Music / The All-American Rejects

I'll keep you my dirty little secret (Dirty little secret),
Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret, hope that you can keep it),
My dirty little secret...

"Dirty Little Secret"

The All-American Rejects are a pop-punk band formed in Oklahoma in 1999. They consist of Tyson Ritter on lead vocals, bass, and piano, Nick Wheeler on lead guitar and backing vocals, Mike Kennerty on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, and Chris Gaylor on drums.

The band reached its current lineup shortly before the release of their self-titled debut album in 2003. The band's best-known songs are "Swing, Swing", "Dirty Little Secret", "Move Along", "It Ends Tonight" and "Gives You Hell", the last one also being their best-selling. The band's most recent album was released in 2012, but they have sporadically released single songs in the years since.

Discography:

• The All-American Rejects (2003)
• Move Along (2005)
• When the World Comes Down (2008)
• Kids in the Street (2012)

When all you gotta trope is strong / Move along, move along / Like I know you do:

• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: How the band got its name- part of the band wanted to be called "The All-Americans" and others wanted to be called "The Rejects", so they compromised and combined the two
• Break-Up Song: "Swing, Swing", "It Ends Tonight", "Gives You Hell", "The Wind Blows" and "Beekeeper's Daughter", and those are just the singles.
• Call-and-Response Song: The bridge to "Another Heart Calls".
• Cluster F-Bomb: "DGAF", a 2017 single.
• Department of Redundancy Department: "The Wind Blows" has the line "Late nights when I stay up late".
• Earn Your Happy Ending: True to the song's message, "Move Along"'s music video shows Tyson and the other band members going through some tough times before the ending implies that they eventually straighten out their lives.
• Emo: Of the pop-emo variety, though mostly on their first album.
• Final Love Duet: "Another Heart Calls", featuring The Pierces.
• The Four Chords of Pop: "Swing Swing", "Move Along" (intro, bridge, and outro) and "Dirty Little Secret" (verses) have I-V-vi-IV.
  • "Dirty Little Secret" (chorus) and "It Ends Tonight" (chorus) use I-IV-vi-V.
  • "Move Along" (chorus) uses vi-I-V-IV.
• Hope Springs Eternal: "Move Along". The basic message of the song is that, yeah, sometimes life is going to suck, and not just suck, but suck so much it hurts. However, if you keep going and not give up, it will all get better.
• Intercourse with You: "Fast and Slow".
• "I Want" Song: The aptly titled "I Wanna", from When The World Comes Down, about wanting to hold someone when you're far away from them.
• Kids Rock: "Move Along".
• Lead Bassist: Tyson is both Type B & C, doing acting work and modeling outside the band.
• Loud of War: The “Gives You Hell” video has the band and their straight-laced neighbors pranking each other with this.
• Lyrical Cold Open: "My Paper Heart" and "Believe".
• Lyrical Dissonance: "My Paper Heart", "Dirty Little Secret", "Someday's Gone".
  • When the World Comes Down loved this trope, having "Breakin'", "Believe", and "Sunshine".
• Match Cut: "Move Along"'s video is mostly comprised of Tyson in various locations and situations but framed in almost the exact same way with every shot.
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Move Along has a faded black-and-white image of the band (the one seen in the above image), the band's then logo in solid black (also in the above image in white), and the title of the album in red, all on a white background. So yeah, not much to it.
• New Sound Album: When the World Comes Down has a more pop-oriented feel and a usually Lighter and Softer tone, featuring their biggest hit, "Gives You Hell". Kids in the Street, however, is more of a throwback 80's style album.
• Non-Appearing Title: "Night Drive", "11:11 P.M.", "Mona Lisa", "Gonzo".
• Pop Punk/Power Pop
• Precision F-Strike: "Heartbeat Slowing Down" has this sudden line "I fucking hate this town."
  • "Someday's Gone", on the same album, has the line "You walk into the room and you fucked everyone." Together, they make up the only 3 f-bombs dropped in the band's history. Until "DGAF" was released...
• Significant Double Casting: In the “Gives You Hell” video. The band plays themselves, and Tyson doubles as the milquetoast neighbor who’s irritated with their late-night partying.
• Sleeping Single: The music video for "Gives You Hell" has one.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Top of the World" is this to the then-current president, George W. Bush.
• This Is a Song:
  • "The Last Song". It was also the last song on that album.
  • "There's a Place" has the line "I could hold you in this song."

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Right back what is wrong
We move along