Peace Sells

"Peace Sells"
"Peace Sells"
Song by Megadeth
from Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?"
Released	November 1986
Recorded	1986
Genre	Thrash metal, heavy metal
Length	4:02
Label	Combat
Songwriter(s)	Dave Mustaine
Producer(s)	Dave Mustaine and Randy Burns
Megadeth singles chronology

"Peace Sells" is a song by the American thrash metal band Megadeth. It is from the 1986 album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?. It was written by Dave Mustaine. Along with "Wake Up Dead" from the same album, it has been a staple at Megadeth concerts. Lyrically, it deals with negative stereotypes about "metalheads", all of which Mustaine claims are untrue. VH1 has ranked "Peace Sells" at #11 on their list of the 40 greatest metal songs of all time.

Music video

A music video was produced for the song, which features a teenage boy, wearing a Slayer t-shirt, watching a montage of a live Megadeth performance and war footage on his living room television set. The boy's father, states "What is this garbage you're watching? I want to watch the news!," and changes the television channel to a news station using the remote control. His son, replying with "This is the news!," changes it back to the Megadeth performance using the TV set's channel knob. This part of the video was parodied by comedian Brian Posehn in his Metal by Numbers video. The beginning of the video also showed the explosion of the original low-cost skull used on the previous album Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good!

Appearances and covers

Opening bassline was used as the theme for MTV News. Mustaine claims he never received any royalties for MTV's usage of the song.
It is featured in 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
It is featured in video game True Crime: Streets of LA.
It is featured in video game NHL 10.
It is playable track in 2008 music video game Rock Band 2.
It is downloadable content for 2009 music video game Guitar Hero 5.
Tigertailz covered the song and it can be found on their 1991 B-sides compilation album Banzai!.