Editing Generation Terrorists (section)

== Content ==

===Musical style===
Describing the album's musical style, ''[[the Quietus]]'' opined "It had to sound passé, it had to be overdone; if you're trying to bulldoze the shiny edifice of western pop culture, you can't do it tastefully or with subtlety, can you? [...] ''Generation Terrorists'' intentionally overplays its hand, overeggs its pudding and spunks its load at every turn".<ref name="The Quietus">{{cite web |url=http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/bolsover/Sean_CDShop_GT_REV.htm |title=Reviews: ''Generation Terrorists'' |last=Ellen |first=Barbara |date=8 February 1992 |website=[[NME]]|access-date=9 January 2013}}</ref> and ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' writer Joe Tangari wrote that ''Generation Terrorists'' "walked a weird line between agit-punk, [[cock rock]], romantic melodicism and glam, and was so obviously patterned after [[the Clash]]'s ''[[London Calling]]'' that it was actually kind of cute."<ref name="Pitchfork"/> Critics have labelled the album as [[glam rock]],<ref name="dowling">{{cite magazine | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/manic-street-preachers-singer-james-dean-bradfield-returns-to-his-roots-in-east-london-20121107 |title=Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield Returns to His Roots | magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] | date=7 November 2012 | access-date=20 June 2015 |last=Dowling |first=Stephen}}</ref> [[hard rock]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|author-link=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |title=''Gold Against the Soul'' – Manic Street Preachers {{!}} Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/gold-against-the-soul-mw0000620198 |access-date=31 December 2014 |publisher=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> [[punk rock]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.popmatters.com/review/175574-manic-street-preachers-rewind-the-film/ |title=Manic Street Preachers - Rewind the Film review |website=[[PopMatters]] |date=4 October 2013 |access-date=20 June 2015 |last=Gratt |first=John}}</ref> [[glam punk]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/manic-street-preachers-resistance-futile-2555672983.html | title= 'Resistance Is Futile' Is Manic Street Preachers' Pop Album with Some of Their Most Immediate Songs Ever |last=Carr |first=Paul |date=3 April 2018 |website=[[PopMatters]] |access-date=19 October 2019}}</ref> and [[glam metal]].<ref>{{cite web|first= Kayley |last= Kravitz |title= Archiving Pain: Richey Edwards disappeared 20 years ago, but his genius with the Manics lives on |website= Vanyaland |date= 30 January 2015 |access-date= 19 October 2019 |url=https://vanyaland.com/2015/01/30/lyrical-preacher-richey-edwards-disappeared-20-years-ago-sunday-genius-lives/}}</ref> Other influences on the album's sound include [[Guns N' Roses]] and the [[New York Dolls]].<ref name="dowling"/>

=== Lyrical content ===

All lyrics were written by Richey Edwards and [[Nicky Wire]]. All music was written by James Dean Bradfield and Sean Moore (except "Damn Dog", which is a cover version of a song by the Sleez Sisters from the 1980 movie ''[[Times Square (1980 film)|Times Square]]''). The album's lyrics are politicised similar to that of The Clash and [[Public Enemy (band)|Public Enemy]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/john_robb_on_manic_street_preachers |title=BBC – Blogs – John Robb on Manic Street Preachers |last=McLaren |first=James |date=9 February 2012 |website=[[BBC Online]] |access-date=24 September 2012}}</ref> with the album's songs regularly switching from a critical focus on global [[capitalism]] to more personal tales of despair and the struggles of youth.{{sfn|Price|1999|p=75}} Examples of the more politically inspired side of ''Generation Terrorists'' include the opening track "[[Slash 'n' Burn]]", which concerns "[[third world]] exploitation",{{sfn|Price|1999|p=75}} the track "Repeat (Stars and Stripes)", a remix of the band's own anti-[[monarchy]] tirade by Public Enemy production team [[The Bomb Squad]]{{sfn|Price|1999|p=77}} and "Another Invented Disease", a song whose title was deliberate [[word play]] on [[HIV/AIDS|AIDS]] and referred to a [[conspiracy theory]] insinuating that the virus was manufactured by American [[biological warfare]] scientists.{{sfn|Price|1999|p=77}}

{{listen |filename=Motorcycle_emptiness.ogg|title="Motorcycle Emptiness"|description="[[Motorcycle Emptiness]]", which criticizes [[consumerism]] as a "shallow dream",{{sfn|Price|1999|p=76}} was released as a single|format=[[Ogg]]}}

