Songfacts®:

• The name of Megadeth's 15th studio album references a society where there's been a cataclysmic decline. Frontman Dave Mustaine told Australia's Heavy magazine about the inspiration behind the title. "I've had this outlook for a long time that the world is a really good place with some bad people in it," he said. "Others might think the opposite. But I think if you were to take a consensus of people, they know the difference between right and wrong. People have manners and morals but lately there's been a decline in how people treat one another."
  
  "That's where 'Dystopia' comes in," Mustaine continued. "And if people don't start loving each other and helping those in need then when that becomes more important than power, fame or money then I think we're going to be okay."
• The word Dystopia referencing an undesirable, dysfunctional society is the opposite of the term Utopia, which is applied to any place or society considered perfect or ideal. It was first coined as the antonym of Utopia during a speech given before the British House of Commons by John Stuart Mill in 1868.
  
  Dystopian societies appear in many works of literature, particularly in stories set in a future. Some of the most famous examples are 1984, Brave New World and The Hunger Games trilogy.
• The song's post-apocalyptic video follows on from the band's "The Threat Is Real" clip. It features a high-speed chase and a bloody fight in the futuristic war zone envisioned by Megadeth.
  
  Dave Mustaine told Mashable.com: "We had met with a guy in England, and I basically talked to him about this dystopian city that I had kind of visualized. You see all these movies like Armageddon, Independence Day, 12 Monkeys, Planet of the Apes and stuff, and there's always a moral at the end of the story: If you stand up for what's right, you won't have to give in to a dystopian world. It's just one of those things we grew up in. Explaining that concept to the artist - I thought he got what I was saying pretty clearly."
• Asked by the KBAD 94.5 radio station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota whether the Dystopia title is a commentary on the state of the US at the moment, Dave Mustaine replied: "No, no, no. See, a lot of people think that I have a very negative view of the world. I think the world's a beautiful place, but that there are bad people here, instead of some other people who are very pessimistic and think the world's a bad place and that there's only a few good people left.
  
  So I try and go through my day, my job, my travels and just make people as happy as I possibly can. I'm not here to say, 'Oh, the world's gonna end,' and all this kind of stuff. My job is to go out there and have people walk away and say, 'Oh my God! How does that guy play guitar and sing that stuff?', you know."
• This won a Grammy for Best Metal Performance at the 2017 ceremony. The house band played a Metallica song ("Master Of Puppets") as Megadeth accepted the prize. Dave Mustaine was the original lead guitarist and co-founder of Metallica, but that was back in the early 1980s. "Master of Puppets" was released three years after he was dismissed from the band.
• The Grammy win was a long time coming. It was Megadeth's 12th nomination and first ever Grammy award. The band was so used to losing, they almost skipped the ceremony.
  
  "I have to tell you, I felt like it wasn't going to happen for us," Mustaine told Songfacts. "For some reason, I listened to my management and was told, 'You probably should go this year.'"