Teen Age Riot

"Teen Age Riot" was the first single from Sonic Youth's 1988 album, Daydream Nation. It is the band's first largely successful release, receiving heavy airplay in modern rock stations, and considerably expanding their audience (along with the album itself).

"Teen Age Riot" is one of Sonic Youth's most definitive songs, yet it is something of an oddity amongst their repertoire, consisting of a traditional verse/chorus structure and omitting the distorted feedback that usually characterizes their songs.[1]  The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and is an on-disc track in Rock Band 2.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Lyrical themes  ==Lyrical themes[ edit] == The song was supposedly written about a fantasy world where J Mascis is president. In the liner notes accompanying the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation, Byron Coley quotes Moore on "Teenage Riot": "It was actually about appointing J Mascis as our de facto alternative dream president".[1] ==Song structure[ edit] == The album version of the song has two distinct parts. The intro section features a repeating, hypnotic guitar melody, andKim Gordon reciting stream-of-consciousness prose, such as "You're it, no you're it / Say it, don't spray it / Miss me, don't dismiss me / Spirit desire / We will fall." ("We Will Fall" is a reference to The Stooges' song of the same name). After the last verse, all instruments stop, and Thurston Moore breaks through the fading instruments with a fast, distorted, noisy guitar riff, opening the main section of the song. The riff leads to the dynamic guitar melody that plays throughout the rest of the song with the vocal melody, sung by Moore. The riff that opens the section is repeated once again afterwards in the song, with all of the instruments accompanying it in an interlude that leads to the song's last few lines. Some live performances of "Teen Age Riot" omit the opening section sung by Gordon, notably the live version recorded and released with the deluxe edition of Daydream Nation. The opening section is also cut from the song's music video. ==Music video[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The video for the song was Sonic Youth's fourth overall, excluding the low-budget Ciccone Youth videos; the band directed it themselves. It includes clips of many icons of alternative music culture such as Mark E. Smith, Johnny Thunders, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Sun Ra, D. Boon, Mike Watt, Henry Rollins, Nick Cave, J Mascis, and Kiss. ==Single track listing<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">All songs by Sonic Youth
 * 2 Song structure
 * 3 Music video
 * 4 Single track listing
 * 5 Notes on performance and tuning
 * 6 Chart performance
 * 7 References

==Notes on performance and tuning<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">As with many Sonic Youth songs, the guitars are unconventionally tuned; in this case, Thurston Moore's pentatonic tuning is (reading from left to right the lowest pitched string to the highest pitched string) GABDEG and Lee Ranaldo's tuning is GGDDGG, as published in a Guitar World interview with the band.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[2] ==Chart performance<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] ==
 * 1) "Teen Age Riot (Edit)" – 3:50
 * 2) "Silver Rocket" – 3:47
 * 3) "Kissability" – 3:08
 * 4) "Candle" – 4:59