Disenchanted October 28th, 2006 11:16PM  
Hahaha. Great song. Basically, you can say that it's about how teenagers can be rather superficial and don't care about anyone but themselves, which can be true. We do tend to be at the "screw you, as long as I'm happy, that's all that really matters" thing. You know? Well yeah, just thought i'd put that out there because I was bored.

LETthisGO November 15th, 2006 02:47AM  
I read the same interview about the train thing and that was the first time he ever felt old. I think its saying that because the younger generation (teenagers) are the future they scare the living shit out of adults. Teenagers at that point in their lives are dangerous because as year go by they are becoming more and more corrupted. They can be extremely cruel and they are constantly questioning adults and authority in general that believe they know whats best.

anonymous November 30th, 2006 09:04PM  
ok lets go section by section here

Their gona clean up your look with all the lies and the books to make a citicen out of you. because they sleep with agun and keep an eye on your son so they can watch all the things you do.

that section is abought how the teachers and other kids don't liek the way someoen dresses and wants to change them so they constantly make fun of them. The sleeping with a gun part is because they have to watch eery thing that peopel do because noi matter were you go someone is going to push them around.

Because the drugs never work their gona give you a smerk because they got methods to keeping you clean. Their gona rip off your head you asperations to shread another caught in the murder machine.

ok now this part is abought how they put the kid on drugs becaus ethey think they are like pycho or something. Their gona rip off you head part is abouht how they are sick and tiered of being pushed so they are getting clooser and clooser to doing something they know they will regret.

teenagers scare the living shit out of me they could care less as long as someoen will bleed so darken your cloths and strike a violent pose mabe theyl leave you alone but not me.

hes not saying hte teenagers scare him he sayign how people are pushing this one kid around and they could care less if he's cutting himself or anything liek that and darken your cloths or strike a violent pose that whole section is abought hwo peoipel turn into goths or emos and try to keep to themsleves and hope they will leave them alone but MCR isn't they want them to feel that tehy are fitting in with their kind of people.

the boys and gilrs in the cliq the awfull names that they stick your never gona fit in much kid now if your troubled and hurt what you got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did.

ok lets see here the cliq means liek jocks preps and so on thoose cliq hate on goths emo and randome kids so bad that they don't fit it at all so they get so pissed that they brig something to school (they never say exacly what it is so its not just a gun it could be a knife or something) and kill them or cause pain to the ones that hurt them.

MCR did an interview they said that this song is talkign abought how to many kids are being pushed around and they get to the point that tehy shoot up a school.

now I can relate this song to my life because from 4-10 grade I ws pushed around and at the end of 10 I chaged the way I dressed completly and then I moved that summer to a new and better school to a school that peopel understand me for me not for how I dress and you don't knwo how many time I really wanted to hurt so many peopel at teh other school

anonymous December 2nd, 2006 04:40PM  
MCR is not actually scared of teenagers.
They stated in an interview that this was about how teenagers are made to feel that they have to be violent or made to feel worthless.
Hello, Gerard lived those feelings when he was in highschool.

They're making a point about society, duh.

anonymous December 7th, 2006 10:57AM  
It seems to me that this song is a combination of the previous interpretations: Yes, it started when he was on a train with a bunch of "Hot Topic" punks/emos, but it's a little deeper than that. Remember when you were a teenager (ok, you probably still are) and you felt like the world was out to get you, and you had to look diffrent to scare people or put up a defense? The kids they're talking about are just like that, putting up a defense. They're trying to scare adults on purpose, by wearing black or looking violent. The funny thing is it backfires, and hooks them in with a bunch of teens just like them, people who want to be noncomformists but end up conforming to the "Hot Topic" personality. There are indeed refrences to violence, but someone suggested that what he has "under his shirt" could be scars: Attempted suicide, cutting, even scars from a knife fight: They're something people keep secret and can scare or even hurt other, especially older, people. If you were a mother or an aunt, even a teacher, what would you think if you met a kid with scars all over his torso? It would threaten you and weaken your authority.

