Released July 9, 2007 Genre Emo Label Reprise | Recorded July 26, 2006 Length 2:41 | |
Format CD single, 7" vinyl, digital download | ||
"Teenagers" is the fourth and final single and the eleventh track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It is the third United States single from the album, but it is the fourth single released in the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Australia and Canada. This song is the band's eleventh overall single. The song was released to radio on May 15, 2007.
Contents
Background
Gerard Way is quoted as saying that he wrote the song after finding himself in a New York subway car full of high schoolers: "That was the first time I felt old...I was nervous and I was a target. I felt like I had become a parent figure or part of the problem."
About the relationship between the song and concerns about gun violence, Way said:
This song was #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. This song was also #80 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007. The single is certified double Platinum by the RIAA.
Critical reception
My Chemical Romance surprised many critics by the musical style of "Teenagers". It incorporates elements of pop punk, hard rock and 8 bar blues. This earned them mostly positive reviews from critics. A reviewer from NME wrote, "Some bands go out of their way to do a song with a sound they're never bound to do, then release it as a single. They usually fail. My Chemical Romance tried a substantially different sound for this song, and it paid off. The message is simple, the chorus is catchy and Ray Toro's solo joins the chorus and bridge together so smoothly." The song managed to grab 5 stars in both NME and AbsolutePunk.net as well as 4/5 from IMDb.
Chart performance
The song entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at #2, before debuting at #87 on the Hot 100 the following week as the "Hot Shot" debut of the week, and peaked at #67. It has reached #23 on the Pop 100, and #13 on Modern Rock Tracks. It also debuted at #42 in the UK, and became the band's fourth straight top 20 hit from The Black Parade and their third top ten hit from the album, peaking at #9. It debuted at number 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart.
Music video
The music video opens with an almost shot-for-shot tribute to the first scene of Pink Floyd's film The Wall. Further links to The Wall are seen when cheerleaders don gas masks similar to those worn by the teenaged and young adult fans in the film.
The video was posted by the band via their YouTube channel on May 30, 2007 and has since obtained over 100 million views. Sometime around November 1, 2007, the video passed the "Famous Last Words" video as the third most played video on the site. This version of the video cut out the word "shit". The MTV version differs from the YouTube version; notably the teenagers breaking in was cut out, as well as the words "gun", "shit", and "murder". The video has debuted on Total Request Live.
This video made its world premiere in New Zealand, which was also the first country in which The Black Parade reached number one. Multiple pirated versions of the video surfaced on the internet days before the American debut.
The music video version of the song (directed by Marc Webb) seems to have some added audio. During and onwards the lyrics "They say all teenagers scare the living shit out of me", there are piano notes playing in the background in the style of western music (during live performances, the piano plays along to the music even more so). The album version of the song does not have this piano playing until the coda.
In other media
The video for "Teenagers" can be seen and heard on the television in one scene of the television series Bionic Woman, in the episode "Do Not Disturb". This song is also featured in an episode of Dog The Bounty Hunter, the 2008 film Never Back Down, and an episode of LA Ink, in which tattoo artist Kat Von D tattoos Frank Iero. The main riff of the single was featured in the seventh episode of Dirty Sexy Money' "The Wedding". It is also included on the Saints Row 2 soundtrack.
It was made available for download for the Xbox 360's Guitar Hero II game on August 15, 2007, along with "Famous Last Words", and "This Is How I Disappear", adding to their song shipped with the game, "Dead!". It was also made available for download with full guitar, drum, bass, and vocals charts for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
Track listing
Version 1 (promotional CD)
Version 2 (CD and 7" vinyl)
Version 3 (7" vinyl)
Version 4 (CD)
Version 5 (digital download)