results on the Myers-Briggs test and because I exhibit the traits you mentioned, e.g., I like being alone. I'm also a lawyer and I actually enjoy going to court. Contrary to what you see on the lawyer shows, no one actually yells and pounds on the table when in court. Facts matter as does applying the law to the facts. This is an analytical task. I don't go into court to make small talk with the judge. I go in and have a substantive dialogue with the judge in a logical and analytical manner. On the other hand, I find making small talk at parties to be exhausting. If my wife tells me that we've been invited to a party, my first thought is how can I get out of it.

Thank you very much
Awesome video about the best of best Rush.
Greetings from El Salvador

Glad to see you back 😊

As a Dx’d introvert (ISTJ On Myers-Briggs 3x) you’re spot on. I think I’ve come full circle, with your remark about Limelight. It was truly, the very first Rush song I ever heard, in my brand new car, that I received for graduation, the summer of 1981.

Hello Nina. Just a thought. The fact that a musician is an introvert or an extrovert seems to have little influence on his or her talent. For example, Neil Peart was an introvert while Mike Portnoy is a major extrovert. Yet, they are both considered among the greatest modern rock drummers.

Nena, thank you for helping break the idea that only guys are Rush fans. 🙂

I love Rush. They were my favorite band for decades. (Now my favorite band is The Warning) My first concert with my son was Rush - Test for Echo and after the show we were at home having a post concert snack and he looked at me and said, "Dad, you know what? New bands suck" From that point on we attended all but one tour. I am an introvert and my son is an extrovert yet when he listened to Rush he got quiet and contemplated the lyrics like an introvert would. It's amazing to me at how three humble musicians can make an introvert feel accepted and an extrovert stop whatever he's doing and think about a specific line. "The point of the journey is not to arrive>"

Im not introvert , i knew about 50 rush female fans in Northern indiand in Junior high school , and we were a school of about 350 , me and dozens of rush fans there were considered stoners and not the brightest it was 1980 in

Years ago i was in an accidental RUSH cover band. It was me and the guitar friend at first just playing classic rock then soon after had a bass friend who came on. We started playing some rush and soon found out we all had the same love for rush. We were all good at our instruments and we came out of our shell a bit whenever we were playing. It lasted 3 years until bass player got a traveling job, sorry for the rant but it was the greatest 3 years musically and socially in my life.

Another band that appeals to us introverts is YES. Of course, Geddy Lee wound up playing bass for Yes at one point after Chris Squire died. Yes has been around in one form or another since the late 1960s. They made their best, really intricate, thickly layered music in the 1970s. Sometimes they wrote impenetrable lyrics. But they were always amazing. 50+ years later, Close to the Edge and Relayer (albums) still amaze people.

I don't think I became a fan, or remained one due to being an introvert. Feels like a coincidence to me. I was introduced with 2112.

Ex wife definitely isn't an introvert, and she became a fan after I introduced her to Counterparts right after we met.

Good excuse to listen to some Rush again...

bullshit!

All members of Rush have been introverts without any doubt. Neil had been INTP writing virtually all lyrics with an intensely analytical approach to drumming and certainly the most guarded introvert of Rush very rarely participating in promo work or interviews. Neil wrote all the concert gazette booklets while being heavily involved in band artwork coordination while also writing several books in between reading several thousands of books and travelling alone by bike or motorcycle between concert dates. Alex is ISFP with a reflective, amazing, spontaneous personality with by far the most incredibly funny sense of humor but still reserved introverted with the public at large even in meet and greets. The "Bla Bla Bla" Ametican RRHOF speech goes down as the most spontaneous, outrageously funny, and overtly provocative responses to the RRHOF bitter rock establishment which ignored Rush throughout most of the band's history which only ferociously loyal Rush fans made quite clear. Geddy is also very introverted as ISFJ for the typical average of rock's lead singers acting as the vocal leader of course but completely consumed and has been the glue to numerous aspects of Rush in studio (crushed with the musical fusion details from inception to mixing) and live in concert (transposing Neil's lyrics to sing, being assertive in the rhythm section on bass and taurus pedals while going to many keyboard parts while still singing). All three are private introverted guys. The easiest way to see this is that both Alex and Geddy are quite deliberate and considerate in responses in interviews and by no means extroverted types. The funniest part about interviews is that Neil was by far the most expressive and quickest talker on several subjects quickly going one on one when engaged and comfortable in an interview with witty sense of humor of his own. We in fact know more about Neil in Rush than Geddy or Alex by the immense amount of written pages of well written books. Geddy just showed recently much more of his colorful peraonality with his own books about bass, interviewing bass players, and of course the intense memoir.

this is an amazing channel. I consider rush and type o negative underrated so it's great that you're giving them attention

She just described me perfectly!

