P.O.D. - Youth of the Nation (REACTION!) 

History Lesson: This song was written in response the earliest school shooting at Santana High School in San Diego. first song to bring light to mental health and bullying in young people. POD were living in the immediate area and were locked down in the music studio. Sonny (lead singer) wrote the song during the lockdown, as members of the band also have kids that were going to nearby schools as well.

P.O.D are shockingly underrated. Always love this band. Such great vibes.

“Never really one of the guys no matter how hard he tried” Amazing the amount to childhood/adolescent pain that can be relived through one line

"told the world how he felt with the sound of a gat" is such a hard hitting line

They are some of the nicest people in the business then and today. Always humble and very kind to their fans. Still touring and still rocking the house. This song still works and hits.

This song has probably the most haunting main guitar riffs I've ever heard with the delay. Definitely fits the message/story of the song. Glad you guys checked it out, been one of my favorites since I was as young as I can remember.

Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Pillar, P.O.D. Linkin Park, Evanescence, Crazytown all had a rock and rap thing intertwined in the lyrics. Kids were depressed, confused, and trying to find their way in a corrupt world. Also a little before that time frame was Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains.That 90s /2000s decade were some dark times with some innovative and original music. groove metal with rock and rap.

One of my favorite bands. Their ability mix rock, metal, rap, reggae, Latin music is incredible. Do more!

Growing up with this era of music, I got a huge appreciation for it.....and the fact the words still ring true TODAY, is truly sad

This is POD's best song imo.. Satellite and Alive are a close second. Speaking of overlooked bands form this era, Sevendust is worth a deep dive bruhs, they have such an amazing catalog and one of the best metal singers + strongest bands ever imo. If nothing else, catch these living legends live if you can.

I was never a big P.O.D. guy, but this song I always like a lot. It's well written, flows well, good groove, hard hitting lyrics.

I've always thought P.O.D is one of the most underrated bands ever, at least outside the US they are not very popular and that's a shame cuz I really think their discography is really really good, their album "Payable on Death" is one of my favorite albums of all times, I grew up listening to that record so much, I really love those guys, what an era

This song is an old favorite of mine, and I love seeing people enjoying it. Thanks for the reaction 😊

"told the world how he felt with the sound of a gat" has to be one of the deepest lyrics in songwriting imo. so precise and powerful. no fat on that line just absolute perfection.

The first time I heard "Southtown" on the radio I was hooked. Saw them live at ozzfest like 2004 or something when i was young as well. My wife won a contest in colorado when we lived there and got to see them play in a bar acoustic at a sports bar near where they were playing that night. These dudes are just as real as it gets. Great guys, the singer is a father and it showed. Good music, good guys.

If you watch the actual music video you can see photographs of children that attend Santana High School, when the shooting happened. The song's inspiration stems from a trip when the band was on their way to record for Satellite on March 5, 2001. They were held up in traffic and discovered that the reason was a mass shooting at Santana High School, where a fifteen-year-old student named Charles Andrew Williams killed two and wounded thirteen. The album was consequently delayed, and the band was inspired to write "Youth of the Nation." In a 2008 interview, guitarist Marcos Curiel described the event: "We were rehearsing and writing Satellite a couple of blocks away from the school. One day on the way to the studio, there were all these helicopters and cars speeding by. We really didn’t know what was going on. When we got to the studio, this guy had the news on, and he was like, ‘This kid just went and started blasting fools.’ So we started jamming, and that rhythm just naturally came out, then Wuv [Bernardo, drummer] put that drumbeat on it, and the song was born." Curiel added, "When you can hear something that's going to uplift you like 'Alive' or something that's going to bring out knowledge like 'Youth of the Nation,' we've done our jobs as an artist."[4] Source wiki

Such an underrated band. One of my favorites in high school.

Growing up in the 90’s listening to R&B and Hip hop, nu-metal was something I naturally gravitated towards. Southtown is another good one.

This album is so creative! This album, Wonder What’s Next by Chevelle, and Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park are the albums that made me fall in love with music when I was about 10yo

P.O.D will always be a hit for me. This song Alive and Boom I feel like is what most people know from them.

They can write really great lyrics...they can rap better and rock harder than most bands of that era, their older stuff is incredible

Said the same thing on Patreon but it bears repeating here: this song hits SUPER HARD live

I LOVE this era of rock and metal. I don't care what anyone says. Some of the best bands came out at this time.

