"Teenagers" is the fourth and final single and the eleventh track from

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist Mi ...

's third studio album, ''

The Black Parade ''The Black Parade'' is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released in Europe on October 20, 2006, through Reprise Records, it was produced by the band with Rob Cavallo, known for having produced multiple albums fo ...

'' (2006). It was the third United States single from the album, but the fourth released in the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Australia and Canada. The song was released to radio on May 15, 2007. Despite charting at #67 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, "Teenagers" is their highest single on the Pop 100 at #23. It also made number 9 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background

Gerard Way Gerard Arthur Way (born April 9, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and comic book writer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and co-founder of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He released his debut solo album, ''Hesitant Alien'', i ...

wrote the song after finding himself in a

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car full of high schoolers who were "running around, being all violent ndbreaking shit", which Way felt was very different from when he was teenager himself. As he told ''

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'', "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 Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, a ...

, Way said:

Critical reception

A reviewer from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' 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 Raymond Toro (born July 15, 1977) is an American musician who serves as lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the band My Chemical Romance. Early life Toro was born July 15, 1977, in Kearny, New Jersey. He is of Puerto Rican-Portuguese herita ...
's solo joins the chorus and bridge together so smoothly."

The song was rated 5 stars in both ''NME'' and AbsolutePunk.net and 4/5 from

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. The song was #25 on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007. This song was also #80 on ''

MTV Asia MTV was a pan-Asian music pay-television channel which launched on 3 May 1995 as a standalone pay television channel. It was owned by Paramount Networks EMEAA. History MTV Asia was officially launched on 3 May 1995 as a 24-hour English-languag ...

''s list of Top 100 Hits of 2007. The single is certified double Platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Chart performance

The song entered the

Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...

chart at #2, before debuting at #87 on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

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 The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

Music video

The music video opens with an almost shot-for-shot tribute to the first scene of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

's film ''

The Wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...

''. Further links to ''The Wall'' are seen when cheerleaders don gas masks in a similar manner to the masks 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 153 million views as of February 2022. Sometime around November 1, 2007, the video passed the "

Famous Last Words Famous Last Words may refer to: * List of last words, collection of last words attributed to historical figures before their death Music * Famous Last Words (band), an American metal band Albums * ''Famous Last Words'' (Al Stewart album), 1 ...

" video as the third most played video on the site. This version of the video cut out the word "shit". The

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

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 debuted on ''

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (known commonly as ''TRL'') was an American television program broadcast on MTV that premiered on September 14, 1998. TRL featured popular music videos played during its countdown, and was also used as a promotion tool by ...

''. This video made its world premiere in New Zealand, which was also the first country in which ''

'' 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 Marc Preston Webb (born August 31, 1974) is an American music video director and filmmaker. Webb made his feature film directorial debut in 2009 with the romantic comedy ''500 Days of Summer'', and went on to direct ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' in ...

) seems to have some added audio. During and after 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

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Track listing

*All songs written by My Chemical Romance. Version 1 (promotional CD) Version 2 (CD and 7" vinyl) Version 3 (7" vinyl) Version 4 (CD) Version 5 (digital download)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Teenagers (Song) Songs about teenagers 2007 singles My Chemical Romance songs The Black Parade (rock opera) Music videos directed by Marc Webb Song recordings produced by Rob Cavallo Reprise Records singles