The Kids Aren't Alright

Infobox Single
Name = The Kids Aren't Alright

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Caption =
Artist = The Offspring
from Album = Americana
A-side =
B-side =
Released = September 21, 1999
Format = CD
Recorded = 1998
Genre = Punk rock, skate punk
Length = 03:00
Label = Columbia
Writer = Dexter Holland
Producer = Dave Jerden
Certification =
Chart position = * #6 (US Modern Rock)
* #11 (US Mainstream Rock, United Kingdom)
* #16 (Sweden)
* #32 (France)
* #39 (New Zealand)
* #45 (Germany)
Last single = "Why Don't You Get a Job?" (1999)
This single = "The Kids Aren't Alright"
(1999)
Next single = "She's Got Issues" (1999)
Misc = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = Single


Cover size =
Lower caption = "The Kids Aren't Alright" is the third single from The Offspring's album "Americana". Its title is an allusion to the Who song/documentary "The Kids Are Alright" (from "My Generation"). Despite not being as commercially successful as its predecessing singles, the song remains the most-listened to Offspring song amongst Last.FM users. [ [http://www.last.fm/music/The+Offspring The Offspring at Last.fm] ] The song was also included in the movie "The Faculty" and it appeared on the soundtrack album.

Track listing

Original pressing

# "The Kids Aren't Alright"
# "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) (Live)"
# "Walla Walla (Live)"

Alternate pressing

# "The Kids Aren't Alright"
# "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) (Live)"
# "Walla Walla (Live)"
# "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (CD Extra Video)

econd alternate pressing

# "The Kids Aren't Alright"
# "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy) (Live)"
# "Walla Walla (Live)"
# "Why Don't You Get a Job? (Live)"

Third alternate pressing

# "The Kids Aren't Alright"
# "Walla Walla (Live)"
# "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)" (CD Extra Video)

ong meaning

The lyrics are inspired by a visit Dexter Holland made to his old neighborhood, Garden Grove in Orange County, California. Seeing that most of his friends met tragedy (car accident, nervous breakdown), he wrote the song that details the ruined lives of a group of childhood friends. The four kids—Jamie, Mark, Jay, and Brandon—all had the potential to have extraordinary lives but each of them ended up throwing it away in a different fashion (Jamie "had a chance well she really did", but she dropped out of school, got pregnant and had a couple of kids, Mark stays home playing guitar and smoking a lot of pot, Jay committed suicide, Brandon "OD'd and died").

This fits well with the concept of the album: unpleasant realities of American life. In this case, children are promised they are growing up to a future of unlimited potential, but in reality, most of that potential is never realized.

Music video

The music video, directed by Yariv Gaber, released a month before the CD single [http://www.mvdbase.com/video.php?id=20894] , received heavy airplay on MTV. It was later nominated for Best Direction on the MTV Video Music Awards. Contrary to popular belief, the visuals in the video are made by standard rotoscoping techniques, not computers.

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 doing stereotypical things and moves; occasionally band members show up. The camera pans around the room and the changing of the scenes of persons mean mostly "growing out of" the previous person.

Covers

The song had two covers. The first depicted 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, alternate 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).

Alternate versions

*The "blue cover" version of the "She's Got Issues" single includes as B-sides a remix of The Kids Aren't Alright by The Wiseguys, and an instrumental of this remix. The remix takes a different approach to the song, removing the energetic, angry guitars and instead trying to create something bleaker, more of a sad lament than an angry one. This version also appears as a bonus track on the European and South American releases of the band's "".

* The college marching band version can be enjoyed in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during home football games of the USC Trojans. The USC Trojan Marching Band plays the song during referee timeouts for viewing replays of critical plays; it is played at least once each home and away football game. The song has thus been broadcast on network television on weekly ABC network College Game Day broadcasts, several Rose Bowl broadcasts, and at least two BCS National Championship game broadcasts. The marching band added the song to its game day repertoire back during the year Offspring appeared with the band during a half time show for fans. See Youtube at: USC Trojan Marching Band "The Kids Aren't Alright" - a video of the post-game performance after the 'final seconds-goal line' Trojan victory in the nationally televised Notre Dame game in South Bend in 2005.

*One of the two versions of the "Want You Bad" single released in the UK has a live version of the song as one of the B-sides. This version is very faithful to the original, although the guitars don't quite sound the same.

*Another live version of the song appears on the "(Can't Get My) Head Around You" single. This version comes from a session recorded for BBC Radio 1, and features more subdued instrumentation than the original.

*On "The Making of the Da Hui Video", in the Music DVD Bonus Material, a Hawaiian guitar version of the song can be heard. This version is also included as an MP3 download on the "Splinter" album as "The Kids Aren't Alright (Island Style)".

*The song has been covered by the metalcore band Evergreen Terrace on their 2004 album Writer's Block

*The Logarhythms, an all-male a cappella group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recorded an a cappella version of the song for their 2004 album "Soundproof." Their version of the song was also chosen for included in the 2005 "Best of College A Cappella" (BOCA) album.

References