174-634: American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Green Day , released on September 21, 2004, by Reprise Records . As with their previous four albums, it was produced by Rob Cavallo in collaboration with the group. Recording sessions for American Idiot took place at Studio 880 in Oakland and Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood , both in California, between 2003 and 2004. A concept album , dubbed
348-454: A normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 79, based on 26 reviews. According to AllMusic , it earned Green Day "easily the best reviewed album of their career." The website's editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine praised the album as either "a collection of great songs" or as a whole, writing that, "in its musical muscle and sweeping, politically charged narrative, it's something of
522-539: A pirate radio station from which it would broadcast jam sessions, along with occasional prank calls. The band demoed the album sufficiently so that it would be completely written and sequenced before they went to record. Hoping to clear his head and develop new ideas for songs, Armstrong traveled to New York City alone for a few weeks, renting a small loft in the East Village of Manhattan . He spent much of this time taking long walks and participating in jam sessions in
696-557: A " punk rock opera " by the band members, American Idiot follows the story of Jesus of Suburbia , a lower-middle-class American adolescent anti-hero . The album expresses the disillusionment and dissent of a generation that came of age in a period shaped by tumultuous events such as 9/11 and the Iraq War . In order to accomplish this, the band used unconventional techniques for themselves, including transitions between connected songs and some long, chaptered, creative compositions presenting
870-473: A "pompous, overwrought," but nonetheless "glorious concept album". Uncut was more critical and wrote in a mixed review that although the album was heavily politically focused, "slam-dancing is still possible". In a negative review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called the album a "dud" and asserted that Armstrong's lyrics eschew "sociopolitical content" for "the emotional travails of two clueless punks—one passive, one aggressive, both projections of
1044-405: A Hollywood hotel during the recording sessions, where they would often play loud music late at night, prompting complaints. The band admitted to partying during the L.A. sessions; Armstrong had to schedule vocal recording sessions around his frequent hangovers. Armstrong described the environment: "For the first time, we separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For
1218-534: A Musical for Christine Jones and Best Lighting Design of a Musical for Kevin Adams . It also received a nomination for Best Musical . The Broadway production closed in April 2011, after 27 previews and 421 regular performances. The first national tour started in late 2011. A documentary regarding the musical, titled Broadway Idiot , was released in 2013. Billie Joe Armstrong had at one point, prior to its release, suggested
1392-454: A career comeback for Green Day, charting in 27 countries, reaching for the first time the top spot on the Billboard 200 for the group and peaking at number one in 18 other countries. It has sold over 23 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling album for the band (behind their 1994 major-label debut, Dookie ) and one of the best-selling albums of the decade and all time . It
1566-509: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
1740-424: A change." Cool hoped the record would influence young people to vote Bush out, or, as he put it, "make the world a little more sane." He had previously felt that it was not his place to "preach" to kids, but felt there was so much "on the line" in the 2004 election that he must. The album also takes aim at giant corporations putting small companies out of business. Cool made an example out of record shops closing when
1914-514: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
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#17328516725812088-477: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
2262-609: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
2436-612: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
2610-402: A lot of imagery that we couldn't pull off in the musical in the stage version. You know, I don't want to give away too much, but it will be shocking in a way which makes you think." In February 2020, Billie Joe Armstrong revealed to NME that plans for the film adaptation of American Idiot have been "pretty much scrapped". Heart Like a Hand Grenade is a 2015 film featuring Green Day during
2784-568: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
2958-572: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
3132-485: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
3306-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
3480-546: A masterpiece". Pitchfork deemed it "ambitious" and successful in getting across its message, while "keep[ing] its mood and method deliberately, tenaciously, and angrily on point". NME characterized it as "an onslaught of varied and marvellously good tunes presented in an unexpectedly inventive way." Q called the album "a powerful work, noble in both intent and execution." The New York Times commended Green Day for trumping "any pretension with melody and sheer fervor". Chicago Sun-Times critic Jim DeRogatis wrote that
3654-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
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#17328516725813828-508: A more instinctual feeling to speak for the time period in which the album was released. He had felt the desire to increase the amount of political content in his lyricism as he grew into adulthood, noting that the "climate" surrounding his aging produced feelings of responsibility in the songs he wrote. Armstrong said, "As soon as you abandon the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge song structure ... it opens up your mind to this different way of writing, where there really are no rules." In addition to
4002-481: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
4176-570: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
4350-489: A national retailer makes it to town. "It's like there's just one voice you can hear," he said. "Not to sound like a preachy person, but it's getting towards the Big Brother of George Orwell 's 1984 — except here you have two or three corporations running everything ." American Idiot is a concept album that describes the story of a central character named Jesus of Suburbia, an anti-hero created by Billie Joe Armstrong. It
4524-456: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
4698-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
