My Chemical Romance: Teenagers Meaning
Song Released: 2007
Teenagers Lyrics
With all the lies in the books
To make a citizen out of you
Because they sleep with a gun
And keep an eye on you, son
So they can watch all the things you do
Because the drugs never work
They're gonna...
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Okay, I love this song but I do find it rather insolent to those of us who aren't like this. I am a 15 year old girl who finds that our generation is constantly being put down by our elders. And it is ridiculous because a large portion of us are respectable and decent. We are products of our environment. Has anyone ever stopped to think that maybe we are sick of being stereotyped? That maybe that's why teenagers act up and misbehave. We are automatically assumed to 'scare the shit out of [older citizen members]' and be rude and cause havoc. It is put in our heads to be like that and that we will be treated consequently. Therefore, why not acted as we at expected? I believed that old farts insulting us on buses and shop assistant automatically assuming we are going to loot a store the minute we walk in is part of the reason we show disrespect.
For instance, I, like I said, am 15. I attend a private school and I'm in year 11. I get straight A's and I have a job at a local Chemist. I don't have any outrageous piercings or tattoos, save my belly ring, and I don't wear 'emo' make-up. The most 'darkened clothing' I have is my (occasional) black nail polish. I want to be a computer programmer or a children's phycologist when I finish school and Uni. Do I sound like the type of teenager most people stereotype us as? You wouldn't think so but, evidently, because I am in our age group, I am automatically going to spray paint ever wall I see and steal from every shop I enter. I went shopping with some friends of mine one weekend. Decided to pop into Noni B to get something for my mother for her birthday. Even though none of my friends and I were wearing trashy, gothic or emo clothing and most of us didn't even have bags with us, even single one of the middle-aged shop assistants dropped what they were doing and watched us like hawks. All the other customers were free to browse without the fish-eye treatment but every move we made was watched. And all because we were born in this generation.
All in all, my point is that maybe you should lay off us, give us a chance. You might be surprised.
Again, brilliant song. -
I think that its a song about society, or old peoples, view on teenagers... I don't know how anyone could think badly about teenagers tho, they're awesome! and I know because I'm one of them
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People it's about violence in schools
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Teenagers is literally about today's generation. It has grown to the point where teenagers are more terrifying to adults than something such as an atomic bomb. The adults are trying to do something about it, but it seems like the only thing to do is to fit in. "they sleep with a gun and keep an eye on you son... because the drugs never work..."
if you look at "if your troubled and hurt, what you've got under your shirt, will make them pay for the things they did" it's about weapons and violence.
In fitting into the concept of the album, the song is about the suicidal kids in the parade. -
It's about a kid who doesn't fit in and gets picked on and all that hatred builds up and it talks about "if you traveled in hurt what you got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did" that means I'm gonna shoot you punk so die you bully and that's why teenagers scare the living s*** out of him because they use permanent solutions for little things. That's what I think
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They're gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies on the books
To make a citizen out of you
Because they sleep with a gun
And keep an eye on you son
So they can watch all the things you do
(The teachers and more dominant students push other students around. Controlling what they think and what they do)
Because the drugs never work
They're gonna give you a smirk
Cause they got methods
Of keeping you clean
They're gonna rip off your heads
Your aspirations to shreds
Another cog in the murder machine
(When your life is already feeling wrotten after peing pushed around by other students, you turn to drugs to feel better but sadly, it doesn't work. Because the mean students make you MUCH more miserable than you already are so there's no point. They taunt you, make fun of you, embarass you and smush your dreams into pieces)
They said all teenagers scare the living shit out of me
They could care less as long as someone'll bleed
So darken your clothes
Or strike a violent pose
Maybe they'll leave you alone
But not me
(Teenagers scare him because all they want is more violance in the world. So they go emo and start abusing themselves but that method did not work)
The boys and girls in the clique
The awful names that they stick
You're never gonna fit in much kid
But if you're troubled and hurt
What you got under your shirt
Will make them pay for the things that they did
(the jocks and the popular students call you arful names so that no one would want to get to know them. And soon, when they're at their breaking point and can't take it anymore, they carry a gun or knife under their shirt and hurt those who hurt them.
-summergurl94 -
Ok, after some reading of what some other people have said one here, and hearing the song a lot, I think I have an idea of what it means, I think.
It's just about teenagers (like me just a VERY short while ago, I JUST turned 19, wow that feels weird to say.... I still think of myself as a teenager a lot of the time, but anyway..) have all this crap to deal with.
They’re gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies in the books
To make a citizen out of you
Because they sleep with a gun
And keep an eye on you,son
So they can watch all the things you do
this first part is about how teenagers have to deal with adults, wanting them to act the way society says nice pleasant happy teenagers should act/be/dress. yeah, that was not me.
Because the drugs never work
They’re gonna give you a smirk
‘Cause they got methods of keeping you clean
This part isn't clear to me. I think that they're meaning more of like drugs for ADHD and other drugs for "behavior problems" just don't work, I have one friend whose been on everything for that type of stuff. They gave up on what to give her and decided to give her nothing because nothing "helped", but I think that, while she is hyper, she's fine. But at the same time it could mean drugs that you're not supposed to have, and the adult have ways (methods) of keep the teenagers clean... I'm not sure here.
They’re gonna rip off your heads
Your aspirations to shreds
Another cog in the murder machine
just (by personality) trying to destroy a person, change them so that they fit into what you want them to be. or try to scar someone into changing. Something along those lines. The adult being on one trying to change the teenager.
