Support NeoGAF

[overcast]

I'm a recovering Green Day fan, but anyone who says this album is terrible is goddamned liar.

It's really bad. I was 10 when it came out and I thought it was corny. Now, looking back, it's the image of shitty corny rock. Awful in every way musically.

Lyrics were just unbearable. Sorry, just my opinion. Has nothing to do with it being popular btw.

 

[Guess Who]

PS. what is up with green day concerts tho, someone mentioned their performance at warped tour and i couldn;t agree more, they practically play all singles and seeing them about 4 times I have never hear songs like panic song which would make a kick ass live song, and coming clean, westbound sign, sassafras roots, words i might have ate, one for the razor back etc etc....

I was at a Green Day concert in Houston a few years back, I was right up at the front against the stage. At the end of the show Billie Joe came out and played a few acoustic songs solo, and I had this spontaneous hope that he'd play Pulling Teeth. And he did. First time they'd played it live in years. Good stuff.

EDIT: Found a video of it on YouTube. I'm actually visible in a few shots.

 

[Zero315]

Loved it back then, still love it now.

Yep.

Funny this came up considering It's been stuck in my head over the past few days after seeing the touring version of the play this past sunday.

 

[JLG-]

Punk as fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETKuoHlYuHM

 

[Frankenstrat]

Jesus of Suburbia is a great song.

Pretty much what I came to say. Nothing else really worth noting about the album 10 years on.

 

[Sajjaja]

Yeah I know it's just so deep and meaningful abot hwo ameriac and advertis control us we are relly idiots... sometimes lol maybe idk? -_-

I laughed so hard holy shit lololol.

But seriously, this album was one of those that made me explore music. This and In Your Honor by Foo Fighters.

Though I don't like Green Day much anymore, Foo Fighters will always be dear to me.

 

[Mononoke]

Pretty much what I came to say. Nothing else really worth noting about the album 10 years on.

I dunno. I think it's kind of crazy that this album was as big as Dookie. Talk about a band that blew up with a single album, only to gradually fade away into irrelevancy. Then almost 10 years later from Dookie, come out with another album that propels them back into the same kind of popularity.

Also, I think this album was really important for a lot kids in the 00s (the same way Dookie was for kids of the 90s). We can look back at these albums and criticize them, but they got a lot of people into exploring music.

 

[Mother Green]

I clicked on this thread just because I though american idiot is some sort of "honor" like the Darwin Awards and this year a 10 year old won.

 

[THRILLH0]

Thanks for making this thread.

 

[Serpentine]

PS. what is up with green day concerts tho, someone mentioned their performance at warped tour and i couldn;t agree more, they practically play all singles and seeing them about 4 times I have never hear songs like panic song which would make a kick ass live song, and coming clean, westbound sign, sassafras roots, words i might have ate, one for the razor back etc etc....

i'd travel a very long distance to see a GD show where they played no singles. I'd probably see em again anyway but stilllllllllllllll

 

[Dimefan3]

Great album, don't forget Dookie is 20 though....I'm more of a fan of that album.

21st Century Breakdown is pretty good too. Say what you like about Billie Joe, he's certainly perfected the art of the hit single.

 

[PAULINK]

Is it bad that this pushed me into Green day and punk rock simultaneously?

Spoiler

Forgive me, for I know not what I did, I was only 14 at the time

 

[Data West]

There are some bands you can claim sell out but say, 'well no, they just wanted to do something different.'

But this was the selling outtest album of all time. Green Day putting on eyeliner and wearing dress shirts because it was popular. Billie Joe you're 42 years old and still doing this shit.

 

[Mononoke]

Is it bad that this pushed me into Green day and punk rock simultaneously?

Spoiler

Forgive me, for I know not what I did, I was only 14 at the time

Don't feel too bad. Imagine all the kids that were pushed into music by Limp Bizkit, Nickleback and Hoobastank. You better believe that happened. Your choice against these, were Green Day and Blink-182.

 

[Jitters]

Personal opinions about the album aside, I think a lot of young people will like and relate to this album. Very hook-y. Plus there is some stuff about suicide and religion in there that is sure to seem important to a young person.

 

[airmangataosenai]

I stopped listening to some bands who did that for a while.

younger conservative me was weird.

You're not alone man.

I'm pretty ashamed of myself looking back. I don't know if I've admitted to voting for Bush to anyone in a long, long time.

 

[Makai]

I thought Green Day was like the greatest band of all time in middle school. :\

I loved a lot of horrible stuff then, though.

Spoiler

Still do

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Green Day is the first mainstream group in years to actually have something to say.

 

[polyh3dron]

Because pop punk is the commercialization of a genre founded on anti-consumerism. It doesn't make sense.

Yep, just like The Clash

 

[davepoobond]

One of the few recent albums I've bought. It was a great purchase.

