Oh my gosh, you won’t believe the story behind the song “21st Century Digital Boy” by Bad Religion! So, Brett, one of the band members, explained that the song is all about how young people these days are so consumed by technology that they miss out on experiencing real culture, like reading. Can you imagine? But get this, there’s a rumor that the song is actually about drugs and Brett’s own family, since he grew up spoiled by his rich parents. And get this, it was inspired by Hetson’s comments on Nintendo! How crazy is that?
But wait, there’s more! The song actually takes a part from another song called “21st Century Schizoid Man” by King Crimson. They even admitted it in the liner notes of their album Against The Grain. And get this, it also has some similarities to a song called “American Society” by Eddie and The Subtitles. Apparently, it was buried in the track listing of Against The Grain, but they thought it sounded too much like “American Society.”
Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. There were rumors that Bad Religion performed the song live in 1988 and that it was written for their album No Control, but that’s not true at all. According to Jay, another band member, it was specifically written for Against The Grain.
But get this, when they released their album Stranger Than Fiction, their record label said they didn’t hear a hit song on the album, so they asked Bad Religion to redo “21st Century Digital Boy” for the album. Brett said they were already selling out, so he didn’t see the point in arguing. But he actually prefers the version on Against The Grain because it has a guitar solo in the outro that they forgot to include in the Stranger Than Fiction version.
And get this, Greg Graffin, another band member, said that the drumming on the Stranger Than Fiction version is better. He also mentioned that they wanted to include a song from their history on the album to show that they were still relevant.
Now, let’s talk about the videos for the song. When it first came out on Against The Grain, they made a video with live footage and some images of helicopters. It was even shown on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball. But get this, there’s another video they made for the song when it was re-released on Stranger Than Fiction. In this video,
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
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