This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race

"This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the lead single from their commercially successful third studio album Infinity on High (2007). The song was first played on September 30, 2006 at a Philadelphia radio station, 102.1, and leaked onto the internet soon after. It was officially debuted on November 21 at the American Music Awards and was shipped to radio stations that night (with an impact date of December 5 in the United States). The music was composed by vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump and the lyrics were penned by bassist Pete Wentz, following the band's songwriting approach which first began with some songs on their 2003 effort Take This to Your Grave. Production was handled by Neal Avron, who also produced the band's previous From Under the Cork Tree album. Commenting on the band's decision to pick the track as the first single, Wentz said "There may be other songs on the record that would be bigger radio hits, but this one had the right message."

The track was a commercial success and the band's international breakthrough. "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 with 162,000 first week sales and broke various records. It is the group's first single to chart worldwide in countries (besides the UK) including Australia, New Zealand and most of the European nations, where it reached the top five in many. After its Platinum RIAA and ARIA certifications in 2007, on July 22, 2013, it was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for 60,000 sales.

The website that bassist Pete Wentz promotes, FriendsorEnemies.com, made "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" available to the internet community on November 17, just after its radio debut in Indianapolis.

The single was released as a CD single, digital download and also as a 7" blue vinyl and 7" purple vinyl. The B-sides, "G.I.N.A.S.F.S." and "It's Hard to Say "I Do", When I Don't", were released as bonus tracks from Infinity on High in certain countries. Both the songs were included as bonus songs on the deluxe editions of the album. There is an official remix featuring Kanye West which the band tried to rush onto Infinity on High but was unable to do so due to time constraints.

The song was released as a downloadable track for the video game Rock Band on May 6, 2008, and is also on Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2 The January 2009 issue of PlayStation: The Official Magazine lists Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race" as second on its list of Rock Band's Five Most Unexpectedly Rockin' Downloadable Songs. The song is also available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5.