Fall Out Boy - This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race Song Meanings 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... (See the rest of these lyrics)
Top Rated Interpretation
2007-02-21 16:25:55
(You need to watch the video to understand some of this song, but this is about the video so watch it!) This song is about a lot of things, both a response from fans and the look on the scence of music. First we see the band finishing one of thier songs and they stop and walk through the crowd. The "fans" are all made of cardboard. This is their statment on how all their fans said they sold out with their last album, the fans were in fact fake. Then they move to a magazine cover which says that they are breaking into the hip-hop genre. This is a message that is displaying how hard it is for bands to be classified and how they are forced into other genres when there are too many other bands like them, hence the line about the bandwagon being full. Then they are in the recording studio and the people around them are making fun of them, this is about the ridicule from other bands and producers. When the badn goes into full on crazy mode and start dancing, they end up breaking something which I think says how the band is too wild for the genre. There you see a member of the band ready for his photshoot. Another publicity act made by many artists. The photographer has plenty of good cameras there, but instead he chooses a phone. As he asks the person to pose differently, he finally has him take down his pants which the person is hesitant about, but does it anyway. First off, the photographer picking the phone is representing how fans would rather see crappy pictures taken of embarrising things that a person might do than real pictures that the artists try to sell. The whole pants thing is another publicty stunt. When the girls find the picture online they look at it and seem disgusted. All of the partying scenes are again just about things that people will do to get noticed (stuff a sock down thier pants, get pets, etc.). When one of the band memebers gets flipped out the window, you'll notice the flash of a camera which is a statement on how obsessed the press is with getting the latest story. Then we flash to a funeral were we see a band member preaching about how hard everyone tries to make themselves seen (the boy bands always sing about not being loved). We also see some people who resemble the following bands and celebrities: Panic at the Disco, Britney Spears (or another girl similar to her), a person from thier music video Sugar we're going down, the MTV astrounaut, and a rapper. They are all dancing and trying to make themselves clear to the crowd. Finally the person pops out of the coffin and it flashes the the band that looks to be early in their carreer. One asks "dreams again" and that signifies that the the life bands lead can be nightmares, and the video ends with the band prefoming in a small auditorium.
anonymous
2007-03-12 20:36:41  
"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.
anonymous
2007-03-26 02:20:11  
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.
taka
2007-03-31 16:30:31  
the last interpretation is the accurate one. just for emos and punk peoples!
anonymous
2007-05-16 17:58:08  
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
anonymous
2007-05-28 21:33:25  
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.
anonymous
2007-06-08 12:59:33  
Many people will probably get pissed at me for saying this, but since when have I ever cared? This song reminds me of when Green Day came out with Time Of Your Life/Good Riddance. That was their way of saying good-bye to all of the punk fans that felt Green Day had sold out. The whole video for This Ain't a Scene shows Fall Out Boy "selling out". I just think it's their way of saying, 'you can say we sold out but we don't care, this is who we are so deal with it.'
anonymous
2007-06-11 15:22:04  
Most of you are pretty right. In response to this one... an arms dealer supplies people with weapons. (Ever hear the amendment to bare arms...guns!)
This song ties in pretty well with the video (which I find kind of rare with Fall Out Boy). They are saying that fame has become nothing more than a war of words and lies.
anonymous
2007-06-13 01:27:40  
To the person who said
As much as I love FOB, it's not a subliminal message to Panic! Cuz FOB wouldnt exist if it weren't for Panic!
umm.. It's the other way around
yeah
anonymous
2007-06-14 01:46:12  
I think that fall out boy wrote this song because they are sick of people taking their "thunder" as some people might call it.you know know what I mean? Well if you don't, let me explain this to you. As they say in the song..."BANDWAGON'S FULL PLEASE CATCH ANOTHER"....they are telling you to not take the "style" that they have made.
marie72093
2007-06-15 13:29:15  
So people think that there is no meaning to this song whats so ever. It's just a song that they thought it would be a big hit. Most people don't really realize that its really about the Alternative music getting along with the R&B hip hop and rap music. also its a second part of "Dance, Dance".
peteinmypants
2007-06-15 16:56:01  
I don't know if I already submitted this or not because I can't find it, so I'm just going to write it again.
This song is one of the rarer fall out boy songs that actually fits so well with the video. Together they say that fame has become nothing more than a war of words and lies to keep yourself up on top. (Arms race-seeing who has the better weapons/i am an arms dealer, fitting you with weapons in the form of... WORDS. I'm the leading man, and the LIES I weave...)
anonymous
2007-06-16 01:56:32  
I think this song is basically what other people might think everything that happened to F.O.Bis but it's not exactly th truth it's talking about it's not that, it's this hence "this ain't a scene, it's a goddamn arms race" it's pretty much screaming this is what people thought was going on about this but that's not the truth.
Hope I'm not though stupid.
anonymous
2007-06-22 16:19:16  
To me it sounds like they are talking about the violence in rap music. This seems very off from the other sumbmissions, but that's the first thing I thought of when I heard the song. Who knows!?
anonymous
2007-06-23 12:33:48  
This ain't a scene, it’s a god damn arms race
-an arms race is who can get the bigger weapons faster and make them best. In this song they mean rumors. who can make up the most absurd rumors and who can spread them fastest
But the real bombshells have already sunk
-i think this means that the real true facts are already out and everything else is false
anonymous
2007-06-27 23:03:45  
I Believe this song is about... People making fun of who Fall Out Boy is.. and that they are not making a scene... Their in an arms race. ( Like a battle of fame and poularity.) So they are expressing true feelings of their real selves.
anonymous
2007-07-05 16:50:34  
"As much as I love FOB, it's not a subliminal message to Panic! Cuz FOB wouldnt exist if it weren't for Panic!"
Uh, actually, it's the other way around. Panic! at the Disco wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Fall Out Boy. Pete Wentz signed Panic! to the Fueled by Ramen record label, not the other way around. Fall Out Boy's been making music way before P@td. You are right, in a sense, because I don't think Fall Out Boy would send subliminal messages to Panic! when Fall Out Boy signed them in the first place.
anonymous
2007-07-25 02:40:12  
I Read it was about Pete Wentz' frustration with the growing emo scene.
anonymous
2007-07-28 01:45:46  
Has anyone here seen the music video??
It's about the emo/punk scene and how they don't want to be put in that scene and also some of their fans are calling them sell outs and emos. It also makes fun of Pete's "incident" well most people would know what I'm talking about.. And one girl said that their wouldn't be fall out boy if there wasn't P!ATD and WTF is that all about P!ATD wouldn't be here if there wasn't FOB, because they signed them the Petes record label, Decaydance! And Brendon Urie well P!ATD are NOT fighting with Fall Out Boy.
Some rumors are JUST TOO crazy..
anonymous
2007-07-30 06:33:57  
This song is all about the music scene and how it's more like an arms race i.e: eventually it will all blow up in our faces unless we quit competing now because its less about the music and more about one scene being better than another and people jumping on bandwagons when they don't even know what the scene is about.
anonymous
2007-08-07 03:00:30  
The song is a commentary on the "scene" that all the kids are killing.
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