The back story for this song is that while they were recording the Satellite album there was a horrible school shooting in San Diego not far from where they were recording. It inspired them to write this song. And this song became kind of the voice of a generation of kids who grew up in the shadow of school shootings like that one and Columbine. P.O.D. certainly got lumped in with the Nu-metal crowd for obvious reasons, but they were around a LONG time before that scene ever came about. They started in 1994 and were peers of Rage Against The Machine initially. Fantastic band that has written so many great songs and extremely under-rated because they finally got popular during the Limp Bizkit thing. Warriors for life!

Payable On Death has always carried this nu-metal categorization; but if you listen through their catalog, you will hear all sorts of influences ranging from reggae, alternative, punk, funk, jazz, tribal and even salsa (on top of the hard rock/rapcore). I always found their music to be very intricate, yet having meaningful and powerful messaging (as such with this song written after the events of Columbine). They are one of my favorite bands as they have transcended the metal genre. Everyone is saying "Southtown," but/so my top picks include "Set Your Eyes to Zion," "Without Jah Nothin," "Satellite," "Booyaka 619" & "Selah." Their songs "Strength of My Life" and "Roots in Stereo" with Matisyahu and "Ridiculous" with Eek-A-Mouse are also great.

The nostalgia from this song is crazy; this song reminds me of my tour in Iraq. Great song!

this whole album was amazing, so many good tracks, this, boom, satellite, The Messenjah, Alive and Set It Off and i guarantee if you guys listen to Boom, you'll be like "oh yeah I've heard this"

One of the best live bands Ever. The dude Literally crowd surfs. He throws a surfboard on the crowd, jumps on it and literally surfs while singing. F****** Awesome.

I remember coming to age and just starting to experience how my friends from school all lived different lives. Realizing some kids had alcoholic parents, some kids had family members in jail, some kids had brothers or sisters that were abused. Basically at this song peak is when I was simultaneously came out of the cluelessness of being a child

Guys, Marcos's guitar playing, and tone, is very reminiscent of what Dave Evans does in U2. It's kind of atmospheric, kind of hovers over the music, but never overtakes the song. It's the definition of how a guitarist should approach a piece of music. It's beautiful.

I’m convinced that most metalheads enjoy nu metal but won’t admit to it cause they don’t want to be seen as someone who enjoys something that’s “simple” or “less talented”.

Payable On Death...... their song writing is about real street life of every day struggles and coping with life....extraordinary band ✌️🤘😎🤘

React to Southtown!!!! Thats a straight classic! Grew up In Riverside County, CA… these dudes were from San Diego aka The Big SD!

a P.O.D reaction i did not expect this grew up on this band lets go

I have never noticed the piano lick in the solo. Beautiful

Set It Off is the opening track on this album and I think it's one of the more badass tracks. Southtown is an obvious choice, though. Can't react to P.O.D. without having that suggested. It's just too good.

I wouldn’t have the musical knowledge I have without P.O.D. Those guys introduced me to everything from Eek-A-Mouse, Suicidal Tendencies, Bad Brains, Helmet, etc back in the day, and countless others. Thankful for that and glad they’re still going strong

POD has Banger hard tracks like "Eyez", "Murdered Love", "Mark My Words" and "Messenjah" and "Wildfire" very underrated as a hard rock band due to their mainstream success.

Haven't heard this song in awhile, glad it got upvoted for a reaction!

Love this song so much! took me over a year before I found out they were a Christian band! I am 48 years old next month and I will always stand with the youth. I will be there to block the people trying to force kids into shit and protect them as best I can!

You should give South Town by these guys a listen. It is one of my favorites. They also have one called Goodbye for now, Katie Perry sings backup in it and helps finish off the song but this was years before she ever released I kissed a girl.

Excellent analysis and excellent song. This song was one of the first songs I can remember when I was a tiny kid and I still enjoy it to this day. Almost cried hearing you guys break down the lyrics. I know them all to well and the meaning behind them but I think someone else saying it just really makes you think how horrible things can be. Appreciate ya.

Classic song!

This is probably the only band where I somewhat knew the guys and saw them perform many times before they ever got big. They were pretty well known in sort of the "underground" Christian music scene and played alot of the festivals back then before they exploded on MTV. There was always something super heavy, spiritual, and special about them and some of the most caring guys in any band I ever met. I almost forgot that this Album was released on 9/11...Knowing them, they probably spent most of that day praying than celebrating their album release...

Wooowwwww I haven’t thought of POD in like 17 years, haha… was kinda into them when I was going to church and wanted to listen to angry music that was still “Christian”. Their cover of Bullet the Blues Skies is pretty decent.

Incredible song, still holds up today.

POD was a huge part of that scene at that time and they were great! Fun fact: Katy perry sang backup vocals for them before she blew up!

