Green Day
American pop punk idols Green Day released the musical phenomenon American Idiot back in 2004. I hadn’t even entered my teens yet and I was already obsessed with the band. Looking back now, I believe it was this album that shaped my teenage years and, ultimately, the person I am today.
American Idiot, now a successful musical, is about uncovering the propaganda and the lies which fuel America. We meet St Jimmy, Jesus of Suburbia in the first track, a kid who wants to escape the government run America and who screams the all too famous line, “I don’t wanna be an American idiot”.
We then get to know St Jimmy, who is the “son of rage and love”, and who begins a cry for help in effort to leave his miserable life. The whole song is a transition from realisation to no longer caring about the opinions of other people, and finishes with St Jimmy leaving with nothing but feeling depressed and cheated in his life, by the power in America.
Regardless of my age, I was inspired by the music. It was enough to lead me to question what was considered normal, as well as questioning authority. I believe this has shaped me into the realist, independent person I am, or at least pushed me into that direction.
Green Day are one of the most successful bands in the history of rock music. American Idiot achieved platinum in most of the countries it was released and was a worldwide sensation. 21st Century Breakdown, released in 2009, continued my Green Day craze but the obsession died a slow death after they released ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tres! in 2012.
To this day, I’m grateful for the numerous posters, calendars, bed sheets and other embarrassing novelties I possessed as I entered my teens, because I feel like Green Day produced a powerful message. They didn’t produce an album about broken hearts and other clichéd themes, but I feel that they expressed the need for independence and individuality. This is why American Idiot remains so important to me after all this time.
