The Kids Aren't Alright

"The Kids Aren't Alright"
Single by The Offspring
from the album Americana
Released September 21, 1999[1]
Format CD single[2]
Recorded 1998
Genre
Length 3:00
Label Columbia[3]
Writer(s) Dexter Holland
Producer(s) Dave Jerden[4]
The Offspring singles chronology
"Why Don't You Get a Job?"
(1999)
"The Kids Aren't Alright"
(1999)
"She's Got Issues"
(1999)
Alternative cover

"The Kids Aren't Alright" is a song by The Offspring. It is the fifth track from the band's fifth studio album Americana (1998) and was released as the third single from the album. It became another top 10 hit on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Its title is an allusion to the Who song "The Kids Are Alright" (from My Generation). Despite not being as commercially successful as its predecessor singles, "The Kids Aren't Alright" remains the most-listened to Offspring song amongst Last.FM[5] and Spotify users, and still receives some radio play. The song was used in the opening scene of the film The Faculty, and appears on the soundtrack album.[6] It is also available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series.[7]

The song also appears as the ninth track on their Greatest Hits album of 2005.

Track listing

Original pressing

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00
2."Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (Live) 
3."Walla Walla" (Live) 

Alternative pressing

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00
2."Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (Live) 
3."Walla Walla" (Live) 
4."Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (CD Extra Video) 

Second alternative pressing

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00
2."Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (Live) 
3."Walla Walla" (Live) 
4."Why Don't You Get a Job?" (Live) 

Third alternative pressing

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00
2."Walla Walla" (Live) 
3."Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (CD Extra Video) 

Promo CD

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00

Cassette Single

No.TitleLength
1."The Kids Aren't Alright"  3:00
2."Pretty Fly (For a white guy)" (Live)3:10

Music video

It features a room with a background of abandonment or family activity at different times. In the center of the room, there are scenes of various persons, including an appearance by Bif Naked, doing stereotypical things and moves; occasionally band members show up. The camera pans around the room and the changing of the scenes of persons.

The background can be seen shifting between two time lines, one where the scene is the past, where things are new and white, and modern days where it is dreary and drab. This is a clear connection to the songs lyric 'when we were young the future was so bright...' and the overall feeling of the song to be looking to what has happened since and 'how can one little street swallow so many lives'.

The music video, directed by Yariv Gaber, released a month before the CD single,[8] received heavy airplay on MTV. It was later nominated for Best Direction on the MTV Video Music Awards. The visuals in the video are made with rotoscoping techniques.

DVD appearances

The music video also appears on the Complete Music Video Collection DVD. It was released in 2005.

Album art

The album art features two different drawings for this song. The first depicts a scarecrow falling into the tentacles shown prominently in other single and album covers from "Americana". This art also appeared in the accompanying booklet for the album (however, this drawing appeared with the song "Have You Ever"). The second, alternative cover shows a young child reaching for a gun, with ominous blood near to it (the drawing that actually appears with the song in the "Americana" booklet).

Rock Band

The song was also released as downloadable content for the game Rock Band. It was released on March 10, 2009.

Covers/alternative versions

Charts

Chart (1999) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[9] 69
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[10] 43
France (SNEP)[11] 32
Germany (Official German Charts)[12] 45
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[13] 29
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[14] 39
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[15] 16
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[16] 11
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[17] 11
US Alternative Songs (Billboard)[18] 6

References

  1. "The Kids Aren't Alright" was released as a single on this day in 1999! What are your favorite lyrics from the song? twitter.com/offspring. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  2. "Offspring, The – The Kids Aren't Alright". Discogs. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  3. "The Kids Aren't Alright". Rate Your Music. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  4. "The Offspring – Kids Aren't Alright [US CD Single]". Allmusic. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  5. "The Offspring". Last.fm. Last.fm. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  6. "The Faculty (1998) – Soundtracks". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  7. Rainier (March 6, 2009). "Rock Band (ALL) to Get The Offspring, R.E.M. and Richard Thompson Tracks". Worthplaying. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  8. "the Offspring - "The kids aren't alright"". mvdbase.com. 1999-07-14. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
  9. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  10. "Ultratop.be – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright" (in French). Ultratop 50.
  11. "Lescharts.com – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright" (in French). Les classement single.
  12. "Offiziellecharts.de – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright". GfK Entertainment Charts.
  13. "Dutchcharts.nl – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  14. "Charts.org.nz – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright". Top 40 Singles.
  15. "Swedishcharts.com – The Offspring – The Kids Aren't Alright". Singles Top 100.
  16. "Offspring: Artist Chart History" Official Charts Company.
  17. "The Offspring – Chart history" Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs for The Offspring.
  18. "The Offspring – Chart history" Billboard Alternative Songs for The Offspring.
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