Fun fact. This album came out 9/11/01 and was a huge help to what happened with that day’s events so this song was huge in the aftermath & went #1 song on billboard for the rest of that year

Bro this is crazy, I remember listening to them when I was like 11 or 12. This kicked back a lot of old memories, good shit.

Love this song so much! Thanks for reacting to it 💛

I personaly love this era of metal, it's my childhood, so experimental, and all over my play list. P.O.D. was so ahead of their time. It's crazy how rellivent this song still is to America in 2022. I suggest Satellites or any song off their greatest hits album because it's one of those few albums where every song slaps in my personal opinion.

straight back to my childhood, songs like this ps2 old nascar races on tv, neighborhood football, staying oput at night w like 10 other kids , Nostalgia

I don't normally comment, but I love your videos and your excellent analysis/opinions. I think you really nailed it around 11:30. I remember when I was a teen taking guitar lessons, I showed P.O.D.'s song "Set it Off" to my guitar teacher who only listened to metal, and he had an existential crisis because he was surprised how much he liked and appreciated this band and their instrumentation when he had previously wrote them off as just nu metal.

Can’t believe y’all reacted to this! Loved this

Such a powerful song. Musically and lyrically it’s still incredibly spot on relevant to this day. Man you guys are my favourite music reactors. Do more MESHUGGAH!!!!!

First time I ever heard this song i was hooked from the opening riff.... then the lyrics got me. Such a deep song. I had no idea they were a Christian rock band until after I bought this cd and was looking through the CD booklet. But it didn't change my opinion on their music. They still jam

Saw POD at a day long festival in Dallas right after Covid, at the amphitheater at Fair Park. They got to the chorus, and it was great. People in their 40s - 60s singing “we are the youth of a nation”. I was 62, and that’s only my body’s age, not mine. ☮️❤️

Bro, I just caught P.O.D. this past weekend at the Sick New World festival out where y’all are from 🖤 and let me say this. Out of ALL the bands that played that night--System of a Down, KoRn, Deftones, Incubus, etc--I literally was shocked by P.O.D. As soon as they came on stage there was an IMMEDIATE shift in energy. It truly was a magical spectacle and Sonny on stage just reminded me like a general leading his massive army, I legitimately got goosebumps by how connected the crowd was with each other and the music. I thought they were in the top performers that night for me, hands down. This song in particular had the crowd in what I would call a trance, such an underrated band, they really should have much more attention. Definitely going to catch them again live, them Deftones, KoRn, Red Hot Chili Peppers and System will always be on my top bands to watch live. I highly recommend Southtown, Rock the Party, Set it Off, Boom, Lost in Forever.

POD IS LEGIT A.F.... DO SOUTHTOWN.. THATS MY FAVORITE FROM THEM, ITS A, CHICANO FROM THE GHETTO, ANTHEM... ORALE VATOS!!! Ps.. this song came out around 01, was written in response to the Columbine shooting. Its a great album over all. SATELITE is another great song from the album as well.

I loved this song when it came out, actually the whole album is great, but when I became a teacher this song took in so much more meaning! Glad you guys checked it out, POD is a legit band and they started out touring churches in little towns all over the country!

I went to see them opening for Jinjer a couple weeks ago, was an amazing concert!

I saw them when I was 12 and they did 2 encores and we're simply wonderful!

Grew up listening to this band love them heaps, definitely recommend more by them, this entire album is so good has some very unique moments. Anything Right, Ridiculous and Masterpiece Conspiracy are some of my favourites from that album

I recommended this a while back on one of your guys vids, glad people voted for it on the polls!!

I still remember them testing this song out on the crowd with the call/response portion "we are we are". It was.. not all that long after 9/11/2001, there was a music festival in Worcester MA. I forget the park, it was up the hill from the hospital. I think it might have been hosted by WAAF? The Red Cross was there and they got a lot of donations that day. Hard to believe that was 21 years ago already. Edit: You know what.. I think I'm conflating two shows together. I looked it up and It would have had to be Locobazooka in Green Hill Park, but POD wasn't there in 2001, they were there in 2000. So it wasn't a post 9/11 show after all, but it does make more sense that they'd be trying out a new song that would be released on an album the very next year.

Thanks for the review! I like this song from P.O.D. too. Hope you have a good holiday Lost In Vegas and a successful 2023!

Love POD. Born and raised in San Diego, this brings back so many memories.

The Drum kick is Devastating!! And lyrics are Deadly!! To all kids around the world 🌎 Stay Strong !

i wanted to see u guys reaction for at least 2 years and its finally here yay!

