15 Best Rock Songs About Growing Up
9. The Kids Aren't Alright - The Offspring
Another less than positive look on growing up, The Kids Aren't Alright is a song in which the narrator details the lives of those he grew up with, with the meat of the track being about how they had so much potential in youth, only to have it go to waste in adulthood.
He describes a girl who had a bright future, but ended up dropping out of school to become a mother, a grown-man who lives with his parents and does nothing but play guitar and smoke marijuana all day, another who overdosed on drugs and another who took their own life. The rest of the song is the narrator lamenting about how all of this could happen to the kids he knew from his youth.
Throughout this song is the trademark Offspring vigor, and it shows them at their impassioned best. The strong instrumental is matched only by the intense vocals, and the chorus is loud and arduous in all the right ways.
In short, this is a song about what happens when growing up goes wrong. Lump that together with a memorable, high energy composition, and you have an exciting, yet harrowing piece of music.