Other tracks combine personal and political themes, implicating a connection between global [[capitalism]] and personal struggle; "Nat West-Barclays-Midlands-Lloyds" was written as a critique of overseas banking credit policies, but also concerned [[Richey Edwards]]' issues involving overdrafts and refused loans.{{sfn|Price|1999|p=76}} Marc Burrows of [[Drowned in Sound]] considered the song to be an accurate prediction of "global financial meltdown" and its effects on everyday life.<ref name="Burrows">{{cite web |url=http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145695-manics-monday--rain-down-alienation-generation-terrorists%E2%80%99-key-tracks |title=Manics Monday: Rain Down Alienation – ''Generation Terrorists''<nowiki>'</nowiki> Key Tracks. / In Depth // Drowned in Sound |last=Burrows |first=Marc |date=5 November 2012 |work=[[Drowned in Sound]] |access-date=30 December 2014 |archive-date=6 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106122603/http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145695-manics-monday--rain-down-alienation-generation-terrorists%E2%80%99-key-tracks |url-status=dead }}</ref> The single "[[Motorcycle Emptiness]]", meanwhile, criticizes [[consumerism]] as a "shallow dream"{{sfn|Price|1999|p=76}} that makes human life overtly commercialized.<ref name="Burrows"/> "[[Little Baby Nothing]]", a duet between [[Traci Lords]] and Bradfield, was described by Priya Elan of the ''[[NME]]'' as a "perfect snapshot of [female] innocence bodysnatched and twisted".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&title=manic_street_preachers_their_10_best_tra&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 |title=Manic Street Preachers – Their 10 Best Tracks <nowiki>|</nowiki> nme.com |last=Elan |first=Priya |date=7 October 2011 |website=[[NME]]|access-date=30 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111008113059/http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&title=manic_street_preachers_their_10_best_tra&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 |archive-date=8 October 2011}}</ref>

Wire and Edwards' love of poetry is also evident in their lyrics. [[Stuart Maconie]] of ''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]'' speculated that the album's lyrics were not primarily written for usage in song format: "You got the impression that often they haven't even been tried out in the mouth".{{sfn|Price|1999|p=78}} Instead, revolutionary slogans,<ref name="Beaumont">{{cite web |url=http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/manic-street-preachers-20-reasons-to-love-generation-terrorists |title=Manic Street Preachers – 20 Reasons to Love <nowiki>'</nowiki>''Generation Terrorists''<nowiki>' |</nowiki> nme.com |last=Beaumont |first=Mark |date=10 February 2012 |website=[[NME]]|access-date=30 December 2014}}</ref> and rhyme-free verse conveying multiple messages{{sfn|Price|1999|p=78}} combine to create an album "drenched in Richey and Nicky's cut-n-paste lyrical agitation",<ref name="Beaumont"/> with vocalist Bradfield "fitting sentences along the lines of '[[Nagasaki]] royal alienation consumer deathmask strychnine [[The Holocaust|holocaust]] hate' into the restrictive confines of a melodic rock chorus."

=== Album cover ===

Edwards assumed responsibility for the cover; among ideas he had were using [[Andres Serrano]]'s ''[[Piss Christ]]'',<ref name=Jovanovic>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08Ql0sjmjKsC&pg=PT113|page=113|title=A Version of Reason: The Search for Richey Edwards|author=Rob Jovanovic|publisher=Hachette UK|date=3 December 2010|isbn=9781409111290}}</ref> a [[Jesus]] figure inside a container of urine;<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/understandingsoc0000mona|url-access=registration|title=Understanding Society, Culture, and Television |author=Paul Monaco |page=[https://archive.org/details/understandingsoc0000mona/page/100 100] |year=2000 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=0-275-97095-7}}</ref> the [[Bert Stern]] [[Marilyn Monroe]] photographs; a sandpaper sleeve that would scratch the album itself as well as anything else that it was shelved by (similar to ''[[Mémoires]]'' by [[Asger Jorn]] and [[Guy Debord]]);<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/727492|work=metmuseum.org|title=Mémoires,1959 Asger Jorn}}</ref> as well as several other famous religious paintings; but these suggestions were either declined or found too expensive.<ref name=Jovanovic/>

The final front cover of the album was a picture of Edwards' left arm and chest. The arm had a tattoo of a rose with the words "useless generation" in capitals underneath, which was changed to "generation terrorists". This was not without problems, as the original pressing had made Edwards' flesh to be bright pink as opposed to the intended mustard. The back cover featured a design similar to their earlier [[New Art Riot|''New Art Riot'' EP]] cover, an [[European Community|EC]] Flag, though this time it was crumpled and in flames. The [[working title]] of the album was ''Culture, Alienation, Boredom & Despair'' (a lyric from the song "Little Baby Nothing").