Pt.1: revisiting green day

I'm sure many of you who, much like myself, believe we've matured a lot over the course of our lives, might be able to relate to this anecdote.

My first real experience truly enjoying music was with Green Day's American Idiot. I remember, it must have been 2006 or 2007 -- my older brother came home with the CD, rented from the public library, with cracks in the jewel case, hiding it from mom to show me the explicit content label and explain to me that Green Day's name is a reference to marijuana and that "this CD has the f-word in it." We popped it in the old laptop and burned the CD, all the while fearful that the government would track us down and arrest us for burning a CD we checked out from the library.

Weeks later, I was still obsessively listening to the album. I remember inviting my friend Aaron over to play LEGOs and putting on "American Idiot" saying "wait for it... wait for it... he's gonna say the f-word real soon!" The library's scratched copy had a skip in "Homecoming" right before the "Jimmy die-yed, too-day" section, and now every time I hear the song it just sounds wrong without it (it doesn't help that my brother would always insist that the song was /supposed/ to have that skip in it).

A few years later, I began my descent into music for real. I started getting into bands that I thought were so profound (Nirvana, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, etc.) and getting deeper and deeper into indie music, getting more and more pretentious as I went along. Feeling that I needed to mature, I absolutely spurned and rejected American Idiot. I would repeatedly tell people of how much I hated the album, how stupid and meaningless and cheesy it was, how I once almost bought a copy from a second-hand store just to smash it on the ground (seriously). It was a rite of passage to hate American Idiot. I needed to do it to grow up.

Green Day wasn't cool and they still aren't cool. But, what I've been finding recently is that the next step in musical maturity (and just general maturity) is to reject notions of what is and what is not cool and listen to -- genuinely -- whatever it is that sounds right, feels right, or has whatever energy you might need in the moment. I discovered this when, at work, I heard the song "Asthenia" by my most hated band, Blink-182, and fell in love with the cadence of Tom's voice, the post-hardcore structure, and the (literally unbeatable, I'd like a counterexample if you have one) bass tone. I decided to go through Blink's discography and found much to love.

To continue the pattern, I went back to American Idiot for the first time in years. I had heard that a film about the album (Heart Like A Hand Grenade) was actually really good from a friend of mine, and with an open mind watched the film and realized that, deep down somewhere in the id, I still love the album, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. In fact, since Green Day is and was so uncool, I'd convinced myself that I hated the album's sentiment, tone, and sound, but in coming back to it, I've found that not only is it extremely well constructed with powerful, energetic, and SMART lyricism, it is ABSOLUTELY CURRENT. People right now, in this day in age, really, really should be able to vibe with American Idiot. Like, I think many people NEED this album right now. It's arguably more poignant in 2016 than it was in 2004 when it sold those millions of copies.

I urge you all to do two things:
1. If you're feeling lost in our country or struggling with any identity crisis, I recommend you listen front -to-back American Idiot and pay attention to what he says and how he says it.
2. Take another look at your childhood favorites and give an honest, open-minded judgement. Eliminate the phrase guilty pleasure from your vocabulary.

Also, Billie Joe seems like a really cool dude. With that I digress. Thoughts?

They're a good band that makes good music.

>Feeling that I needed to mature, I absolutely spurned and rejected American Idiot. I would repeatedly tell people of how much I hated the album, how stupid and meaningless and cheesy it was, how I once almost bought a copy from a second-hand store just to smash it on the ground (seriously). It was a rite of passage to hate American Idiot.

this is the mark of a tryhard retard. things like this just stifle your taste in music in arbitrary ways. You were pretty much what this board is right now.

>I needed to do it to grow up

no you didn't. maximum cringe.

At least you came to your senses by the end.

I'm not sure if you're 9 years old, have a debilitating mental illness or are a badass troll (which is like a subgenre of debilitating mental illness). It's really hard to tell, but I was only able to get halfway through your blog post. You don't know what pretentious means.
>I once almost bought a copy from a second-hand store just to smash it on the ground (seriously)
I've had the misfortune of being acquainted with people who have acted like that. One of them had a special bus pass because he had a turbo-autism, the others were probably pending diagnosis.

Green Day were fledgling band of tryhard, wannabe punks who got a record deal and made serviceable radio pop-rock. They had some seriously great tracks, but are no more noteworthy than any other generic radio act.
Your personally buying into an advertised product isn't worthy of discussion, though, so fuck off to /r9k/.

>Your personally buying into an advertised product isn't worthy of discussion, though, so fuck off to /r9k/.

absolute autism.

back to

>making an observation is a symptom of autism
You do realise that people with autism can't actually make that sort of argument, right? That sort of analytical thinking isn't available to them, that's literally what autism is.

So, OP (I presume), maybe you shouldn't vomit buzzwords at people when they respond to your shitty blog posts. Thanks.

I'm not OP, you absolute retard.

>You do realise that people with autism can't actually make that sort of argument, right?

autism.

back to

You literally type like a redditor.

Best thing about Sup Forums is if you make a statement all the legitimate retards come out defensively and spam you with shitposts, all the while failing to actually counter anything you wrote.

>go to the board I just came from because you responded to me.
>you hurt my feelings and I don't know how to discuss things properly
Wow, ironically posting your one buzzword again, too. Good job, highly functioning individual.

That doesn't make sense.
Thanks for letting me know, though. Obviously you spend a lot of time there.

hola reddit

who said i was ironic?

i already told you off and BTFO you, why stick around for more?

>My first real experience truly enjoying music was with Green Day's American Idiot
>not Dookie in the mid 90s
Opinion discarded

Let me know when you grow up

I've been on reddit once ever, back in 2010

So you don't know what ironic means either?
Wow, 12 years old kids shouldn't have unsupervised internet access, lad.

>redditor outs himself

we're done here.

Yeah, you absolutely did out yourself.
Obviously you really fit in back there, too, since your reaction to a dismissive post is with complete dismay.
Please never come back here, you guys ruined this already terrible board.

But Green Day was only good until American Idiot came out. International Superhits is tight as fuck.

They were starting to get the nickelback treatment sometime in 2003 though, where they were no longer being considered cool because they became popular enough to be considered mainstream. I remember being in middle school and all the girls would say they liked green day but none of them knew their songs, bandwaggoning shit like that sours a band's image with the original core of diehard fans when the band's appeal began to change.

A lot of their music has the same sound to it, but they have so many quality songs - long view, welcome to paradise, warning, basket case, etc.

This. I used to love Green Day and then hated them for a while. The chef at my work started playing them again and I thought they were pretty funky.

I might be in the minority here but American Idoit is the only Green Day album I like. I'm not a fan of the band at all, and some songs like Longview and Welcome to Paradise I like, but I can jam all the way through American. I listen to that album maybe once every other year or so. Fun album to listen to.

I've been in the same train recently, and now I often listen to power metal and all kinda silly stuff. My library looks better than ever, too.

Godspeed, user.

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