Green Day
American Idiot

After the release in 2002 of "Shenanigans," a collection of b-sides from the American band, once again Billie Joe and company jump on stage and surprise us with a new work, AMERICAN IDIOT, which since its first appearance has caused some issues with America. Some said that the title "idiot" was referring to the US president, while others countered that it wasn't referring to him... until the frontman cleared up any misunderstanding, stating that the reference was to the average American citizen, overwhelmed in every aspect of their life by invasive and suffocating media. A sort of condemnation of the "big brother" eye? Well yes, a moral condemnation of the pervasive nature of the media, which stifle the individual and make him passive, without ideals, discouraging him from fighting against a system that doesn't work as it should.

Beginning with a critique of the media, which seem to be controlled by the many faces of the government, Green Day have crafted a wonderful rock opera (defined by the public as the first punk-rock opera), made of pure punk, albeit with some veins of frustration, which emerged especially after the 9/11 attack. But the famous frontman denies that the term “idiot” refers to Bush, yet on the other hand confirms it by literally sending the president “to hell” at Live 8. An album that, since its first appearance, radiates the worldwide success of “Dookie,” an album released in 1994 that won 7 Grammy Award nominations, with total sales of 10 million copies (a success equivalent to that of "Dookie"). Furthermore, it earned merits for the best videos ("Boulevard of Broken Dreams") and for a golden producer like Rob Cavallo, who aims for precision and innovation.

The rock-opera opens with what seems like an official anthem of criticism, the protagonist of the album and also of Live 8 in Berlin, where the Greens played. Provocative and reactionary, “American Idiot” quickly earns top spots on music charts, especially in America, where instead of being boycotted, it is exalted. The criticism appears explicit ("Don’t want to be an American idiot, don’t want a nation under the new media…”) towards the media, which are food for the American idiot, who consumes it day by day, becoming an imbecile (in the etymological sense of the word), losing the power of their own consciousness, now dominated and atrophied by media, especially television. What emerges in this piece is especially (apart from the already mentioned criticism) the hope that the individual can manage to turn off that damn television, put that damn remote control in an isolated drawer, stand up and change the system! Looking inside, exploring one’s own consciousness is something that the individual has lost, being immersed in a world where technology holds the reins. The individual has become a horse with blinders, not guided by creativity or moved by action, but by continuous advertising messages, by the tempting offers that television makes, bartering their condition for a worse one (as they say “out of the frying pan into the fire”).

In a single word, ALIENATION has taken over the individual, who appears de-identified, i.e., deprived of the identity they were born with, not even a minimal robotic identity has been saved, nothing, only alienation remains ("Welcome to a new kind of tension all across the alienation”), a nation controlled by the media (“One nation controlled by the media”). All topped off with a period of acute paranoia, mixed with frustration, that America had to endure after the September attack (“And sing along to the age of paranoia”). After this intro, “Jesus of Suburbia” kicks in with energy, lasting about 9' 10", realized in a new way because it's divided into parts, suspended between salvation and damnation, between hope that something changes and the hell of the world, I believe it is more than anything a parody of a summary of experiences that Billie, Mike and Tré have lived. The critique, although less incisive, continues with "Holiday," where the characteristic punk style is perhaps felt much more than in “Jesus of Suburbia,” with the guitars being banged as they should (as in “American Idiot”). From the beginning of the song, a sad and gloomy atmosphere emerges, contrasted by the fast rhythm set by the guitars, which can, however, be noticed in the words coming out of the microphone ["Hear the sound of the falling rain (…) the shame (…) and bleed the company lost the war today...”]… and then the sentence ("I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies, this is the dawning of the rest of our lives, this is our lives on holiday"). With the next “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” the single that alone sold 3 million copies, where Billie insists persistently on the phrase “I walk alone,” almost wanting to emphasize the idea of solitude and the desire to reflect (an aspect that on the record is quite central, as much as the critique), always driven by a sense of inner frustration probably born from intolerance towards a system too monopolized and dominated by the lack of reaction. The next “Are we the waiting” connotes more the reflective aspect that the group assumes in this last period as an essential point, because the essence is all there… in reflection, in digging inside sometimes, not remaining in the darkness of the unknown self, not staying seated on the couch all day watching some stupid TV program… reflection that accompanies action, coming out into the open, is the screaming another key point of the album, a reasoned screaming, a screaming that allows you to escape isolation and uniformity. With “St. Jimmy” there is a return to the good times of Dookie, where the rhythm is frenetic, somewhat similar to that of the good art that the good, old Ramones used to make (“Hey ho, let’s go!”, and which Green Day have cherished. The subsequent tracks prove how Green Day remain one of the most influential bands on the punk music scene, not comparable in my view to Blink 182 or other less serious punk groups (I refer to musically), who think they make punk, but in reality, make a pseudo-punk.

Because real punk, that of racist London in the '80s, which hit hard, where provocation, ambiguity, and sexual promiscuity were daily bread, the punk of the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, the Vibrators… has long since declined, but luckily a glimpse has been brought by bands like Green Day. With "Extraordinary Girl" it seems at first to immerse in a tribal dance, made of exotic sounds of the savannah, but it is only the beginning… leading to a cheerful "ballad" that might seem at times melodic punk, at times thrown into hard pop… but then regains the punk vein, their classic punk vein. Another successful single is "Wake Me Up When September Ends," a song centered on the theme of the Iraq war, for which a video was made, which widely testifies how the war is useless and causes sharp pains and sufferings to those who live it firsthand. “Wake me up (or wake me) when September ends”… seems to be a sort of hibernation in which Billie and co wanted to sink just to not see the schism that the war has caused: on one side the aggressors and on the other the victims, who bloodied and delirious, shout against an unjust world, which took away their home, family, affection… The album closes with “Homecoming,” in typical punk style of the good old days and “Whatsername”, notable for the alternation of "soft" and strong parts.
Many thought Green Day was in decline after the infamous “Dookie,” but I believe that with this album they have bewildered the entire world… well done!