What do you think This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race means?

Fall Out Boy: This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race Meaning

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Album cover for This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race album cover

Song Released: 2007


This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race Lyrics

I am an arms dealer
Fitting you with weapons in the form of words
And don't really care, which side wins
As long as the room keeps singing
That's just the business I'm in.

This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race
This ain't a scene,...

  1. anonymous
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    May 28th 2007 !⃝

    This song is written in first person in the point of view from Satan.
    "I am an arms dealer. Fitting you with weapons in the form of words"
    What you speak has great power over people. If you say someone is dumb and not smart eventually they will lead to belive that. and be under the impression that they are dumb.
    In this case the "weapons" are negative insults, which are in the form of words.

    "I don't really care which side wins" "thats the business I'm in"

    And satan really doesn't care who wins. as long as he can bring down as many people away from GOD as posible.
    Thats his job.

    "This ain't a scene it's a God damn arms race"

    NO its not a scene and it is an arms race. He uses God's name in vain. Satan just wants to bring people down with him into hell.

    "im a leading man, and the lies I weave are oh so intricate."

    Satan is a leading man in the World where all he tires to do is hide lies and make them look pretty and attractive. But in the end those lies you fall for only bring you down even worse inside.
    For example. You see some money in your friends room. U have a voice in your head that says hmm yea maybe I should take it, it will be alright no one will know. But then when you commit the SIN you feel all guilty inside and convicted.

    "I wrote the gospel on giving up"

    Satan doesn't want people to prosper all he wants to do is stuff your life up and keep you away from Jesus Christ. He is the author of lies and deception.

    "At night we're painting your trash gold while you sleep"

    Satan takes "trash" or lies and sin and paints it gold to make it look pretty and appear safe.

  2. anonymous
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    May 16th 2007 !⃝

    DeliBeli you have some stuff mixed up... panic! would not be around if pete, from fall out boy, didn't sign Panic! as a band.... So you are off a little bit

  3. taka
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    Mar 31st 2007 !⃝

    the last interpretation is the accurate one. just for emos and punk peoples!

  4. anonymous
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    Mar 26th 2007 !⃝

    I think the song is about the homosexual Scene, which clearly all punk rockers and emo peeps belong to. The "Arms Race" is a race to have the tightest jeans, most eyeliner, and gayest hairdo.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  5. anonymous
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    Mar 12th 2007 !⃝

    "As much as I love FOB, it's not a subliminal message to Panic! Cuz FOB wouldnt exist if it weren't for Panic!"

    Are you serious? I'm pretty sure I went to a show with FOB headlining and Panic! opening. Idiot.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 11th 2007 !⃝

    It's a subliminal message to Panic at the Disco. FOB is mad at Panic and are trying to kick them out of the "scene", and the only reason hot topic will not be stocking FOB's new album is because Brendon is having a "secret affair" with the CEO of Hot Topic.


    ***
    Umm.... patd were discovered by pete wentz and are signed with his Fueled by Ramen imprint label Decaydance. Soo...you look a bit wrong now

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 5th 2007 !⃝

    The arms dealer reffers to the commercial songwriters, who write songs (weapons) for bands. They don't care which band wins, as long as the crowd sings one of their songs. This basically means labels don't care about bands and their success, as long as one of their bands is scoring hits. It's a statement against commercialization of music.

    This ain't a scene (in sense of a group of currently popular artists in a genre, whereas they share the same music, but are also each others competitors). The scene is an arms race because:
    1. You have to fight for your place
    2. You are under constant attack by other bands, press and even your own fans
    3. The bands fight among each other to score hit songs, which is really important for the labels that decide whether you stay on the scene

    "I'm a leading man" - he is the lead singer, the one that spreads the weapons / lyrics. The lies he weaves are so intricate (intricate means complex), because most bands want their lyrics to appear as their own / authentic, while they are actually written by others for commercial reasons.

    The boys the dance floor didn't love - probably a reference to failed boy-bands, as in these bands it's important to dance in a flashy way. The dance floor didn't love them, means they weren't good enough dancers.

    The girls' whose lips couldn't move fast enough - seems to me this one is about lip-syncing, as lip-sync pop-star girls are the female counterpart of the dancing boy band boys. These girls couldn't lip sync well enough, a metaphore for girls who didn't have what it takes to make it as a pop star.

    Why do they call these two 'groups' to sing along? The failed boy-band boys and pop star girls are the ones who couldn't make it in the commercial music branche. They know how hard the scene is, therefore they know it's an arm race.

    I agree that the video explains a lot of the lyrics, especially FOB's attitude toward fake fans, press and competing bands (Panic).

    The song is generally an FU toward the people above, they jokingly admit they are commercial and fake, as FOB has been accused of a lot. They sarcastically admit to all of these, as if they want to say: so what if all that is true? Our music will still sell.

  8. anonymous
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    Mar 2nd 2007 !⃝

    I just watched the music video and I think that they are just all pissed off because they think that everyone is just so obsessed with them being supposedly a "sell out band" or whatever. I think people these days and kids these days just go around thinking that if your punk you can't listen to rap or if you listen to rap you can't listen to rock. I mean everyone just puts up these invisible borders between everyone else and its just all pointless.

  9. anonymous
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    Feb 28th 2007 !⃝

    yea and there's also Seth Green(another movie star) in the funeral scene. "dreams again?" refers to the bad dreams that Pete Wentz had as a kid. He still thinks about them and wrote a book about them.

  10. St.J
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    Feb 27th 2007 !⃝

    "Submitted by: anonymous
    Added: 2007-02-04 01:10:49

    What is an arms dealer? REALLY? And what is this bandwagon they speak of? A bandwagon can never be full....silly FOB"


    An Arms dealer is a guy who sells arms. no not the body part but guns and stuff. as for the bandwagon, there probably talkaing about the bandwagon of the genre or of their band perhaps?

  11. anonymous
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    Feb 24th 2007 !⃝

    interesting..but the camera photo shoot refers to when pictures of petes penis surfaced on the internet last year.

  12. paniqluv
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    Feb 24th 2007 !⃝

    DeliBeli, you have it mixed up, Panic! wouldn't exist without Fall Out Boy, not what you said. See: Pete signed them because Ryan sent him demos via Purevolume

  13. psPatrick2707
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    Feb 17th 2007 !⃝

    like most FOB songs I couldn't figure this one out until I saw the whole Panic! fiasco everyone was talking about and I listened to it again and realized it all fits.

  14. DeliBeli
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    Feb 12th 2007 !⃝

    As much as I love FOB, it's not a subliminal message to Panic! Cuz FOB wouldnt exist if it weren't for Panic!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
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    Feb 12th 2007 !⃝

    I think most of them are right, id just like to add that they make fun of a7x, when pete's on the cascet, with the guitar, go on youtube and type in seize the day music video and you'll see wat I mean




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