I'm not that crazy about the eye shadow stuff but whatever. I don't usually go to shows or watch music videos for the music I like.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

Hearing American Idiot on the radio was enough to make me completely sick of Green Day and I was already tired of the Bush hate (and I never even voted for him) by the time "Rock Against Bush" came about to cash in on it and the ex-hippies who had long sold out trying to relive their youth like it was the late 60s/early 70s again. Haven't listened to the album in a very long time though I think it was Nimrod when I started getting tired of GD so I was pretty much done by AI anyway. Speaking of Nimrod, Good Riddance still amuses me with how people have used it since it was released as a single.

I thought Green Day was like the greatest band of all time in middle school. :\

I loved a lot of horrible stuff then, though.

Spoiler

Still do

Oh god... Had an ex (who is a dirty dirty tramp) who liked that band and other post-hardcore/emo bands, reminds me of how much I let her dictate what new stuff I listened to thanks to my own musical laziness at the time and what a mistake that was. Yay unpleasant memories, I might still have some of her albums.

 

[Blink Me]

This is probably my favourite Green Day album. Although Nimrod and Kerplunk are pretty awesome as well.

 

[RobotNinjaHornets]

Whenever I hear American Idiot it just makes me want to listen to Doublewhiskeycokenoice

Also arguments about what punk is and isn't that aren't based on the music are fucking stupid.

EDIT: Balls Blame Space already posted it :C

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

What a shitty cover.

Don't make me lose my mind.
Glad to see some D4 love here.

 

[Exterminieren]

I still like it a lot.

I mean, the fact that I fell in love with it at the age of 10 speaks volumes, I guess, but I will never be convinced that it's anything other than a fun album to listen to.

Oh, and Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming were superb. The stuff they've been putting out since could badly use a bit more of that sort of scale- Dirty Rotten Bastards from Tré is probably about as close as they've come.

 

[roosters93]

That's dumb. Music is subjective. Arguing that your kind of music is better because its not "manufactured" is just silly.

You realise music is art right

But punk isn't anti-establishment. Punk is doing whatever the hell makes you happy and to give fuck all about the haters.

uhh that's exactly what punk is. (Although your second line is a definition of punk I agree but I would argue the lesser)

Yep, just like The Clash

To give The Clash some credit they did it 20 years before Green Day, were more punk and actually made good music.

 

[Blink Me]

You're not punk and I'm telling everyone
Save your breath, I never was one
You don't know what I'm all about
Like killing cops and reading Kerouac

My enemies are all too familiar
They're the ones who used to call me friend
I'm coloring outside your guidelines
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules

One, two, three, four
Who's punk? What's the score?

Got a friend, her name is Boxcar
Cigarettes and beer in El Sob
Her hair was blue, now it's green
I like her mind, she hates the scene

My enemies are all too familiar
They're the ones who used to call me friend
I'm coloring outside your guidelines
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules

One, two, three, four
Who's punk? What's the score?

You're on your own
You're all alone

 

[Social]

Aaah, this was the first Green Day album where they started wearing "woops, that word was bad" mascara and other stuff in their videos no?

Edit: sorry for saying that, it wasn't right. My bad

 

[RobotNinjaHornets]

You're not punk and I'm telling everyone
Save your breath, I never was one
You don't know what I'm all about
Like killing cops and reading Kerouac

My enemies are all too familiar
They're the ones who used to call me friend
I'm coloring outside your guidelines
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules

One, two, three, four
Who's punk? What's the score?

Got a friend, her name is Boxcar
Cigarettes and beer in El Sob
Her hair was blue, now it's green
I like her mind, she hates the scene

My enemies are all too familiar
They're the ones who used to call me friend
I'm coloring outside your guidelines
I was passing out when you were passing our your rules

One, two, three, four
Who's punk? What's the score?

You're on your own
You're all alone

...you're awesome. I like you.

Aaah, this was the first Green Day album where they started wearing WOAH THERE NOW mascara and other stuff in their videos no?

...uhhh

 

[GentlemanCrow]

I might as well lie down and wait.

 

[BrokenEchelon]

It's their best album, and it's a good album.

I listened to it on repeat in the early days of World of Warcraft, so I have some of those songs forever associated with Maraudon runs on my Shaman.

 

[Blink Me]

...you're awesome. I like you.

Thanks man. Since I've been a blink-182 and Green Day fan for the past 10 years I've seen every punk elitist argument for why these bands apparently suck and it gets on my tits after a while. I mean I hate Coldplay but I don't feel the need to barge into a thread involving them and tell everyone their taste in music sucks because I say so. People should just listen to what they want to. If it wasn't for bands like Green Day and blink-182 I would have never heard of all these other awesome bands that inspired them like the Descendents/ALL, The Queers, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Jawbreaker, Gorilla Biscuits, NoFX. Propagandi, Bad Religion, Face to Face etc.

