The Underrated Youth

*Landed on the wrong page with a similar name? See: The Underrated Youth (disambiguation)*.

## the underrated youth

YUNGBLUD, amongst other people, on the cover of the underrated youth EP, in black and white, carrying a flag.

## general information

### Writers:

Dominic Harrison
Matt Schwartz
Justin Tranter
Chris Greatti
Zakk Cervini
Dan Reynolds
Jorgen Odegard
Mike Crossey
Richard Koehler
Tim Randolph
Adam Warrington
Danny Lee Snodgrass, Jr.
Michael Rennie
Shane Gilliver

### Producers:

Matt Schwartz
YUNGBLUD
Zakk Cervini
Chris Greatti
Tim Randolph
Jorgen Odegard
Mike Crossey

## ep chronology

**The Underrated Youth** *(stylised in all lowercase)* is the second extended play, following YUNGBLUD, that YUNGBLUD released. It was released 18 October 2019 through Geffen Records, Locomotion Recordings, and Polydor Records. It includes the singles *"parents"*, *"hope for the underrated youth"* and *"original me"*. The EP is available to stream and buy on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, SoundCloud, YouTube, Amazon, Tidal, and more.

## Background

YUNGBLUD began working on his second EP in late 2018, although the last track, *"waiting on the weekend"*, was written when he was 17. YUNGBLUD told Billboard that the EP says that *"the future is going to be bright, simply because we’re fucking in it."*, and that he wants it to be a trust exercise, *"You know, when you fall back and someone catches you. I want people to have that sense of belonging, like someone’s going to have their back."*. He also spoke to Official Charts, calling it *"a tribute to individualism"*. And speaking to Altenative Press he stated *"This EP is emotional, [and] it’s about what is happening in my heart and the stories I’ve heard and the journeys my fans have taken me down into their heads and into my head. It’s almost like we’re a fucking connected train set, and I’m going inside their heads, and they’re coming inside mine."* A day before the EP was released he did an interview with BBC News, who reported him as *"A mouthpiece for the underrated youth"*, and stated that *"waiting on the weekend"* was co-written with Shane Gilliver, his guitar teacher, in a Los Angeles studio where *"the microphone cost more than my rent"*.

## Singles

Parents was the first single, released 24 May 2019. It was originally titled "*Parents Ain't Always Right*", and was the first single released from the EP. It was described by YUNGBLUD as "*A tribute to individualism*", stating *"You are the best judge of how to become the best you. Don’t conform to the outside world’s perception of who you should be if it means losing yourself in the process"*. Leading up to the release of the single, YUNGBLUD set up a phone number on posters for fans to find and call the number each day for three days to hear different stories through voicemail, each story narrated by YUNGBLUD and relating to a lyric in *"parents"*. After calling the number on the first day, 21 May, you would hear a story of a boy whose father caught him kissing another boy, and threatened to kill him if he did it again. The next morning the boy tied his father up with gaffer tape and locked him in the shed, made a peephole in it and forced his father to watch him have sex with his best friend. The story is told from first person perspective of the boy. The second day, 22 May, the story is of a teacher and a student in her class, they fell in love with each other, but she became *"possessed with jealousy"* when she *"saw his pupils dilate for another"* and when he threatened to walk away from her, she killed him. The third day, 23 May, the story is of a young boy called Charlie, whose parents never wanted him, the boy became depressed and conspired about leaving town with his friends, unfortunately his parents heard him and ended up killing him by dropping a toaster in his bath. *"parents"* contain lyrics relating to all three of these stories. On 22 June, YUNGBLUD organised a scavenger hunt in Los Angeles at Pink Dot, New York at Village Music World, London at Underground, Leeds at the Crash and Sydney at Hum Records for his fans, in each location you could find different items that were in the lyrics of the song or within the music video. The official music video for "Parents" premiered on YouTube on 24 June 2019 and was directed by Miles & AJ.

Hope For the Underrated Youth was the second single, released 29 July 2019. Leading up to the release of the song, YUNGBLUD announced on 25 July, that he had a *"surprise"* in London on a boat at the River Thames, and linked fans to a website to sign up to be on it. On 27 July, with some of the fans on the boat, YUNGBLUD projected the words "THERE'S HOPE FOR THE UNDERRATED YOUTH" onto the side of Houses of Parliament, he later shared an image of the projection on his social media. And announced on 28 July 2019 that the song would premiere the next day, on BBC Radio 1 during Annie Mac's Future Sounds as Annie Mac's Hottest Record in the World. On 14 August, a music video featuring footage from the events of the night on the boat, was released onto his YouTube channel, directed by Tom Pallant. On 24 September 2019, the official music video, directed by Andrew Sandler, premiered on his YouTube channel.

Original Me was the third and final single, released 8 October 2019. The song, which features Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons, was announced 4 October 2019 and released 8 October. On 9 October, he invited fans to Times Square in New York to watch the premiere of the video with him, it premiered on MTV, shown on a one of the big screens. After the EP was released, on 21 October, YUNGBLUD and Reynolds performed the single on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In a press release, he said that the song is *"about accepting the parts of yourself that you hate and realizing your biggest superpower is to be originally, authentically yourself"*.

