B.Y.O.B.

"B.Y.O.B."
Single by System of a Down
from the album Mezmerize
Released	August 23, 2005
Format	12", CD, Airplay
Recorded	The Mansion Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, California Akademie Mathematique of Philosophical Sound Research Los Angeles, California
Genre	Alternative metal, heavy metal
Length	4:17 (album version)
Label	American/Columbia
Writer(s)	Daron Malakian, Serj Tankian, Casey Chaos
Producer	Rick Rubin, Daron Malakian
Certification	Platinum (RIAA)
System of a Down singles chronology
"Innervision" (2002) "B.Y.O.B." (2005) "Question!" (2005)

"B.Y.O.B." is a Grammy Award-winning song as well as the first single released from System of a Down's fourth album Mezmerize. Like their earlier song "Boom!" it was written to protest the Iraq War.

"B.Y.O.B." is available as downloadable content for Rock Band as well as being featured in the game Guitar Hero World Tour, where it is one of the last songs when playing most of the instruments.

Awards

• System of a Down won the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category in the 2006 Grammy Awards.^[1]
• The track was the band's only Top 40 single of their career, peaking at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• It was voted #76 in Total Guitar's 100 Greatest Riffs ever.
• It made onto numerous "Top 40" play lists around the globe, including Germany, New Zealand, Australia And the United States, and occasionally made it to #1 on other music shows.
• It made #134 on the Y2KROQ Top 200 Songs of the Century.

Music video

The video for "B.Y.O.B." was directed by Jake Nava.

The music video shows an army of drone soldiers marching through the streets, wearing masks that show words such as "DIE", "TRUTH", "OBEY" and "GOD" like a television screen, with the members of System of a Down playing in the middle of the venue. During the chorus, the band is shown playing inside a night club. Midway through the video, Daron is shown screaming the words "Blast off! It's party time! And we don't live in a fascist nation! Blast off! It's party time! And where the fuck are you?!", when the soldiers attack the night club and force everyone to put on the drone masks (paintball masks) that the soldiers have been wearing, except they depict various television shows and cartoons. At the end of the video, the members of System of a Down are wearing the drone masks, which seem to be playing static.

Live performance

Live, Daron Malakian switches to a reggae-styled riff when singing during the chorus.

The song was performed on May 7, 2005 on Saturday Night Live, 10 days before the release of the album Mezmerize. During this performance, towards the end of the song (during the downward guitar slide, following the line "Why do they always send the poor?"), guitarist Daron Malakian screamed, "Fuck yeah!". This was missed by television censors, and it became a controversial matter for a few days thereafter. However, the rest of the song was able to be censored on time without any trouble.

When performed at the MTV Europe Music Awards, the line "And we don't live in a fascist nation" was changed to "This ain't no bullshit political punk rock".

Track listing

B.Y.O.B. (promotional single)

B.Y.O.B. (enhanced single)

• The live tracks were recorded at the Big Day Out 2005 festival.

B.Y.O.B. (commemorative single)

References

External links

• Listen to B.Y.O.B. at the band's official website