Suburbia (4:01)

“Suburbia” is a song by UK synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was remixed and released as the fourth single from the album Please in 1986 and became the band’s second UK Top 10 hit, peaking at #8.

The song’s horrific depiction of its subject has made it an often-quoted piece of musical commentary on the nature of suburbs.

The song’s primary inspiration is the 1984 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: rioting noises 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 scenes in Suburbia. The Please version of the song sounds very sparse in comparison.

The bassline of the song is based on “Into the Groove” by Madonna.

The main musical theme of the song is greatly influenced by Chuck Mangione’s 1977 jazz-pop track Feels So Good.

The video was directed by Eric Watson, and features footage of the Pet Shop Boys in a Los Angeles’ suburb, as they happened to be there for that year’s MTV Music Awards.