Before your analysis I would have totally said that I was an extrovert but now that I've heard your description I might be swayed to say I'm more of an introvert. You brought up the musicianship aspect of the fandom but I also have to point out that a lot of people in the media or in the audio-visual world specifically are also very into Rush and tend to be very introverted as well.

Many Rush fans are friends on the Internet. Many, myself included, have found lifelong relationships/husbands/wives.

I was a big fan of Rush. There were a few songs I did not like, but only a few. Most likely due to the way airplay was done back in the day where they would play hit songs on replay so much that I got sick of them.
That said. The technical expertise, the lyrics, and execution, and above all their refusal to compromise their art for the sake of fame is what kept me as a fan for all these years. They strived for their music to sound as good in concert as it did in the studio. They did not let me down. I still mourn Neil Pearts passing even today.

Me to a T!

I was exceedingly fortunate to have seen them live 15 times, and one of the things I got used to is during the long "halftime" of shows I would talk to other Rush fans. The most common factors among us seemed to be growing up either playing an instrument or having parents who exposed us to a wide variety of music. I am convinced most young people today are only exposed to music with 2 or 3 notes played over and over and one steady beat, and they have almost zero understanding of what music can be. I hope that trend changes over time.

I tried to comment on your short regarding this, but for whatever reason, I was denied the opportunity. (Gen Z indie pop-rock band) Paramore singer Hayley Williams has stressed in many radio and TV interviews that Geddy and Rush are a HUGE influence on both her and her band. And you can hear the Geddy/Rush influence in Paramore's prog-sounding songs like "Decode" and "The News." I first laughed (and cringed) when I heard this, but a fellow diehard Rush fan said he believed her claim was legitimate, and he added that Hayley and Geddy's voice ranges are close to one another.

The most intelligent rock band in the galaxy.

Huge Rush fan since 1980 and giant introvert for as long as I can recall

This is my favorite band. Excellent observations.

Nice analysis, and it's very rare that I can watch several minutes of something I know about, and come away knowing more and not having a single quibble. YAY you, because almost nobody can pull that off.

I was a Rush fan in the late 70s and somewhat ever since, also a hard-line Randian Objectivist, and while I can address a room, there aren't many rooms I would want to address. Because most rooms take me away from my own interests, and yes, that is draining.

So thanks for the gains/loses energy analysis of intro/extro-version. It may have been understood for a long time, but I'm very much a believer that nearly all psychology and sociology is pure quackery, so baby and bathwater go right out the window, right together. Regardless, it's a beautiful summary, and I think it's completely on point.

A topic you might want to address (or already have?) is people believing that only their personal halcyon days music is "real music". I don't buy into that crap (and even posted a crude demo of my song "nOiZe" about exactly that), but maybe someone like you should do a little vivisection on it.

What's maybe even more interesting is when there are new creators of halcyon days music. The last 10-15 years of metal coming from many very talented girl groups in Japan like Band-Maid, Nemophila, and Aldious, is my own personal favorite case of this. I instantly became a fan of Lovebites, who are now one of my all-time favorites. Then I find out that so many of their Western fans are my own generation who stumbled across them like I did.

And then there are the people who "outgrow" their halcyon days music, and replace it with something objectively worse like social-conservative pseudo-"country" or "adult" contemporary, and almost always for social or political 'reasons'.

Anyway, I'll be browing your channel looking for treasure....

All Rush fans love big.......sound! lol

I was a nerdy kid in high school, and I remember singing along to Subdivisions when I attended those great Rush concerts here in Virginia in the 1980s.

Given the current political climate, how about an analysis of “The Trees”?

I’m glad that you issued a disclaimer that your tie-in of the “I” is in general. I am an “E” as in ENTJ and I have a high level of appreciation for what went on behind the music to produce such exceptional intellectual ear and mind candy. So deep, so genuine, so serious, so reflective, so playful, so thought provoking summed up in one descriptive word, RUSH.

Heyyyyyyyyy! I'm finally back! Missed you guys and would love to hear your thoughts on Rush and if you agree with this analysis! Let me know what you'd like me to cover next week!
xo Nena