What does Teenagers mean?

My Chemical Romance: Teenagers Meaning

Album cover for Teenagers album cover

Song Released: 2007


Teenagers Lyrics

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

Because the drugs never work
They're gonna...

  1. anonymous
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    Mar 28th 2007 !⃝

    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.

  2. anonymous
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    Mar 25th 2007 !⃝

    well I think it's about how teenagers react to being bullied and what they do in revenge gerard was bullied at school and said he was thinking about was to get back at them every day and revenge ruled his life and I wanted to write a song about that and teenagers getting more violent by the day from MCR fan number one

  3. blackparade
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    Mar 16th 2007 !⃝

    No offense to some teens out there but this is to the bad-a** pervert teens with girlfriends or boyfriends.... Stop having sex before your married!!! it's a sin and it ain't right!!!

    As for the interpretation, same as last time. Gun violence, etc.

  4. anonymous
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    Feb 28th 2007 !⃝

    i think this song is kinda funny. It really is true though. Teenagers these days can be frightening.. lol. and to you teens: I'm insulting myself as well. :-D

  5. blackparade
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    Feb 9th 2007 !⃝

    Gerard said this song is about gun violence.

  6. satanslilwhore_666
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    Jan 30th 2007 !⃝

    i think this is the patient telling the teenagers that the people in this world are going to change you to make a robot that the world wants you to be. How teenagers are teenagers and scare the shit outta people by them being them:)

  7. frankierolalala
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    Jan 26th 2007 !⃝

    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.

  8. anonymous
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    Jan 9th 2007 !⃝

    I go to high school too so don't tell me how hard it is... me and my friend as pretty much the outcasts and if it wasn't for them, I would have shot someone by now... It is a great song and we need to listen to it to get it's message. We're scary, ever looked in the mirror and think - wow, maybe this has gone on too far to the point where I don't talk to pretty much anyone.
    *Don't you tell us that! We all go through this shit.

  9. anonymous
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    Jan 9th 2007 !⃝

    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.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 8th 2007 !⃝

    gerard wrote this song after he had a panic attack on a subway. obviously, the cause was the teenagers on the subway.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Jan 3rd 2007 !⃝

    cmon guys its a great song about teenagers trying to fit into society but not and then fighting back the only way they can

    coming from a teenager by the way

    so shut the hell up you don't know how hard it can be at times

  12. xnobodysxfoolx
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    Dec 27th 2006 !⃝

    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.

  13. anonymous
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    Dec 9th 2006 !⃝

    i think this song is about gerard way being bullied when he was young and he's basically telling you that if your being bullied don't put up with it!
    <3 x x x

  14. anonymous
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    Dec 7th 2006 !⃝

    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?

  15. anonymous
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    Dec 4th 2006 !⃝

    I personally think that there is a hidden meaning behind the whole song. It would be correct of me to say that the stereotyped image of a teenager is chav. It would also be right of me to say tht chavs would call MCR "emo" or "goth" or "grebbe." chavs as a rule genrally h8 thosse type of ppl bcoz they are diffrent. So were gerrard sings "Mabey they'll leave you alone, but not me" he is saying they won't leave him alone bcoz they've labbeled him and hate him. If the above is true tht would mean tht not all




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