The Kids Aren't Alright
| "The Kids Aren't Alright" | ||||||||
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| Single by The Offspring | ||||||||
| from the album Americana | ||||||||
| Released | September 21, 1999 | |||||||
| Format | CD single | |||||||
| Recorded | 1998 | |||||||
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| Length | 3:00 | |||||||
| Label | Columbia | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Dexter Holland | |||||||
| Producer(s) | Dave Jerden | |||||||
| The Offspring singles chronology | ||||||||
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"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 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. It is also available as downloadable content for the Rock Band video game series.
The song also appears as the ninth track on their Greatest Hits album of 2005.
Cassette Single
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, 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.
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