The first verse represents paranoia: He's putting himself back into a teenage perspective, worrying that adults are watching every step and forcing him to conform.

The "Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me" is Gerard trying to hook himself back into the "Scene" of "Hot Topic" punks/emos today- he's telling his fans that he still thinks like them and knows what they're going through.

Did that make any sense?

xnobodysxfoolx December 27th, 2006 08:55PM  
MCR isn't afraid of teenagers! I can't believe someone put that there but anyway...
Gerard's talking about all the violence that's going on lately at schools - thankfully I go to a school with a mixture of people and they are all exepting of everyone -> prep or emo or some other stupid stereotype -> and luckly I don't have to put up with that.
He's saying it throught the prespectives of the actual teenager and the parents or people surronding him.
*Teenager: is the parts of the songs that don't include the chorus and they're explaining how they feel
*Chorus: the parents, or elders who are surprise this is happening but don't do nothing to prevent it
He wants us to know it's okay to feel sad and feel like we don't belong but if we don't get over what the people say and deal with the problem with guns or knifes or something else we're going to regret it.
Because mcr is mcr: they're trying to get a message out to us and because teenagers are the major part of the mcr listeners, they are hoping we'll get it and stop
Nobody else is doing anything about this shit and mcr is the only band I heard that mentions this bad situation we got ourselfs into.

anonymous January 9th, 2007 08:11PM  
I think this song is about how teenagers care so much about fitting in and how they look and how other people around them look. The person in the song is sick and tired of trying to fit in with all the people who want to change how he looks and feels and acts that he wants to kill them all, including himself. That may be completely wrong, but I don't care. It's just what I think.

frankierolalala January 26th, 2007 08:06PM  
This also involves the daily mail issue

So darken your clothes or strike a violent pose
Maybe they'll leave you alone, but not me




where by sandra sands who wrote this article identifies mcr and green day as *emo*..and stated that they "encouraged people to cut them selves*

that article was so ill researched..it's like she just listened to *the emo song..dear diary* once and wrote it on that

so at a u.k festival gerard got the crown to chant *fuck the daily mail*

and here is the article *aug 2006*


ENJOY!though you might keel over from the stupidity

Flicking through the autumn glossy fashion magazines, I noticed that some of the models did not look very well.

A few of them appeared to be dead. This is because one of the key looks, especially at the younger end of the fashion spectrum, is Goth.

Faces are chalky white, eyes and lips black. You can wear any colour you like so long as it's black.

To achieve that just-got-out-of-acoffin look, you need corsets, capes, Celtic crosses, an unseeing stare and a prop such as a slightly mutilated china doll dragged along in one hand.

For those of us who have lived through Siouxsie And The Banshees and the Rocky Horror Show, the look is depressingly retro.

Fashion acknowledges those of us who lived through it first time round - Elder Goths, as opposed to Baby Bats, who are the under-30s.

It even nods to a working population, permitting Corporate Goths, who wear black trouser suits.

There is a also a term which is new to me and amounts to a much more dangerous teenage cult.

The Emos - short for Emotional - regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.

Although the look is similar, the point of distinction, frightening for schools and parents, is a celebration of self harm.

Emos exchange competitive messages on their teenage websites about the scars on their wrists and how best to display them. Girls' secondary schools have for some time been concerned about the increase in self harm.

One governor of a famous boarding school told me that it was as serious a problem as binge drinking, but rarely discussed for fear of encouraging more girls to do it.

Although it is invariably described as a 'secret shame', there is actually a streak of exhibitionism about it.

The internet has many sites dedicated to Emo fashion (dyed black hair brushed over your face, layering, black, black, black), Emo bands (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), Emo conversation (sighing, wailing, poetry).

The Instant Emo Kit site gives advice on identity. Wear a child's T-shirt with a slogan such as 'Unhappy Chick' and drive a Vespa. Above all, 'show your inner despair by looking like you are too sad to eat. Obesity and emocity do not mix.'

