"Teenagers" is the fourth and final single and the eleventh track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade (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.[5]
Gerard Way wrote the song after finding himself in a New York City Subway car full of high schoolers who were "running around, being all violent [and] breaking shit", which Way felt was very different from when he was a teenager himself.[6] As he told The New York Times, "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."[7]
About the relationship between the song and concerns about gun violence, Way said:
That song almost didn't fit on the record but it's a topic that's so important to our culture. It's about a really big problem in America where kids are killing kids. The only thing I learned in high school is that people are very violent and territorial.[8]
"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's solo joins the chorus and bridge together so smoothly."
The song was #25 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[9] This song was also #80 on MTV Asia's list of Top 100 Hits of 2007.[10] The single is certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA, 2× Platinum by the BPI, and Gold by the FIMI.[11][12][13]
The song entered the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart at #2, before debuting at #87 on the Hot 100 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 music video opens with an almost shot-for-shot tribute to the first scene of Pink Floyd's film The Wall. 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.[14]
The video was posted by the band via their YouTube channel on May 30, 2007. Sometime around November 1, 2007, the video passed the "Famous Last Words" video as the third most played video on the site. This version of the video cut out the word "shit". The MTV version differs from the YouTube version; notably the teenagers breaking in was cut out, as well as the words "gun", "shit", and "murder".[15] The video was featured on Total Request Live.
This video aired in New Zealand, which was also the first country in which The Black Parade reached number one.[16]
