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

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This article documents a current single. Information is likely to change as the song remains on the charts.

"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
Single by Fall Out Boy
from the album Infinity on High
Released	January 16, 2007
Format	CD single, Digital download, 7" vinyl
Genre	Pop Punk Emo
Length	3:32
Label	Fueled by Ramen Island Def Jam
Chart positions
#1 (New Zealand,Singapore) #2 (US Hot 100, UK) #4 (Australia) #5 (Ireland, UWC) #9 (Belgium) #24 (Poland) #34 (Lithuania)
Fall Out Boy singles chronology
"A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'" (2006)	"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" (2007)	"The Carpal Tunnel of Love" (2007)
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race (Remix)

"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" is the first single from pop punk^[1] band Fall Out Boy's album Infinity on High. It was first played on November 16, 2006 on Indianapolis radio station 93.1, 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 on that night (with an expected impact date of December 5 in the United States).

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.^[2] The song consists of a hip-hop/R&B sound during the verse and bridge, which is then followed up with a more pop-punk style chorus.

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.

[edit] Track listing

UK CD Single

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

UK 7" Vinyl

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

UK 7" Vinyl

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

Australian CD Single

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

iTunes Australian EP

1. "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
2. "The Carpal Tunnel of Love"
3. "G.I.N.A.S.F.S."

[edit] Charts

The single became available on iTunes on January 16, 2007. Just two days after its release, it reached #1 on the iTunes chart. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest Hot 100 debut for a single by a rock band since Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" debuted at #1 on the Hot 100 in 1998. The song kept the #2 spot for two weeks in a row behind smash-hit "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé. In addition it jumped 85 spots in a week from #86 on the Pop 100 to #1.^[3] The song was a #1 hit in New Zealand. The song debuted at #6 in the UK Singles Chart on downloads alone, climbing to #2 the following week and debuted at #32 also on downloads alone in the Irish Singles Chart, before climbing to #8 in its physical week. The song has gained 1,597,000 points on the United World Chart to date and has sold over 120,000 copies to date in the UK. It has moved 1,035,000 digital downloads in the US in 10 weeks time, and was #1 on the Digital Chart for its first 4 weeks. The single was the first to be released in Australia, and reached number four on the ARIA Singles Chart in February 2007 in its fourth week on the chart.

[edit] Music video

The video was directed by Alan Ferguson. Beginning with the end of the "Dance, Dance" video, it leads smoothly into the band members leaving the video shoot among the supposed "fans," all but a few of which turn out to be cardboard figures. The bassist for the band, Pete Wentz is shown getting into a Lamborghini Murcielago amongst the paparazzi and the fans.

As the singing starts, the video moves to the next scene in a underground hip-hop recording studio (a nod to the band recording with Babyface and Jay-Z). As they begin recording the song, the singer/guitarist Patrick Stump is seen flailing his arms to imitate an 'R&B' method of singing. The compatriots in the room begin to laugh, jeer, and mock Patrick. As the chorus comes in and the singer mounts his guitar, Joseph Trohman, the other guitarist, and Pete Wentz start spinning and the other people in the room start to actually enjoy the music. While doing his signature 'Trohmania' move, Trohman accidentally hits and breaks a "forty" that belonged to one of the hip hop moguls. A magazine ad on the screen flashes news of a beaten up Fall Out Boy, extricated from the 'hood'.

The next scene begins with Wentz being photographed by some sort of "famous" photographer armed with a cell phone in front of a wallpapered set, while unzipping his shirt and starting to remove his belt. This is followed by a shot of three girls looking at the photo on the internet (this scene is making fun of Wentz's nude photos, also taken in front of the same wallpaper in his parent's bathroom, and implies that their 'leaking' was all but intentional). The following scenes are taken at parties: both at a "honey mansion" and at a trashed hotel room. The one is the hotel also features cameos, both by "Dirty," who works for Clandestine Industries, Pete Wentz's clothing line, and by Butch Walker and the back up singers for the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites. In the hotel room, Wentz dies after he gets launched out of a window by Fat Joe, while he & Joe are jumping from bed to bed playing their guitars. (Pete actually hurt his back while shooting this stunt but said that it would not affect the Friends or Enemies tour)

