Sorry about the subtitles, both in English and Espanol! It’s the only video I could find. How anyone could care so deeply about what Billie Joe has to say is beyond me.
One of the unavoidable facts of life is that Green Day is still around.
Seriously, if you asked 10 million people in 1994, which popular band would still be extremely famous 16 years later, I bet none of them would have said Green Day. Punk has been dead for eons. Commercially viable, pseudo-punk is pretty much deceased as well, yet this band has their finger on the pulse of America. What the hell is going on?
I don’t actually dislike Green Day. I think they’re perfectly fine. I just don’t know why they get to have a Broadway play named after them and say, I don’t know, Sum 41 is missing in action. (or maybe they’re still around, but who cares?)
This video (like the band who made it) is alright. I can’t tell whether the dark-haired girl in the video is supposed to be the quintessential “American girl” or not. She watches TV, she shoots stuff, she brushes her teeth. These are all things people certainly do in America, but I have to imagine they also take place in other parts of the world as well.
Also, this video looks like it cost about $4 to make. I mean, maybe the car explosion at the end set the record company back, but I doubt it.
The setting reminds me of South Eubank where we used to go as teens in Albuquerque. It was an illegal dump where youths could start bonfires and worry about police hassling them.
I hated it. Everything was covered in glass. Where was all that glass coming from? How much glass could there possibly be in Albuquerque, and how did it all end up getting inserted into my hands? Youch!
I assume the Sum 41 dig was meant in jest, but I’ll humorlessly suggest that the difference is a whole lot of talent and no attempts at Rap-Metal, which I realize I just wrote out in title case. The song “Good Riddance” was one of the very rare modern rock tracks of the late nineties to reach beyond the alt-rock circles and become a song that your parents would know the words to, and the American Idiot album was a potential career-killer (a rock opera with ten-minute songs and such) that instead hit a nerve as the initial enthusiasm for the Iraq invasion cooled. I really don’t want to sound like a fanboy here but I’ve never been surprised that they were one of the Alt Invasion acts to last the long haul.
They have a Broadway play? Jeez. And you’re showing your age. All south Eubank is now is a huge business park sucking the (censored) that is Sandia Labs.
Thanks for this Lucky! I appreciate your spirited defense of Green Day. Perhaps I was too quick to write them off as mediocre. But I would argue that American Idiot did not become popular because of the 10 minute rock-opera songs, but because of the boatload of singles it had. Those singles often capitalized on the theme of the year which was, George Bush ruined America. I mean, at that time, you could either say that or, Obama is a middle class, intelligent and spirited leader, and you would have the respect and admiration of almost every young person you’d ever care to know.
Bush bashing is really easy, and often profitable and that’s a big reason I think that album did so well. But, you’re probably right. Luck can’t account for almost two decades worth of success.