Awesome track

Brings back memories one of my favorite

Really good breakdown of the song. Thanks for a well-informed reaction. 🙂❤

Fantastic take, you explained that time period of music perfectly. That was a very wide reaching time in music history. There were so many great new “sounds” to hear.

One of the best bands of all time. And that's not an overstatement.

Just wanna say after years of watching your content, I love what you guys had to say about the eras of metal and how you now have the ear to be able to distinguish the different sub-genres and variants of metal that have spawned throughout the decades. It really shows how much you have musically grown through starting this channel, not just in metal but other genres too. I think one of the reasons for the decline of metal in mainstream music has been a lack of identity since the early 2010s (I can't really recognize the sound either other than the modern production levels) and an inability to evolve the sound of metal to something new, be it a lack of creativity in the genre or the majority of metal fans stuck in their old ways and are unwilling to take interest in artists that stray from the tried and tested sounds in metal, unlike in hip-hop where the past 10 years has seen more evolution in sound, creativity, and mainstream success than its entire history. Thanks for bringing us on this journey of music discovery and all the great content you continue to put out.

I didnt listen to pod much but the songs i did like i liked a lot. Southtown and alive were two of my Favorites.

Nice one, guys! Also check out "Southtown" and "Goodbye For Now"! My personal favorites together with this one.

I didn't mind the way that sounded- I agree with George, I like the chorus. The song made me sad though. Sad that not everyone is safe at school and sad that, at school, I feel like I'm always looking over my shoulder. Beautiful reaction- TY.

Bruh these are hometown boys… They’re still going strong We are all 6degrees from the band in SD They still have great songs Rock the party was the song on the bus

P.O.D. was always great. This song 🎶 was so crushingly prophetic and sharing what was happening in schools and with school shootings in early 2000’s. They took a subject that was difficult to talk about, and that still causes political arguments today, and started a conversation about these kids and paying more attention to them, listening to and supporting them and the importance of their mental health. ❤

I remember seeing the lead singer in an interview when this song came out, that they were hoping it would become a generational anthem like "Another Brick in the Wall". It is a powerful song.

Long time no see I forgot this channel Exist good to see you guys sill making videos

Just saw them live at the House of Blues. Man, I wish I would have seen them sooner, really good show.

When this song came out, me and my peers were the youth of the nation... now we are almost 40

Saw P.O.D. live with Korn back in September. Did VIP for them and got a picture with them. Great band.

Haha! "Youth of the Nation" was our official middle school motto when I was in 5th grade because of this song.

POD is awesome, guys. Such good musicians and such good lyrics. The guys are so lovable. I took a pic with them when they come to Brazil. After a gig in São Paulo, actually, they took pics with most of the fans.

You guys surprised me with this one, another awesome review of an awesome song from fan awesome band! POD, a classic!!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

ahh, this song brings back good memories of my youth...in the nation. Gaming, skateboarding, going to local shows. Looking forward to this review :)

God I love lost in Vegas. You guys are amazing and I will always remember you❤️❤️❤️

I appreciate the well structured analysis and opinions after the song man. Very well put.

This song would play on the radio during my freshman year and 8th grade and I'm 35 now. I understand it a lot more now.

YESSSS I can't believe you reacted to this

That guitar intro was awesome back in the day and still is, you should listen to the complete album guys.

P.O.D was always a favorite. Youth of a Nation, Southtown……. But I was sold with the song “Boom”. They were the band that got me into metal. I liked the the Reggae/SKA/Jazz vibe with the spirals in the rhythm and drum sections. They also have good messaging. They were on my work out cut tape back in the 90s.

P.O.D - Southtown... Will You. P.O.D - Roots In Stereo ... Change The World. Testify... So many amazing songs that nothing today compares to. 😭❤️ Check out any song from the albums Testify.. Payable On Death.. Satellite.

Boom, Southtown, School of Hard Knocks (Little Nicki movie soundtrack), and Rock the Party 🤘😎🤘

One of the most haunting guitar sounds ever. Fitting given the subject matter. This song always reminds me of the emotions I felt listening to Suicidal Tendencies "How Will I laugh Tomorrow" back in the day.

This is one of the only songs that I have the memory of my first listen seared into my mind. I was in highschool and sitting in the car, listening to the radio as my parents were shopping in a store. Within seconds, I turned it up and was drawn in. Unfortunately, the car didn't have a stereo worthy of the song (little Saturn SL2). P.O.D. was the supporting act in my 2nd ever concert too (Linkin Park were the headliners).

The crossover of rap/metal has rarely given the best of either genre. That said, the "Judgement Night" Soundtrack is quite great.