"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 #42 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 will be on the 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."

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."

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. 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. 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, making it look like Pete took them. 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 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 Going 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 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.

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.

Charts

The single became available on iTunes on January 16, 2007. It made a 'Hot Shot Debut' 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. The song was also a #1 hit in New Zealand. The song became the band's biggest UK chart hit to date, debuting 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.

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	4
Czech IFPI Singles Chart	42
Irish Singles Chart	5
New Zealand Singles Chart	1
French Singles Chart	11
Canadian Singles Chart	4
UK Singles Chart	2
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	2
U.S. Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks	8
U.S. Billboard Pop 100	1

Cover Versions

• Overboard (Stranded, 2008)

References

1. No byline (December 11, 2007). "The 100 Best Songs of 2007" Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-12-21
2. "Exclusive: Fall Out Boy Album Deets", Rollingstone.com, November 16, 2006.
3. DLC Week of May 6th - Rock Band - Forums
4. "Rock Band’s Five Most Unexpectedly Rockin' Downloadable Songs," PlayStation: The Official Magazine (January 2009): 58.
5. Jonathan Cohen, "Beyonce Slips By Fall Out Boy To Remain Atop Hot 100", Billboard.com, January 25, 2007.
6. Čns Ifpi

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"
• Fall Out Boy at AOL Music
• Official Fall Out Boy Website