For this song the band enlisted the help of Canadian producer Arnold Lanni (Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven), the man who produced Simple Plan's first album. Drummer Chuck Comeau recalled on the band's MySpace site: "Working with Arnold again was so great. He's an amazingly talented musician and you can tell he really cares about this band on a professional level but, even more importantly, as a true friend. We've always been very comfortable working with Arnold, and it was awesome to collaborate with him again." After Timbaland protégé Nate "Danja" Hills worked his magic, Swedish hit maker Max Martin helped the group finish "Generation."

This was the last song the band completed, and with very little time to spare. Drummer Chuck Comeau blogged on the band's MySpace site at the time: "We returned to NRG to finish vocals on one last song, 'What If.' Late in the recording process we decided to re-write some of the lyrics for the song. We wrote new lines all day and then Pierre went in the vocal booth and nailed it. We did the same thing the next day for a song called 'Generation.' We changed a few lines in the verses and choruses and re-sang them. We ended finishing that at 3:30am on the very last day of recording. Talk about pushing the deadlines!! The next day, we were due to start the last step of the album: mixing the songs."