The Suburbs

This song is about abandoning rebellion. The music video is incredible! If you pay attention it mirrors the lyrics to a tea and illustrates the song meaning. My interpretation of it may not be 100% correct though but it really made me think so I figured I'd share my thoughts. In the opening scene we see the busboy coming home early in the morning. Because of how the video ends we know he did something to betray his friend. I assume he slept with his gf, but he may have committed a crime to bring about the police sirens we hear in the distance. When the song begins we hear a honky tonk piano which gives the song a happy innocent vibe. "The suburbs" represents the USA or any country that isn't war torn (arcade is form Montreal so Canada or America, same thing). "Learned to drive" really means learned about political corruption. "Told me we'd never survive" is quite literal actually, anyone that preaches politics from a rebellious viewpoint always seems to stress that the world is coming to and end, or that were headed for tyranny because no one is doing anything etc. The song is narrated from the busboys standpoint talking to his rebellious influence which is the boy who beats him up at the end. His rebellious friends that they will one day "fight in a suburban world" meaning that one day all the corruption they fear would effect their daily lives as the kids live in a suburban world. When the lyric "your part of town gets minor" is sung the video depicts the kids looking towards a city being bombed. Again they are from the suburbs or "America" where its safe and they can watch all the horror in the world from a distance. "Standin on the opposite shore" means they are taking a rebellious attitude. By the time the first bombs were dropped on Iraq however, the kids had lost some of their interest in opposing the government. The whole concept of losing interest in rebellion is echoed in the chorus "moving past the feeling". My interpretation of the song is that the conflict that arises with the boys represents the conflict that any self proclaimed rebel will face at some point in his life. The boys relationship with the girl represents the boys rebellion all together. When the next verse comes in there is an errant guitar sound that emulates sirens, the honky tonk is still there but much quieter. This is when we see the first soldiers in the suburbs. The boy and his gf are under the overpass and still in love showing that the kids are still rebels. The next scene shows the boy on top of the busboy, signifying that he is still influenced by his rebellion. "All the walls/houses that they built in the 70's finally fall". Anyone who knows about the 70s knows that it was a time of revolution and change in terms of equal rights. Many people dedicated their lives to ensure that government oppression would cease to exist, and unwanted wars like Vietnam wouldn't take place. And yet here we are again bombing a country that many Americans did not want to bomb. Their fight "meant nothing at all". We also see the boys pass a destroyed wall as the relative lyrics are sung, and leave the garage of some house with the lights off, which makes it seem abandoned. The boys ride past the police as the lyric "Im moving past the feeling" is sung, however this chorus ends with "and into the night" at the very moment the music video setting turns to the night and the boys expressions turn from carefree to scared. The honky tonk is no longer heard as the song seems real eerie. Down the street they notice the army dragging someone to the side of the road. "I want a daughter while Im still young" is the justification for abandoning their rebelliousness when they realize that to grow up in the world and go on with your life means to give up any cause or fight you may have, and to just focus on taking care of your family. At this point the busboy is watching the army march down the street trough his window while he's holding his baby sibling as he and his friends look very scared and worried. The boy is hugging his gf signifying they are still rebellious. The next scene shows the 2 boys being searched by police when the one boy gives the busboy a look as if he knows that he has been betrayed. The lyric "move your feet from hot pavement and into the grass" made me take a second look at the song. I noticed that throughout the entire video the boys are playing on pavement while they are rebellious, except for the beginning where the busboy is on the grass. The artist is conveying that being rebellious is hard like standing on hot pavement and orders his rebellious side to just move to the grass where it is soft and easy on your feet "because its already passed", saying the rebellious attitudes have past and the kids want to grow up. I really was puzzled by the busboy texting in the parking lot and noticing that his bike had been destroyed, I assume the rebellious boy did it out of anger. But then we see the rebellious boy running on pavement as the grass/pavement lyric is sung. In the next scene the busboy is wandering through a crowd at a party and sees the rebellious boy with a new haircut talking to his gf. He then gives the busboy a dirty look, one can only assume she had confessed to being unfaithful with the busboy. The 3 friends are seen running across a grass field, thus signifying they have all conformed and are no longer rebels. They seem to be trying to save the busboy from an attack. As they realize they are too late they are screaming for the rebel to stop hurting the busboy while we hear "were still screaming" being sung. In the literal story the boy cries because the busboy had sex with his gf, but metaphorically he is crying because his rebellious cause has been defeated as the arcade fire are conveying that they have been won over by conformity. Im still not sure that i have it figured out, I could have it all wrong, but I feel the grass analogy probably holds some truth. Its just my take on the video. Thanks for reading.