They said all teenagers scare
The living shit out of me
They could care less
As long as someone’ll bleed
So darken your clothes
Or strike a violent pose
Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me
The group/band/person isn't saying that all teenager are scary heartless monsters. They can scar by how they look, but I think it's also referring to how mean some of them are. I have some personality problems that will probably never go away because I was made fun of so badly for so long. Like when sometimes when a bunch of people walk past me laughing at something (I have no clue what) and look like the type that made fun of me, I have to tell myself that they're not laughing at me. Some teenagers / preteens are mean and curl, and don't care how badly their words hurt another teen / preteen, and actually enjoy cutting them down, just for fun (that's the could care less, someone'll bleed part). And if you darken your clothes or act violent to scar them off, then the mean ones might leave you alone, but not always.
The boys and girls in a clique
The awful names that they stick
You’re never gonna fit in much, kid
But if you’re troubled and hurt
What you got under your shirt
Will make them pay for the things that they did
preps call people names, and some people just don't fit in with them, like me didn't want to, just wanted to be left alone. as far as the thing under your shirt that with make them pay, I'm betting a gun. and we go back into the part about how teenagers scar the living shit out of me. I mean isn't that a little scary? some teenagers with be so mean to others that it drives the other one to try to kill them? I know what it feels like, TRUST ME, but just step back and think about that. Some people are that mean, and won't have common respect for each other, they think that's it's all just a game and for fun, until someone gets shot for "playing around". and trust me, I know what it's like to be there. There was this one guy in high school (I'm female by the way, and non-violent under normal conditions) who would make fun of me so badly and so much for shit that happened in middle school, it made me want to walk up to him and punch him as hard as I could. The only reason that I didn't do that, he's pretty strong (sports and the like), and I'm pretty freaking weak, so if I started a fight, he would win. I was mad, not stupid, big difference.
maybe the whole song is about trying to get the mean ones to stop it, because it's not "just fun and games" and it's not "just a good joke". It's mean and just f**king wrong. and it's those mean people that change who the people they're making fun of are, I know that they did me, and it's those changes that turn them to killing, and that's what scary. and to stop the killing, you just show respect for each other, who would have thought of that.
and thinking back on it all (YAY - this is the part where I ramble on and on), it is scary just how far some teens push others. I was dark, tripp pants and black hoddies, partly because I like the color black (even still now I like it, it's just a cool color), and it did make some of them leave me alone. It work really one for another friend of mine. She was made fun of, and so she decided that she wanted to look tougher so they would leave her alone, so she dyed her blond hair to black, and dressed in all black. I met her after this change, and I think that the black hair really fit who she was during that part of her life. And after that change, people did really leave her alone, she did her own thing, and people didn't really talk about her much at all, you know, gossip and such. For some people, become dark like that and dressing like that isn't to conform or be fake, it's to be free who they really were, at least that's how it was for me. I wasn't "goth", "punk", or "grunge", and I stayed away from people like that, I just dressed in black because I like the color, and you know what? it fits me really freakin well, some girls look good in pink, I look good in black, my dad even told me that. My boyfriend... well, I'll not go there for the innocent people, let's just say there's some skirts and corset shirts from hot topic that he loves seeing me in, and I even dyed my hair black for him once (wash out type dye), as we both thought that it looked awesome. I'll stop going on and on now. -
This song is rather ironic. Well, maybe not the song itself, but the group that is doing it. This group is aimed more at the teenager emo-esc group. And this is the same type of group that he is saying is selfish and takes problems out of control. It is deliciously ironic. Perhaps they're saying that they know what this group may be going through as well, but teens now-a-days compared to when he was a teen are scary as sh*t. Well, that statement is a little extreme...but you get my point. Think about all the school violence that have happened lately. I like the song and I'm honestly not a huge MCR fan. I tend to think they're out of my age range as far as fans are concerned (i'm 21).
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Whoever said teens think they know more than adults Is cause they do and I m not even a teen
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I think it's about high school cliques constantly fighting each other until one beaten dude resorts to violence. Gerard doesn't like the violence so that's kinda why it scares the shit outta him
i dunno, this I just what I think -
This song is really about a kid who is all most like a prep and the populars make fun of him/her and "what you got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did " the so called prep kid becomes emo of the pain they bring
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Admittingly, I don't know a lot about My Chemical Romance. But my interpretation of it is that it's completely from a parent's perspective of their child. If Gerard was puzzled by teenagers in a subway, maybe he was wondering how difficult it must be for their parents to understand them. So rather it's about conforming to one's parents, than the cliques at school. It's about parents trying to control their teenage child, rather than trying to understand them the way that they are, hence the watching everything that they do; cleaning up their image for the public; and 'ripping their heads off' when they screw up; tearing their dreams down because they 'have methods of keeping them clean', or rather bringing them back to reality.
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Ummm people keep on saying that teens are more violent and stuff now days. Truth be told there less violent. Teens just seem more violent due to the media's tendency to report bad things...think of it is some kid was able to memorize the dictionary more eye catching over some huge fight or shooting at a school?
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I think it's really funny. It's like how society wants to mold us into what they think we should be, but as teens we're saying "viva revolucion!" and that scares the **** out of folk.
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If you take the lyrics literally it's kind of scary, but I think it's about a person's potential. Like how if you push and push someones gonna go over the edge (especially teens).
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