This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race

"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
Song

"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" (also known as "This Ain't a Scene, It's a Goddamn Arms Race") is the first single from pop punk band Fall Out Boy's album Infinity on High. It was first played on September 30, 2006, on Philadelphia radio station, 102.1, and leaked onto the Internet soon after. It was officially debuted on November 21 at the American Music Awards and was shipped to radio stations that night (with an impact date of December 5 in the United States). This song was #40 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.

The song is reportedly about lyricist/bassist Pete Wentz's frustration with the ever growing 'emo scene'. As he told Rolling Stone, "There may be other songs on the record that would be bigger radio hits, but this one had the right message." Wentz got the idea for the arms-dealer metaphor from the Lord of War movie.

The website that bassist Pete Wentz promotes, FriendsorEnemies.com, made "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" available to the internet community on November 17, just after its radio debut in Indianapolis.

The single was released as a CD single and also as a 7" blue vinyl and 7" purple vinyl. There is an official remix featuring Kanye West.

The song was released as a downloadable track for the video game Rock Band on May 6, 2008, and is also on Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2 The January 2009 issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine lists Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race" as second on its list of Rock Band’s "Five Most Unexpectedly Rockin' Downloadable Songs." The song is also available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5.

Track listing

CD single

1. "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
2. "The Carpal Tunnel of Love"

7" Blue Vinyl

1. "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
2. "It's Hard To Say I Do, When I Don't"

7" Purple Vinyl

1. "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
2. "G.I.N.A.S.F.S."

Bunch of useless fagends.

Music video

The video was directed by Alan Ferguson. Beginning with the end of the "Dance, Dance" video, it shows the band members leaving the video shoot among the supposed "fans", all but a few of which turn out to be cardboard cutouts. The video portrays the band in a series of "celebrity" situations such as dealing with paparazzi, as well as recording their song in a very out-of-character hip-hop studio (a reference to a song they recorded on Timbaland's album). Patrick starts singing and making strange movements with his hands, much like Joe Cocker. the rest of the band look at each other strangely and start jumping around at the chorus. Joe knocks a bottle of liquor out of a rapper's hand, and a tabloid headline reveals that the rappers proceeded to assault the band and throw them out of the studio. The next scene shows The band playing in a hotel room, making a huge mess. It transfers to Pete, at a photo shoot. The photographer takes a cell phone from his coworker and takes pictures with it, and prompts Pete to show his penis, making it look like Pete took them (in reference to real cell phone photos leaked from Pete's cell phone that he sent to his girlfriend). Several teenage girls are outraged after they see the pictures and realize Pete has a small penis. Following the incident, Andy goes to a party at a parody of the Playboy Mansion with a crotch-stuffing. The scene goes back to the hotel and everyone is jumping around. A woman complains to the manager but when they get to the hotel room no one lets them in. While partying, a heavy set man (who bears slight resemblance to rappers Fat Joe or Big Pun) jumps on to the other side of the bed that Pete is on, causing him to fall out a window. At his funeral, cameo appearances are made by several characters from their previous music videos, such as Pete's date in "Dance, Dance", their stunt man and close friend Dirty, the deer-boy from "Sugar, We're Goin Down" (Donald Cumming of the The Virgins) William Beckett's vampire from "A Little Less Sixteen Candles..." and Travis McCoy from Gym Class Heroes, (who also danced in "Dance, Dance"), celebrities Seth Green and Michelle Trachtenberg, among others. Joe Trohman is performing a guitar solo on top of Pete's (Trohman claims this is a reference to guitarist Slash in the Guns 'N Roses video for November Rain although some fans have likened it to Synyster Gates's solo in Avenged Sevenfold's video for Seize The Day) coffin as the it rises out of the burial, before Pete bursts out of his coffin. The end reveals that the entire video is nothing more than a dream. Andy (who was sitting next to Pete) then realises that they are late for a performance at a school and as they make their way on stage, they continue playing the rest of the song from the last chorus skipping the interlude Trohman would have played on the single. At the end it shows Pete attempting to stage dive.

Censorship

In most public performances of the song, as well as in radio edits, the word "God" is removed from the song, to avoid using the profanity "Goddamn", although "damn" is simultaneously removed in some other versions. This censor was also kept on the Rock Band downloadable track of the song, though it was not censored in the United Kingdom or on United States Rock radio.

Remix

Fall Out Boy tried to rush the remix for the song featuring Kanye West onto "Infinity on High", but it didn't make it in time. Recently, a remix to this remix leaked on FriendsorEnemies featuring Kanye West, Paul Wall, Skinhead Rob, Lupe Fiasco, Tyga, Travis McCoy, and Lil Wayne. This remix was performed at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, along with Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco.

Cover versions

• Overboard (Stranded, 2008)

External links

• "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" Official music video on YouTube