## Trivia

* "*waiting on the weekend*" is the only song not written in the same time frame as the rest of the songs, the song was written when YUNGBLUD was 17 years old.
* "*casual sabotage*" was written in early 2018, this song is the only song on the EP that was played live while unreleased. It was first played on 28 January 2018, at a live show in Amsterdam at Melkweg. When playing it live he told the audience that he had just written the song and wanted to play it live. The song has been a long time favourite and one that fans constantly told him they wanted released.
* This is the first musical work to be released that is in all lowercase; the EP title and the song titles are in lowercase.

## Credits

* Dominic Harrison — composer, lyricist, guitar (track 1, 2, 6), vocals, bass (track 1), producer (track 2, 5)
* Matt Schwartz — composer (track 1, 4, 5), lyricist (track 1, 4, 5), producer (1, 4, 5), bass (track 1), guitar (track 1, 4), keyboards (track 1, 4), programming (track 1, 4)
* Chris Greatti — composer (track 2, 5), lyricist (track 2, 5), producer (track 2, 5), guitar (track 2, 5)
* Zakk Cervini — composer (track 2, 5), producer (track 2, 5), lyricist (track 2, 5), programming (track 2, 5), studio personnel (track 5, 6), mixer (track 6)
* Chris Gehringer — mastering engineer (track 1, 3, 6), studio personnel (track 1, 3, 6)
* Mike Crossey — composer (track 3, 6), lyricist (track 3, 6), producer (track 6), keyboards (track 6), programming (track 6)
* Justin Tranter — composer (track 2, 3), lyricist (track 2, 3)
* Jorgen Odegard — composer (track 3), producer (track 3), lyricist (track 3), programming (track 3)
* Richard Koehler — composer (track 3), lyricist (track 3), guitar (track 3)
* Tim Randolph — composer (track 3), producer (track 3), lyricist (track 3), drums (track 3), programming (track 3), guitar (track 3)
* Danny Lee Snodgrass, Jr. — composer (track 5), lyricist (track 5)
* Adam Warrington — composer (track 5), lyricist (track 5), organ (track 6), guitar (track 5)
* Michael Rennie — composer (track 5), lyricist (track 5), drums (track 5)
* Shane Gilliver — composer (track 6), lyricist (track 6)
* Brent Arrowood — assistant mixer (track 1, 4), studio personnel (track 1, 4)
* Adam Hawkins — enginneer (track 1, 4), mixer (track 1, 4), studio personnel (track 1, 4)
* Neal Avron — engineer (track 2), mixer (track 2, 5), studio personnel (track 2, 5)
* Joe LaPorta — mastering engineer (track 2), studio personnel (track 2)
* Serban Ghenea — mixer (track 3), studio personnel (track 3)
* Stevens — recording engineer (track 6), studio personnel (track 6)

## Gallery

* Promotional Merch

* CDs & Vinyls
* Clothing

Standard black vinyl

Underrated Youth black crewneckUnderrated Youth tan crewneckUnderrated Youth pink tie dye long sleeveUnderrated Youth checkered skirt
## References

1. ↑ YUNGBLUD on Instagram: "Verified jus wrote this ... luv u 🖤" (2 November 2018)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 YouTube — "Spotlight on YungBlud | Dominic Richard Harrison Interview | MCM Comic Con" (13 November 2019)
3. ↑ Billboard – "Yungblud Wants His 'The Underrated Youth' EP To Be 'A Trust Exercise'" (18 October 2019)
4. ↑ Official Charts — "Yungblud takes us through his new EP The Underrated Youth, track by track: "It's a tribute to individualism"" (23 October 2019)
5. ↑ Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD rallies ‘The Underrated Youth’ in most important EP yet" (18 October 2019)
6. ↑ BBC — "Yungblud: A mouthpiece for the underrated youth" (17 October 2019)
7. ↑ Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD proves “Parents” ain't always right in new song" (24 May 2019)
8. ↑ Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD launches mysterious hotline, sparks fan theories" (21 May 2019)
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD confirms new song release following hotline teasers" (23 May 2019)
10. ↑ Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD posts cryptic teaser for cross-city fan scavenger hunt" (21 June 2019)
11. ↑ Rocksound Magazine — "YUNGBLUD teases special surprise gig on a boat in the river thames" (25 July 2019)
12. ↑ Rocksound Magazine — "YUNGBLUD staged a political statement on London's River Thames to unveil his new single" (29 July 2019)
13. ↑ CelebMix — "YUNGBLUD releases ‘Hope for the Underrated Youth’" (July 2019)
14. ↑ YouTube — "YUNGBLUD - Hope for the Underrated Youth [The future is bright because we're in it]" (14 August 2019)
15. ↑ YouTube — "YUNGBLUD - hope for the underrated youth" (24 September 2019)
16. ↑ NME — "Yungblud collaborates with Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds on new song, ‘Original Me’" (9 October 2019)
17. ↑ NME — "Yungblud premieres new video for Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds collaboration ‘Original Me’ with raucous premiere in New York’s Times Square" (11 October 2019)
18. ↑ Alternative Press — "YUNGBLUD and Dan Reynolds cheat death in “Original Me” video" (10 October 2019)
19. ↑ Rocksound Magazine — "WATCH: YUNGBLUD stopped traffic in Times Square for the premiere of his new video" (11 October 2019)
20. ↑ Rolling Stone — "Yungblud, Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons Perform ‘Original Me’ on ‘Colbert’" (23 October 2019)
21. ↑ Rolling Stone — "Yungblud Taps Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds for ‘Original Me’" (9 October 2019)
22. ↑ YouTube — "YUNGBLUD - Casual Sabotage - Live at the Melkweg" (28 January 2018)