Green Day is a punk rock band that formed in 1987 with three members. The lead singer and guitarist is Billie Joe Armstrong, along with bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool who replaced John Kiffmeyer in 1990. They started up in California alongside bands like The Offspring which I will probably blog about later on seeing as I enjoy a lot of their songs too.
When I started listening to Green Day it was when they released their album American Idiot in 2004 which sold five million copies in the United States! I bought the CD and rocked out to it almost everyday for a month after bringing it home. Some of my favourite songs off the album are "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "She's a Rebel", and "Wake Me Up When September Ends". After that my punk rock music phase hit an all time low and I ventured into other types but I did enjoy "21 Guns" off of their album 21st Century Breakdown which was released sometime in 2009. I wish I would've followed the band a little more closely after American Idiot but I was just a kid and really bounced around my music preferences.
Green Day - American Idiot
I feel like they were a great band and they worked for their success because they started as just an underground band and worked their way into a fan basis that spread across the planet. They've proved themselves honest to their music and stuck to their roots. In comparison to some other bands I don't feel like they have swayed to relate more to the masses. This hasn't been a very deep look into them but I was listening to my iPod last week and they started to play and I figured they were music worth mentioning.
I agree that Green Day used to be a great band, I started listening to them back in the early 90's when they released the 'Dookie' album. However I disagree that they have stayed true to their roots. I find it hard to believe that the fact that 'American Idiot' was released during a time when political commentary and having a social conscience became the trend in music was mere coincidence. Perhaps it's just that as they matured they became more aware of societal problems and felt the need to express their opinion, but it seems more likely to me that they went the way of most 'artists' and produced music that was relevant and trendy at the time.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that I wasn't born till the 90's so my first impression of them was 'American Idiot' that had convinced me they've stayed along that line of music. Especially since that's the only way I've ever truly known them. I don't know a lot of the stuff before that album was released. I'll definitely look into some that was before my age of choosing my own music because I know from what I gathered about their past before American Idiot they're music wasn't necessarily what you'd find on the radio. It's nice to hear another perspective especially from someone who knew them before I had the chance.
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