Songfacts®:

• This power-pop track is a skewering of America's problems with gun violence and education.
  
  I'm just a face in the crowd of spectators
  To the sound of the voice of a traitor
  Dirty looks and I'm looking for a payback
  Burning books in a bulletproof backpack
  
  The song had the working title of "Bulletproof Backpack," but the band changed it to the less offensive "Oh Yeah."
• Billie Joe Armstrong explained the song's meaning to Kerrang: "It's sort of about being freaked out around the polarization that we live in right now. Whether it's kids getting shot in schools, or the closest thing that America has ever seen to fascism."
• There are also lyrics about America's obsession with social media.
  
  Everybody is a star (Star)
  Got my money and I'm feeling kinda low
  
  Armstrong told Kerrang, regarding this specific line: "I just feel like with all of the chaos going on, no-one ever hesitates to take a good selfie."
• The chorus prominently samples Joan Jett's 1980 hit single "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)." It marks the first time in the history of Green Day that they've sampled another song.
• Joan Jett's song itself is a cover of shamed glam-rocker Gary Glitter's 1973 single of the same name. Because of Glitter's history of child pornography and sexual assault, Green Day donated all proceeds from the track to the International Justice Mission and RAINN, two charities that work with victims of sexual offenses.