Green Day is Not the Music of Our Generation

Green Day won two VMAs last week. I died a little bit on the inside.

Everyone thinks Green Day is the greatest. You’ve probably even found yourself saying, “Yeah, I haven’t listened to a lot of their stuff, but I wouldn’t turn it off if it came on the radio.”

This is a dangerous lifestyle to be leading. First off, because you shouldn’t be listening to the radio in the first place, and secondly, because Green Day is actually terrible, and you’ve been brainwashed.

Let me get something straight before I delve into the hate. I love Green Day, but their last good release was the generally forgotten Shenanigans. It was released after their International Superhits! compilation, so everyone was still too excited about the fact that they could listen to “Good Riddance” and the song from Angus an obscene amount of times without switching CDs.

When Green Day released American Idiot in 2004, everyone hated. Everyone. Think about it – you hated, too.

And now, Green Day has released a worse album than 04’s Idiot, 21st Century Breakdown, and they’re being praised for it. They won two VMAs.

I know. The VMAs aren’t the Grammys. But, I mean, they’re sort of like the Golden Globes of the music industry. So basically, the only reason they matter is because they don’t. Not that the Grammys matter, either, as long as they keep handing them out to Coldplay for being the absolute worst British band on the face of the Earth.

Why do people love 21st Century Breakdown? They don’t. They realize it’s a far worse album than American Idiot, which actually wasn’t too bad even when it was sucking really hard. People have become desensitized to Green Day releasing crappy albums (in the same way that they have to U2, but that’s a different story).

Green Day releases American Idiot, and everyone hates it. (Everyone.) Green Day releases a worse CD, and people start to think “Hmm, maybe this is how good music is supposed to sound. Why would Green Day release two terrible albums in a row? This must be solid gold.”

No one will stand up for good music, but I will.

I am telling you that you don’t love 21st Century Breakdown. You love Dookie and Insomniac, and sure maybe even the poorly produced Kerplunk, but you do NOT love 21st Century Breakdown. It doesn’t sound like “old Green Day.” It sounds like lazy Green Day.

“Know Your Enemy” is not “classic” Green Day. It is not OK for them to release a song with a three-chord progression and poppy drums and make us think that it is the same as before. That is some kind of deception. I can’t think of an appropriate term, so I’ll just say it’s audio libel. Your ears can’t defend themselves because they’ve never been lied to before.

What’s frightening is that people are talking about Green Day being the band of our generation. In the past, it’s been so obvious which bands were going to make it big, make it to the hall of fame and represent their generation. It must have been easy for our parents to have the Stones and the Beatles (and maybe Aerosmith). They knew, even then, that they were listening to something big.

I don’t think we have that yet, and if we do, it’s not Green Day. If anything, it’s blink-182, assuming their comeback is more than just a few shows and an album that sounds a lot like Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

Green Day might go the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but it will not be with my support. And no, I am not jealous of their success, nor am I bitter because “Good Riddance” stole every girlfriend that I’ve ever had (which doesn’t even really make any sense.) I’m upset because Green Day used to be about the music, and now they’re playing on stage with a second guitarist and backstage vocalist who don’t even get any public recognition from the band.

That is the original musical sin – not caring about your bandmates.

So the next time “21 Guns” comes on the air, which it shouldn’t because your radio should be at the bottom of the nearest lake, smile, perhaps chuckle quietly to yourself and tell yourself – I will not be lied to.