The Selling-Out Of Green Day Is Complete

Remember Green Day? Not the band that won universal critical acclaim and every award possible five years ago for American Idiot. No, remember the band who, 15 years ago, jump-started punk rock with their major label debut Dookie? If you don't, that's fine, because, based on their new record, neither does Green Day.

When Dookie came out, punk rock was dead. Oh sure, it was still out there, but it wasn't getting any play. Even The Ramones were about a year away from calling it quits. And when Dookie came out, it was big again. Suddenly, you've got bands like The Offspring, Bad Religion, and Rancid getting big play on the radio, putting out records that are legitimate punk rock. They went on to influence "punk" bands like A Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and Sum 41.

Flash-forward a number of years, and Green Day puts out a "rock opera" called American Idiot. It's not all that punky. They follow that up with a live album, where Billy Joe Armstrong is heard to yell such punkish things as "We love you!" and "You guys are the greatest audience!" And now they have 21st Century Breakdown, another concept album "inspired by Bruce Springsteen." The shit bands that were influenced by Green Day are now more punk than Green Day. They've officially turned that corner where they've gone from a band that makes loud, fast songs about getting high to making radio-friendly pop tunes about how much they hate America. They have officially sold out.

Not that it's really surprising. All legitimate punk bands eventually go pop. The Clash were a full-fledged Top 40 band by the end of their career. Hüsker Dü turned into what would have been called an "alternative" band before they broke up. And it's a poorly-kept secret that the Godfather of Punk Rock, Joey Ramone, really would rather have been a pop star. Basically, all punk bands realize what a limited musical genre punk is, and they just go on to something else. I mean, you can put out album after album of 15 tracks of essentially the same song, or you can branch out a little, add a little pop to that punk.

And that's where Green Day is now. Unfortunately for them, they were so good at the punk rock thing that, now that they've gone pop, they sound like every other shitbag band out there. They were one of the few bands who were actually creatively better when they were "punks." Now, they might as well just change their names to Good Charlotte II, because that's what they are.

Oh well; had to happen sometime.

BTW, the new Eminem album is great, just great. I never figured Dominic West for an Eminem fan, but he must be, as it's the only reason I can explain his cameo on the album.

Good stuff. Check it out.