Rebellious High School Hits From The '70s That Will Have Boomers Mad At Their Parents All Over Again

Every generation thinks it invented teen angst. From the Who talkin' 'bout their g-g-g-g-generation in the '60s to the bizarre history of emo music, young people have a tendency to pair their melodramatic feelings with electric guitars. Long before escaping your hometown became a major theme of '00s pop-punk, Bruce Springsteen was singing, "We gotta get out while we're young / Because tramps like us, baby we were born to run."

Boomers who were in high school in the 1970s had quite a range of albums to choose from when it came to slamming their bedroom door following a fight with their parents and turning up the volume to 11. Although in their 20s at the time, bands like the Ramones made a career out of making music for rebellious teens. And then there were the bands who were making music for teens, by teens. The Runaways were all still teenagers when they released their self-titled album in 1976, full of hits like "Cherry Bomb." "Our social change is just that we're teenage girls who can play rock 'n' roll," Jackie Fox told Circus magazine in 1976. 

Like with our list of 5 high school hits from the '70s that will stir up emotions in every boomer, we chose the songs on this list to show a range of artists, years, and perspectives. Because everyone knows what it feels like to be a teen mad at your parents, and these songs were created for those youthful sensibilities.

You don't have to be a teen to capture what it feels like to be a teen, and the Who — in their mid- to late-20s at the time — did just that in their iconic 1971 song "Baba O'Riley" (Think you don't know the song? You might just call it by its wrong name, "Teenage Wasteland.") Initially written for a fictional rock opera that was later scrapped, the song's verses describe a man fighting unseen forces while the chorus goes, "Teenage wasteland / It's only teenage wasteland."

While the original rock-opera concept — which purportedly tells the story of a Scottish farmer who heads to London with his wife and kids — was mostly lost on fans, the chorus wasn't. "Teenage wasteland" is the perfect way to describe the frustrating experience of being a teen — when you don't have access to the freedom and money you want, and you just feel stuck. Confused about the title? Here's how "Baba O'Riley" got its name.

In 1976, "Blitzkrieg Bop" was the Ramones' debut single, and some even consider it to be the first punk song ever made. With lyrics like "The kids are losin' their minds / Blitzkrieg Bop," this 1979 hit resonated with angry teens everywhere. And of course, the opening chant ("Hey! Ho! Let's go!") is made to be shouted.

Although some have speculated that the title means the song is about WWII, "Blitzkrieg Bop" was initially called "Animal Hop," until Dee Dee Ramone suggested the alliterative name. In 2003, Tommy Ramone told Legs McNeil that the song "was about kids going to a show and having a good time" (via Billboard). The line "Shoot 'em in the back now," he said, was originally "They're shouting in the back now." For the teens of the '70s, the appeal of the song was more than its lyrics. It was in the frenetic pace, the clashing guitars, and of course, that memorable opening chant. Call it the sound of teen rebellion.

David Bowie's 1974 hit tells of a different kind of teenage experience: experimenting with your gender presentation. From the opening lines, "You've got your mother in a whirl / She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl," "Rebel Rebel" tells the story of an androgynous young person who confuses everyone around them, especially their mom. With descriptions like "You love bands when they're playing hard," this teen sounds pretty cool and rebellious. Of course, the unforgettable riff helps, too.

In a 2014 interview, Bowie's guitarist, Alan Parker, told Uncut that Bowie had an unlikely inspiration for the riff. "He said, 'I've got this riff and it's a bit Rolling Stones-y — I just want to p*ss Mick off a bit,'" Parker said, adding, "We got it there, and he said, 'Oh, we'd better do a middle ...' So he wrote something for the middle, put that in. Then he went off and sorted some lyrics." Writing a hit just to annoy your friend and rival who you may be have used to hook up with — that kind of energy is something that any teen can relate to.

Bruce Springsteen's massive 1975 hit is a love song, but it's also a song about hating your hometown and wishing you could get away — something any rebellious teen can relate to. "Oh, baby, this town rips the bones from your back / It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap," Springsteen sings. (Fun fact: New Jersey briefly considered making "Born to Run" the state song because it rocks so hard, but then people pointed out that the lyrics are actually about hating New Jersey.)

In a 2009 interview with NPR, Springsteen described "Born to Run" as "the song of my youth." He explained, "There is some kind of life you have in your mind that you are afraid you're going to be forced to live, you know? When you think back on it, that's what — your parents' life." In later songs, like "The River," Springsteen intentionally wrote about older protagonists dealing with grown-up worries like unemployment and strained marriages. Which makes the teenage rebellion of "Born to Run" all the more significant.

All five of The Runaways were just 16 and 17 when they released their debut single, "Cherry Bomb," in 1976. The brash lyrics are teenage rebellion to a T, with the verses describing how cool the lead singer is while the chorus is a f*** you to her parents and, well, everyone else: "Hello, Daddy, Hello Mom / I'm your Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch cherry bomb / Hello, world / I'm your wild girl / Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch cherry bomb." Joan Jett and manager Kim Fowley wrote the song for Cherie Curie to sing, inspired by her name. They imagined the phrase "cherry bomb" to mean something like "a teenage firecracker." 

"Cherry Bomb" had major staying power: It has been covered and reinterpreted by rebellious teenage girls and 20-something women throughout the generations. Bratmobile covered it in 1993, Miley Cyrus covered it in 2013, and the Linda Lindas covered it in 2019. "Lyrically, it's a teenager's dream to be that independent and sing something like that," Currie told ABC Melbourne in 2020. "There's always a bit of fight in all of us teenagers."