 

[Exterminieren]

Aaah, this was the first Green Day album where they started wearing faggy mascara and other stuff in their videos no?

Uh... might want to edit that.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Manufactured doesn't mean its bad. Some people like that, that's why they made it.

All pop music is manufactured. Does that mean Katy Perry and Lady Gaga are bad?

To my knowledge Katy Perry and Gaga don't make albums deriding the establishment while they make money hand over fist because of the establishment.

It's a hypocritical message that wasn't very well written in the first place.

 

[RangerX]

I thougnt this album was complete dogshite then and I still do now.

 

[SBH]

Dookie is like 20 years old.

Now that really makes me feel old.

Yeah, this one meant nothing to me. The love had already gone. Dookie together with Offspring's Smash were the music for 12 year old me.

 

[Blink Me]

To my knowledge Katy Perry and Gaga don't make albums deriding the establishment while they make money hand over fist because of the establishment.

It's a hypocritical message that wasn't very well written in the first place.

You do know the Sex Pistols were a manufactured band?

 

[WJD]

St Jimmy is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Another I'm old moment. Fuck this shit..

I was 18 when this came out and I had just met the woman who would become my wife. Madness that that was a decade ago...

 

[acheron_xl]

It's a well crafted album with songs that are stitched together pretty intelligently. I don't really like it though. Never a big fan of pop protest music. If it helped kids in '04 find music that was actually transgressive and/or subversive than it's ok.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

You do know the Sex Pistols were a manufactured band?

1) The Sex Pistols are fucking awful.

2) The Sex Pistols and the rest of their generation of punk were born at a time when major labels were the only options. We live in a time where I have friends that have self released albums. There's no excuse in this day and age to write an album that is anti establishment while being signed to a multi million dollar corporation. Especially when you have the money the guys in Green Day have.

 

[Blink Me]

1) The Sex Pistols are fucking awful.

Well at least we can agree on that.

 

[SpaceShark]

This is a great rock album, and a great Green Day album. These guys have really tapped into the core of the green day melodies, harmonies and jsut song writing in general. Songs like Letterbomb, She's A Rebel, St. Jimmy and many others really show how Green Day should really sound. They have really grown musically and American Idiot shows the best of fast loud agressive green day, along with the softer, more heartfelt green day songs. The added musicians/ instruments on this not only makes the songs sound fuller but is perhaps a sign that the old skool green day style writing songs is predominately over.

I jsut want to add a comment here in response to the review saying that Green Day were never about themes etc....

Green Day albums were always packed with themes, although it is true that American Idiot is not merely a collection of songs, but every Green Day album after kerplunk did have a dominant themes which gave the album an identity....

Overall, this album is very sastifying and I'm sure it will please many green day fans. American Idiot shows that green day is still relevant in today's mainstream music scene that's overflowing with medicore bands and cheap trends. Furthermore, green day is perhaps a rare if not the only band with a strong sense of conviction and integrity in their music in the mainstream circuit today.....good to see a band like that to still be influential after so many years, unlike bands like offspring and Rancid.

PS. what is up with green day concerts tho, someone mentioned their performance at warped tour and i couldn;t agree more, they practically play all singles and seeing them about 4 times I have never hear songs like panic song which would make a kick ass live song, and coming clean, westbound sign, sassafras roots, words i might have ate, one for the razor back etc etc....

10/10, would copy/paste again. Thankfully the internet will never forget breathless amateur reviews.

I never liked this album all that much, but the outro to Boulevard of Broken Dreams is fucking cool. Similar (but not as good) to the outro of The Beatle's "I Want You (She's So Heavy", but faster and shorter.

 

[nullset2]

It's good to know I was only 12 when I was obsessed with it. Any older and it would have been embarrassing.

My friend got obsessed with it... when she was 16.

You're absolutely right.

 

[Jezbollah]

Meh. American Idiot being ten years old?

THIS album is 20 years old:

 

[acheron_xl]

Billie Joe will always be in my good graces for taking Boulevard of Broken Dreams' name from an Elvis Costello lyric. He's a man with pretty decent taste.

 

[FourMyle]

Aaah high school days! I used to love this song. In my defense, I was only a freshman! There were tons of Juniors and Seniors who were rocking to this shit. I had moved on waaaay past this by the time I was a Sophomore. /smug

 

[cwmartin]

taking back sunday is great what are you nimrods talking about

 

[Bulbo Urethral Baggins]

You do know the Sex Pistols were a manufactured band?

And Jawbreaker was a boy band.

 

[RobotNinjaHornets]

Billie Joe will always be in my good graces for taking Boulevard of Broken Dreams' name from an Elvis Costello lyric. He's a man with pretty decent taste.

Also he got Larry Livermore to make The Thing That Ate Larry Livermore. Which is awesome and has a lot of the best current pop-punk bands.