Adult Goths refer to the Emos disdainfully as 'the spooky kids' or 'moshers'.

The Emo song, by the American band Adam And Andrew, has cult status on the internet, appearing on many personal websites. It is called Dear Diary and is both witty and alarming.

The chorus goes: 'Stop my breathing and slit my throat, I must be an Emo.

I don't jump around when I go to shows, I must be an Emo.

Dye in my hair and polish on my toes, I must be an Emo. I play guitar and write suicide notes, I must be an Emo.'

The courting of misery and death is a long-established teenage tradition. How many bedroom walls have been plastered with posters of drippy pre-Raphaelite heroines, or Marc Bolan or Kurt Curbain?

When death is a long way off, you can afford to be more morbid about it.

Film-makers note that horror films are now more popular than romance among young women.

In particular, Goths and Emos are a rebellion against sporty, manly cultures - which is perhaps why they flourish particularly in North European countries or North America.

The androgynous nature of the Goths is appealing to the young because it is sexually unthreatening.

Teenage girls are frightened of manliness: they like boys who look like girls. Kate Moss, the girl who never grows old, understands youthful taste completely.

There is also a deadly glamour about the Goths. The word femme-fatale is Goth based.

Many of the alluring women of our time - Nigella Lawson, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Lily Allen - have a touch of the Goth about them.

They have a sophistication and depth lacking in the blonde, bouncy chav faces which dominate our television screens and nightclubs.

Who are the male pin-ups for young girls? Johnny Depp and the comedian Russell Brand, who is about 90 per cent Goth. Lord Byron, of course, was the greatest Goth of all time.

Emos have a strong arts graduate bias and are among the few that read poetry (if only of the romantic, morbid kind).

Some pretty terrible Emo poetry is offered on websites. A cartoon of two Emos has a bubble which says: 'What rhymes with razor blade?'

But compared to the music, the poetry is positively cheerful. The Gothic bands have names such as Bloody, Dead And Sexy or Colder Than Death.

There is a genre, popular in Germany, known as Death Pop. Bands include The Knives In The Attic and Love Equals Death.

Although Goths are from the same family tree as punks, they are a lot less fun to be with. While I loved punk for its energy, Goths were too bloodless to lift a finger.

One of the most annoying characteristics of teenagers is their refusal to open their curtains. Their world is dark and airless.

If this environment is coupled with the psychological traits of self-pity, introspection, self-dramatisation and hormone imbalance, you have a fully-fledged Emo, even without the small Tshirt and black hair.

The wondrous thing about being an adult is that you have so much more to worry about that you stop striking poses and get on with it.

Unless you are an Elder Goth - in which case you have fashion on your side and everybody else against you.

What worries me is that teenagers are less equipped to manage strong emotions and a cult of suicide could have real and horrible consequences.

It is irresponsible for the fashion and music cultures to encourage it. If you want retro style, I recommend Ian Dury's song Reasons To Be Cheerful.

anonymous March 28th, 2007 04:14PM  
Gerard said that he started writing this song on a subway and he said he was actually kind of scared of all the teenagers. He says that it really is a serious matter. Its about how teenagers don't care really about anyone and they can be so hurtful to other kids. Great song.

anonymous April 12th, 2007 02:17PM  
okay, think about it.....we all remember the video for "I'm not okay". In that video was a bunch of kids who didn't fit in and how horrible teenagers are to each other just because they're different. I think the song teenagers plays off of that mainly. Basically the song is about pushing other teenagers (mostly referencing the the emo kids and the goths) to the point of them either hurting themselves or other teenagers. And I think the other posts about gerards interview are also correct, but no so much that they are scared of teenagers themselves, but the fact that all teenagers have "FUCK OFF" written across their foreheads and they don't care about anything or anyone. Just themselves. And any human being that comes a cross another human being that has no problem ripping you apart WOULD BE SCARED! So along with that, I think the first to lines of lyrics in this song play a part on how adults don't understand a teenagers point of view all the time, because teenagers are usually pissed for the sake of being pissed. And the drugs never work I think possibly can be referring to street drugs and prescribed. The reason for this is the whole "Methods of keeping you clean" line. So this song is easy to label as a "teenage sympathy" song.

