Audience Of One

As we get older, we often lose touch with our friends as our paths diverge, but it's all part of growing up. Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath ended up going to college, joining the band, and adopting a straight-edge lifestyle. "'Audience Of One' is that coming-of-age tale where you are growing up and the friends in the community you grew up with, everyone is going their separate ways," he said in a Songfacts interview. "The experiences of our youth were starting to come to an expiration date. Everybody was transitioning to adulthood. 'Audience Of One' is about that moment of your life that I think a lot of people experience."

The music video, directed by Brett Simon, puts a political slant on the song, showing toy soldiers in a model town that represents the contrast between life in America and life in Iraq and Afghanistan, where wars were being fought. The video was made at the end of 2008, a year when America was going through a financial crisis but still sending soldiers to war. In addition to the war imagery, it references homes being foreclosed, which was happening a lot at the time. The video debuted on MySpace on January 15, 2009, the waning days of relevance for that service.

This was the second single from Rise Against's fifth album, Appeal To Reason. Going political for the video is something other bands on the punk spectrum (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco) wouldn't touch, but Rise Against embraced. By sticking to their rebellious roots, they picked up many new fans who were looking for more than just entertainment.