| "Teen Age Riot" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single bySonic Youth | ||||
| from the albumDaydream Nation | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | October 1988 (1988-10) | |||
| Recorded | July–August 1988 | |||
| Studio | Greene Street Recording (New York City) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length |
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| Label | Blast First | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Sonic Youth | |||
| Producer(s) |
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| Sonic Youth singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Teen Age Riot" onYouTube | ||||
"Teen Age Riot" is a song by American rock bandSonic Youth, and the first single from their 1988 album,Daydream Nation. It received heavy airplay on modern rock stations and considerably expanded their audience (along with the album itself).
"Teen Age Riot" is one of Sonic Youth's most recognizable songs,[1] yet it is something of an oddity amongst their repertoire, consisting of a traditional verse-chorus pop song structure. The song was included inThe Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll and is an on-disc track inRock Band 2.
"Teen Age Riot" was the final song performed live by the band, serving as the closer for their last show at the SWU Festival inSão Paulo, Brazil on 14 November 2011.[2]
The song is about an alternate reality whereJ Mascis is president of the United States. In the liner notes accompanying the deluxe edition ofDaydream Nation, Byron Coley quotedThurston Moore on "Teen Age Riot": "It was actually about appointing J Mascis as ourde facto alternative dream president".[1]
The album version of the song has two distinct parts. The intro section features a repeating, hypnotic guitar melody, andKim Gordon reciting in astream-of-consciousness manner such utterances 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 tothe Stooges' song of the same name from theirdebut eponymous album). After 80 seconds, all instruments stop, and 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.
As with many Sonic Youth songs, the guitars were unconventionallytuned; in this case, Moore's pentatonic tuning was (reading from left to right, the lowest-pitched string to the highest-pitched string) GABDEG andLee Ranaldo's tuning was GGDDGG, as published in aGuitar World interview with the band.[3]
Some live performances of "Teen Age Riot" omitted the opening section sung by Gordon, notably the live version recorded and released with the deluxe edition ofDaydream Nation. The opening section was also cut from the song's music video.
Mark Deming ofAllMusic described "Teen Age Riot" as a "trippy joy", further praising the song as a "glorious experience".[4] According toGreg Kot of theChicago Tribune, the song is one of "the band's best, straight-ahead tunes".[5] Michael Hand ofThe Guardian designated the song as a highlight fromDaydream Nation, further describing the song as a "wistful opener".[6] Nitsuh Abebe ofPitchfork praised the song, commenting that it's "the most glorious, accessible pop song of [Sonic Youth's] career".[7]Robert Palmer ofRolling Stone also spoke positively of "Teen Age Riot", describing the song as "driving slamtempo pop power".[8]
In 2021, it was ranked at number 157 onRolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[9]
In the United States, "Teen Age Riot" debuted at number 28 on theAlternative Airplay chart for the issue dated December 24, 1988.[10] Over the next month, the song slowly rose on the chart before ultimately reaching a peak of number 20 for the issue dated February 4, 1989.[10] "Teen Age Riot" spent a total of nine consecutive weeks on the chart.[10]
The video for the song was Sonic Youth's fourth overall, excluding the low-budgetCiccone Youth videos; the band directed it themselves. It included clips of many icons of alternative music culture such as Mascis,Mark E. Smith,Johnny Thunders,Neil Young,Patti Smith,Iggy Pop,Sun Ra,D. Boon,Mike Watt,Ian MacKaye,Henry Rollins,Nick Cave,Tom Waits,Blixa Bargeld andKiss.
| Chart (1988) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| USAlternative Airplay (Billboard)[10] | 20 |
Coley, Byron and Farell, Ray; Liner Notes,Daydream Nation, 'deluxe edition', copyright 2007 Geffen Records.
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