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

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“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" single
Recorded	2006
Genre	Pop punk
Length	3:32
Label	Fueled by Ramen, Island Def Jam
Certification	Platinum (ARIA) Platinum (RIAA)
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)
Alternate cover
Remix cover

"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 rock^[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 that night (with an impact date of December 5 in the United States). This song was #42 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.^[2]

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.^[3]

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. It is easily Fall Out Boy's biggest hit.

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. ^[4]

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Music video 2.1 Censorship 3 Remix 4 Charts 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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."

[edit] 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. It culminates with the death of Pete via defenestration. 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 Going Down," William Beckett's vampire from "A Little Less Sixteen Candles...," celebrities Seth Green and Michelle Trachtenberg, among others. At the end, Trohman parodies Synyster Gates as the coffin 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 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.

[edit] 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 not simultaneously removed. 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.

[edit] 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 and can be found partially on this link.

[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 "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé until it was overpassed by Nelly Furtado's Say It Right. In addition, it jumped 85 spots in a week from #86 on the Pop 100 to #1.^[5] The song was also 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. It has moved 1,126,377 digital downloads in the US in 12 weeks time, and was #1 on the Digital Chart for its first 4 weeks. The single reached number four on the ARIA Singles Chart in February 2007 in its fourth week on the chart.

The song was the 37th most successful song of 2007, with 2.230.000 points on the United World Chart.

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Singles Chart	4
Brazilian Singles Chart	8
Croatian Singles Chart[6]	1
Czech IFPI Singles Chart[7]	42
Euro 200[8]	21
Irish Singles Chart	5
French Singles Chart	11
Latvian Airplay Top[9]	33
México Top 100	43
New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart	1
Polish Singles Chart[10]	1
Russian Airplay Chart[11]	25
Singapore Top 20[12]	1
UK Singles Chart	2
United World Chart	5
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	1
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks	8

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Listen to "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race"
• Review of "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
• Official Fall Out Boy Website
• This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race at lyricinterpretations.com
• Watch "This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race" Music Video and Live Video on Fall Out Boy Fansite

Preceded by "Lips of an Angel" by Hinder	RIANZ New Zealand number-one single February 26, 2007 – March 5, 2007	Succeeded by "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani featuring Akon
Preceded by "Irreplaceable" by Beyoncé (second run)	U.S. Billboard Pop 100 number-one single	Succeeded by "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado

v • d • e Fall Out Boy Patrick Stump · Pete Wentz · Joe Trohman · Andy Hurley Studio albums Evening Out with Your Girlfriend · Take This to Your Grave · From Under the Cork Tree · Infinity on High EPs Fall Out Boy / Project Rocket Split · My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue · Black Clouds and Underdogs · Leaked in London Live albums ****: Live in Phoenix Singles "Dead on Arrival" · "Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy" · "Saturday" · "Sugar, We're Goin Down" · "Dance, Dance" · "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More "Touch Me"" · "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" · "The Carpal Tunnel of Love" · "Thnks fr th Mmrs" · ""The Take Over, the Breaks Over"" · "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You off (Me & You)" · "Beat It" Labels Decaydance Records · Fueled by Ramen · Island Records · Uprising Records Related Articles Discography Bands Arma Angelus · Racetraitor