The next scene is Stump leading a church choir with the backdrop of a brisk, midday funeral for the dearly departed Wentz. This scene contains Andrew Hurley, the band's drummer, and a few characters from the band's other videos, such as: the priest, played by their manager, Bob, from "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'", the vampire played by William Beckett from "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'", Antler boy from the "Sugar, We're Going Down" clip, who is making out with Pete's date from "Dance, Dance", the "girl next door" from the "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" video, and the cameo dancer by Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes from "Dance, Dance". Michelle Trachtenberg makes a cameo because Pete was rumored to be dating her, and Seth Green also appears in this scene. Another character that appears in this scene is the MTV Video Music Awards Moonman.

Trohman rises onto Pete's casket in the song's guitar solo as a tribute to Slash, not a parody of Seize the Day, by Avenged Sevenfold. The casket then opens and the shot switches to black and white very quickly. The song stops playing and shows Pete sits up in a bed, sweating after waking up from the nightmare [that was the video]. Hurley says: "Dreams again?" The camera shoots a wider shot and the video revealed where the story is in a subtitle which says "Des Moines, Iowa, 2003" (a reference to the shows played after Take This to Your Grave was released), showing a tiny room with two beds, one that Andy and Pete were sharing and another where Joe is clinging onto Patrick.

Andy says, "We're late," and they rush to their van. The scene changes to the band playing another small venue, where all of the fans know the lyrics. At this point, the song continues from where it left off back at the funeral. The video ends with Pete jumping into the crowd and the screen cutting to black, a sardonic reference to Wentz's infamous 'stagedive to concrete' at a 2006 show, where he fell painfully.

[edit] Trivia

• According to Wentz, the song-closing sing-along was inspired by Justin Timberlake's "Señorita".
• It was said on December 21st on TRL that Fall Out Boy's music video for "Dance, Dance" was on the first TRL show of 2006 (at number 5), and now "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" has been on the last one (also at number 5). Additionally, the video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" begins with the last few seconds of "Dance, Dance".
• "Dance, Dance" was the last Fall Out Boy single released in the UK before "This Ain't a Scene..." and has been on heavy radio rotation for several months, until the release of the new album.
• The MTV Moon Man from the MTV Video Music Awards is seen dancing during the funeral scene.
• William Beckett and Travis McCoy reprise their roles from the "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'" and "Dance, Dance" videos respectively during the funeral scene.
• The song features crowd vocals from Butch Walker, Sofia Toufa, and Lindsey Blaufarb.
• The song was performed on TRL on February 6, the release date of the album, along with "The Take Over, The Breaks Over" and "Thriller".
• Actor Shawn Hatosy can reportedly be seen in the background during the funeral.
• Even though Andy doesn't seem to be in the funeral scene, he is seen a few times in the crowd. Whenever a big group of the crowd is shown, Andy can be seen. The back of his head is also visible when Joe is playing guitar on top of Pete's casket.
• The people in the crowd during the funeral scene can be seen making Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella diamond sign.
• This song is used in a Verizon Wireless commercial.
• Former Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress Michelle Trachtenberg makes a cameo in the funeral scene she is seen with comedian/actor Seth Green, who is also a Buffy veteran.
• It is rumored that the fight scene that occurs in the beginning of the video was a geniune altercation between the band and the other people in the scene.
• Videos have been made and distributed on online video sites titled "This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race - Misheard Lyrics". It is a video with lyrics and pictures played along with the music. Some of the lyrics are "This ain't a city, it's a golf cart, ass face" and "I'm a little man, and all so evil, also into cats..."

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Listen to "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• The Music Video for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• Review of "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• Lyrics to "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• Guitar Tabs for "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race at MusicBrainz
• Fall Out Boy at AOL Music
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