A Green Day Fan Site

~21st Century Breakdown goes platinum in the UK but is not as successful as American Idiot.

~There are so many reviews of 21stCB, but this is a good one. “Billie Joe Armstrong is one of his generation’s best songwriters.”

~21st Century Breakdown has been certified gold (500,000 copies sold in the U.S.). The press release includes a large, high quality image of the album art.

Warner Music did a promotional campaign in Australia for 21st Century Breakdown, and they hired a company to put up graffiti around Sydney with the album’s artwork, which drew criticism from the city and from local commentators. But the most direct criticism is from a graffiti artist, who spray painted the words “Cash Cow” on one of the images.

I’m sure the members of Green Day had nothing to do with the campaign, and none of the criticism is aimed specifically at them. But the issue points out the fundamental problem of having something that is genuine (the band and their music) in the hands of an entity (a huge corporation like Warner Music) that treats everything they control as a means to make money, without a real understanding of and respect for the genuine, real-life inspirations that contributed to its creation.

Graffiti is mentioned several times in the album’s lyrics as a fundamental yearning to declare one’s existence. “You blast your name in graffiti on the walls.” “She puts her make up on like graffiti on the walls of the heartland.” It’s a way of crying out “I am here!” in a visceral and very public way. Graffiti has always been a way for people who are invisible in society to — literally — make their mark. It’s especially important in a society like ours, where if you have a lot of money you can scream out your advertising messages on huge billboards, but if you’re just a poor working class stiff you face huge penalties just for hanging up a flyer on a telephone pole.

It’s pretty galling when a corporation appropriates something that has meaning for people, something whose popularity has been spread by people marginalized by society at considerable risk to themselves. The corporation just piggybacked on the street cred earned by graffiti artists with their own efforts, and exploited it as a marketing gimmick to make some cash.

Like I said, this is not a criticism of the band. But when they signed to a major label, this is the kind of thing that punks were very wary of. It just comes with the territory, I guess.

When it comes to Green Day graffiti, this is more to my liking… (thanks to Diana for sending it in).

One of the things I love most about 21st Century Breakdown is that it doesn’t quite fit in my head. I’ve listened to it over and over and I still find myself surprised. At first I thought it was weird and a little too hopeless. Then I realized that Green Day had done it again. They had put words to the vague uneasy feelings floating around in my head. It’s as if they knew what I was thinking even before I did. It’s a strange world we live in now, caught between hope and a sense of impending disaster. We aren’t used to this kind of tightrope. But Green Day hasn’t lost their fighting spirit, and neither should we.

I was listening to “21 Guns” today when I noticed the coursing energy of the guitar and drums under what I thought was a really sad song. The music was fighting back against the despair even as it expressed it. I think that’s the most important thing to remember when the world is going to hell. You don’t have to stand for it, but neither do you have to pretend it isn’t happening. In the end life doesn’t make any sense no matter what direction it’s taking. This album full of mariachi band-infused songs and complex arrangements is a perfect reflection of the way things can change instantly. It helps clear some of the clutter we accumulate around ourselves. What’s left really is a breakdown. People have lost their homes and the government has taken over in ways the happy haze of the 90s could never have predicted. It’s funny how often ideas that start out seeming crazy end up making perfect sense.

21st Century Breakdown takes a little more getting used to than American Idiot did. It doesn’t seem to tell people what they want to hear, because there is no one figure or institution to use as a target of the blame. It can’t be interpreted in so straightforward a fashion. I think that’s precisely the point. Where American Idiot identified clear sources of problems and tried to imagine a solution, 21st Century Breakdown wades farther in to find that this is much more complicated than we thought. It isn’t about small town dreams and finding your way anymore. It’s abound finding your way in a world tilted widely on its axis. The rules have changed. Luckily we always have Green Day to help us puzzle it out. It’s going be a hell of a ride.

P.S. I’m going to be at the Madison Square Garden show on July 27th, up in section 420 something. If you’re around too, wave at the specks on the ceiling. One of them is bound to be me :).

~MTV has a nice wrap up to celebrate today’s release of 21st Century Breakdown, with quotes from the band explaining the songs and how they came about.

Larry Livermore, the founder of Lookout Records and arguably the person who gave Green Day their first break by signing them to Lookout, wrote a wonderful piece about the band and the new album. [Via GD.com]

It’s so refreshing to read an essay by someone whose attitude is not, “Gee they were some dumb band who sang about masturbation, and look, they made a great album. Who woulda thunk?” Livermore, and he’s someone who would know, makes no bones about saying that Green Day has always been great. It’s in their blood. Their commitment to music and to its artistry and craftsmanship has always been unshakable, from the very first songs they put out when they were only 16.

Larry says he’s not a classic rock kind of guy. I’m not normally a classic rock kind of gal either. In fact I quite dislike classic rock, and probably not for the same reasons as Larry Livermore, who is himself a musician and presumably can understand the subtleties of many genres of music in ways that I cannot. I usually can’t appreciate it because it’s not direct in the way that punk rock is. And yet with 21st Century Breakdown, which is not at all simple or straightforward but is rich with nuances and changes, I find myself loving it more with every listen. Somehow Green Day crafted an album that is both complex and direct. It’s full of artistry and beauty but it also grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.

Larry writes:

This is music for the ages. All the songs about girls are still out there, and will be as thrilling and enjoyable to listen to as they always were, but this is a band who have grown up without growing old, who positively inspire me with their ability to transcend all the depressing and corrupting influences of pop culture in general and the music business in particular to produce far and away the best work of their career.

The old songs are wonderful, and if it’s possible their new songs are even more wonderful. It’s a daunting feat. Will Green Day ever cease to amaze us?

[By the way, if you want to read the entire 2001 interview that Livermore quotes from, it’s here.]

« Previous entries