Suburbia is a song by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was remixed and released as the fourth single from the duo’s debut studio album, Please (1986), and became the band’s second UK top-10 entry, peaking at number 8. “Suburbia” has drawn comparisons to the theme from ALF, which coincidentally premiered the day that the song was released.
Background
The song’s primary inspiration is the 1983 Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia, and its depiction of violence and squalor in the suburbs of Los Angeles; in addition, the tension of the Brixton riots of 1981 and of 1985 hanging in recent memory led Neil Tennant of the duo to thinking about the boredom of suburbia and the underlying tension among disaffected youth that sparked off the riots at the least provocation.
The various versions of the song are punctuated by sounds of suburban violence, riots and smashing glass, as well as snarling dogs on the re-recorded single version (extended even further on the music video), which were derived from typical scenes in suburbia. The version used for the video was the song that appeared on the PopArt compilation in 2003.
Music video
The video was directed by Eric Watson, and features footage of the duo in a Los Angeles suburb, as they happened to be there for that year’s MTV Video Music Awards and a contrasting image of British suburbia, filmed in Kingston-upon-Thames, a suburb of south-west London.
Suburbia Lyrics (1986)
Suburbia
Where the suburbs met utopia
Where the suburbs met utopia
Lost in the high street, where the dogs run
Roaming suburban boys
Mother’s got her hairdo to be done
She says they’re too old for toys
Stood by the bus stop with a felt pen
In this suburban hell
And in the distance a police car
To break the suburban spell
Let’s take a ride
And run with the dogs tonight in suburbia
You can’t hide
Run with the dogs tonight
In suburbia
Break the window by the town hall
Listen, a siren screams
There in the distance like a roll call
Of all the suburban dreams
Let’s take a ride
And run with the dogs tonight in suburbia
You can’t hide
Run with the dogs tonight
In suburbia
I only wanted something else to do but hang around
I only wanted something else to do but hang around
(Hang around, hang around)
It’s on the front page of the papers
This is their hour of need
Where’s a policeman when you need one
To blame the colour TV?
Let’s take a ride
And run with the dogs tonight
In suburbia
You can’t hide
Run with the dogs tonight
In suburbia, in suburbia, in suburbia
Run with the dogs tonight
You can’t hide
Run with the dogs tonight
You can’t hide
In suburbia
Suburbia
Where the suburbs met utopia
What kind of dream was this
So easy to destroy?
And who are we to blame
For the sins of the past?
These slums of the future?
Suburbia
Where the suburbs met utopia
Suburbia
Where the suburbs met utopia
Where the suburbs met utopia
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