Creativity Quote by Joel Madden

Madden frames music less as product than as permission slip: a sanctioned exit from the roles you’re assigned and the ones you keep performing. The repetition of “supposed to” is doing quiet work here. It’s not a dreamy description of art; it’s a claim about what music owes its audience, and an implied complaint that the industry often forgets. “Escape” isn’t just about tuning out. It’s about stepping into a space where the stakes drop and identity becomes optional, remixable.

The line lands because it speaks in the language of expectation rather than theory. Madden isn’t arguing that music is intrinsically liberating; he’s insisting it should function that way for the listener. That “somewhere you go” turns sound into a place, a kind of informal sanctuary. You don’t have to justify yourself there, you don’t have to be legible, you don’t have to be consistent. For anyone who grew up with pop-punk, emo, or radio rock as a lifeline, that’s the point: the song isn’t a sermon, it’s a hiding spot with a chorus.

There’s also a subtle tension in “be yourself, or be whatever you want to be.” It admits that authenticity is only one fantasy music sells. The other is transformation: trying on a louder voice, a different swagger, a version of you that daily life won’t accommodate. In a culture that constantly demands branding, Madden’s idea of music is refreshingly unbranded: escape not into emptiness, but into possibility.