"
Live While We're Young" is a song by English-Irish
boy band One Direction, released as the
lead single from their second studio album,
Take Me Home (2012). Written by
Savan Kotecha and its producers,
Rami Yacoub and
Carl Falk, the number was released by
Syco Records on 28 September 2012. Falk, Kotecha, and Yacoub had collaboratively helmed One Direction's previous hits, "
What Makes You Beautiful" and "
One Thing". The track is an uptempo, upbeat
bubblegum pop song which features
rock undertones, vocal harmonies,
hand claps, prominent
electric guitar riffs, and repetitive
synthesizers. The
chorus of the song is predominantly featured alongside the
bridge, and is backed by wordless chants. Its opening guitar riff bears similarities with
The Clash's 1982 single, "
Should I Stay or Should I Go".