Lyrically, this song sees Bowie taking a thinly-veiled swipe at the new legion of imitators who had sprung up in the late 1970s as a result of his success. Bowie refers to them as the "new wave boys" and sings that they do the "same old thing in brand new drag". Indeed, there were new New Wave artists such as Gary Numan, Falco, Joy Division and The Cure among others who owed much of their existence and success to Bowie. And this track finds Bowie dismissing them with lyrics such as "The fingerprints will prove you couldn't pass the test".
Musically, the song purposefully echoes Bowie's own classic song "Heroes" as is to drive the point home that his artistic godchildren are just blatantly copying him and acting as if they invented this new style ["pretending it's a whiz-kid world"].
As the years moved on, Bowie came to terms with his followers and made peace with it - even with Gary Numan who he seemed particularly perturbed with at the time "Teenage Wildlife" was written.
Lyrically, this song sees Bowie taking a thinly-veiled swipe at the new legion of imitators who had sprung up in the late 1970s as a result of his success. Bowie refers to them as the "new wave boys" and sings that they do the "same old thing in brand new drag". Indeed, there were new New Wave artists such as Gary Numan, Falco, Joy Division and The Cure among others who owed much of their existence and success to Bowie. And this track finds Bowie dismissing them with lyrics such as "The fingerprints will prove you couldn't pass the test".
Musically, the song purposefully echoes Bowie's own classic song "Heroes" as is to drive the point home that his artistic godchildren are just blatantly copying him and acting as if they invented this new style ["pretending it's a whiz-kid world"].
As the years moved on, Bowie came to terms with his followers and made peace with it - even with Gary Numan who he seemed particularly perturbed with at the time "Teenage Wildlife" was written.