anonymous April 15th, 2007 08:13AM  
if you've listened to I'm Not Okay you'd notice that Gerard did not exactly "fit in" in high school. MCR shows that some teenagers are selfish and don't CARE about other people, because to teens its all about hair, make up and popularity. Since they didn't have that people used to pick on them. Yeah, they probably DO make him nervous, they probably remind them of their teen hood.

"and if you're troubled and hurt, what you've got under your shirt will make them pay for the things that they did"

I think that that means its not very hard to fight them back, some people just don't have the confidence and they need it, especially in H.S.
that's what I think it means

blackparade April 29th, 2007 08:45PM  
Gerard said in Kerrang! that it's about these Teenagers in the parade who had killed themselves and made a big mistake.

anonymous May 7th, 2007 10:12AM  
has anyone thought about it that MCR are on the side of the teenagers? they write about all the stereotypes
" They said all teenagers scare
The living shit out of me
They could care less
As long as someone’ll bleed"

the people who say it all are hypocrites - adults who just look for someone to blame when they do wores things

"They’re gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies and 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 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 "

and how mcr are stuck in the middle, they understand what the teenagers are going through, and want to help want the teenagers to fight back against the cliches, but they're adult themselves and have to have a little responibility

"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 "

anonymous May 20th, 2007 05:35PM  
I think it is about teenagers who can't fit in so they think the only way to fit in to hurt the people who made fun of them and most of the time they bring a gun to school.so gerard wrote this song,in my opinion , because that is what he thinks about teenagers.

anonymous May 22nd, 2007 11:54PM  
I don't know if this has already been mentioned because I was to lazy to read all the interpretations but gerard wrote this song after being on a bus or a tram and looked up to find him self completely surrounded by teenagers there was no one else on the bus except adolescents this freaked him out so much he wrote a song hence the "teenagers scare the livin shit out of me"

anonymous May 29th, 2007 06:35PM  
I think most of you are right, about him feeling old, and also about it being about gun violence. But come on guys, I will admit teenagers can be horrible, but they're not all like that. In fact, most of them really aren't.

anonymous June 9th, 2007 06:25PM  
I think this song has a couple of different meanings.

"They’re gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies and 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"

that part makes me think that if the teenager acts how the parent doesn't want them too the parents are trying to make them be who they don't want to be.


"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"

thats practically saying teenagers are kinda immature. The liked teens who are snobs to the disliked teens then the disliked teens have a gun under there shirt to kill the mean ppl.

and the main course and the second part of the song is saying how uncontrolled teens are.

sex_pistol11 June 10th, 2007 12:56PM  
Ok I got it!
the first part:

"They’re gonna clean up your looks
With all the lies and 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 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"

is about the adults. They try and make you how THEY want you to be. not how YOU want to be.

the 2nd part:

"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"

that is about the teenagers in school. who are "popular" and think they are all that. not the mean ones only the ones who make fun of the not just goth kids but mainly ne one. "emo/goth" are the main ones tho.

and I think the part where gerard says
"So darken your clothes
Or strike a violent pose
Maybe they’ll leave you alone, but not me"
think bout it...he wheres dark clothes. He won't leave you alone because he is there for you. He is STILL saving and helping ppl.

anonymous July 1st, 2007 04:59PM  
I agree with the people who said that the song is about how its hard for teenagers to fit it ("the boys and girls in the cliques. The awful names that they stick")

anonymous July 2nd, 2007 09:51AM  
This song describes teenagers perfectly but it could be how Gerard is sick of his teenage fans.