4872-463: A rave review from The New York Times . The show features all of the songs from the album American Idiot , including B-sides, as well as songs from Green Day's follow-up album, 21st Century Breakdown . Armstrong appeared in the Broadway production as St. Jimmy multiple times. With his return in 2011, the show grossed over $ 1 million. American Idiot won two Tony Awards : Best Scenic Design of
5046-464: A revitalized feeling among the musicians. They settled on more musical input from Cool and Dirnt, with "more respect and less criticism". Green Day had spent much of 2002 recording new material at Studio 880 in Oakland, California for an album titled Cigarettes and Valentines , creating "polka songs, filthy versions of Christmas tunes, [and] salsa numbers" for the project, hoping to establish something new within their music. After completing 20 songs,
5220-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
5394-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
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5568-695: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
5742-478: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
5916-512: A staple of his recording methods since Dookie . Cool also employs unorthodox instruments for punk music— timpani , glockenspiel , and hammer bells —which he received out of a promotional deal with Ludwig. These instruments are especially evident on "Homecoming" and on " Wake Me Up When September Ends ", the latter of which includes an African bead gourd that was welded to a remote hi-hat pedal for future live performances. "Extraordinary Girl", originally titled "Radio Baghdad", features tablas in
6090-460: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
6264-522: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
6438-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
6612-442: Is about taking those classic rock and roll elements, kicking out the rules, putting more ambition in, and making it current." Part of recording the album was attempting to expand their familiar punk rock sound by experimenting with different styles such as new wave , Latin , and polka music. The band listened to various rock operas, including the Who 's Tommy (1969) and David Bowie 's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and
6786-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
6960-536: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
7134-464: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
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7308-600: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
7482-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
7656-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
7830-507: Is the Band." Pop Disaster Tour The Pop Disaster Tour was a concert tour co-headlined by American rock bands Blink-182 and Green Day . The two groups, with supporting acts Jimmy Eat World , Kut U Up, Saves the Day , and Simple Plan toured for two months across the United States, as well as one in Canada, mostly in outdoor amphitheatres . The tour was conceived by Blink-182 to echo
8004-417: Is written from the perspective of a lower-middle-class suburban American teen, raised on a diet of "soda pop and Ritalin ." Jesus of Suburbia hates his hometown and those close to him, so he leaves for the city. The second character introduced in the story is St. Jimmy, a "swaggering punk rock freedom fighter par excellence." Whatsername, "a 'Mother Revolution' figure," is introduced as a nemesis of St. Jimmy in
8178-528: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
8352-540: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . In late 2005, DJ Party Ben and producer Team9 , under the shared alias Dean Gray (a spoonerism of "Green Day"), released an online-only mash-up version of the album—called American Edit . This became a cause célèbre when a cease and desist order was served by Green Day's record label representatives at Reprise/Warner. Tracks include "American Edit", "Dr. Who on Holiday", "Novocaine Rhapsody", and "Boulevard of Broken Songs." Billie Joe Armstrong later stated that he heard one of
8526-519: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
8700-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
8874-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
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#17328516725819048-475: The " 500 Greatest Albums of All Time ", and again in 2020, at 248. Green Day was one of the most popular rock acts of the 1990s. However, their 2000 album Warning was a commercial disappointment despite largely positive reviews. In early 2002, they embarked on the Pop Disaster Tour , headlining with Blink-182 . The tour created momentum for the band, who were earning a reputation as "elder statesmen" of
9222-555: The "reality" presented by news media who sell the government's line of fear and warmongering. Jon Pareles of The New York Times deemed it "both a harbinger and a beneficiary of the Bush administration 's plummeting approval, selling steadily through 2005 as the response to Hurricane Katrina and the protracted war in Iraq turned much of the country against the government." "Wake Me Up When September Ends" became symbolic during various events such as
9396-460: The 100 best songs of the 2000s, at number 65 and 47 respectively. In 2005, the album was ranked number 420 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time . In 2012, the album was ranked number 225 on Rolling Stone' s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . American Idiot was released on September 21, 2004. It became Green Day's first number one album in
9570-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
9744-461: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
9918-472: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
10092-556: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
10266-596: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
10440-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
10614-578: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
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#173285167258110788-499: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
10962-464: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
11136-498: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
11310-499: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
11484-603: The Pop Disaster Tour throughout the U.S from Kut U Up's perspective. DeLonge and Hoppus had the idea for the film, and enlisted Matt Beauchesne, who also worked on their documentary The Urethra Chronicles II: Harder Faster Faster Harder , to direct. It was designed to be "a social experiment that shows exactly what would happen if an average Joe band spent two months with two of the biggest groups in rock." Many reviewers were unimpressed with Blink-182's headlining set following Green Day. "Sometimes playing last at
11658-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
11832-573: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
12006-650: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
12180-499: The Spiders from Mars (1972). Armstrong was particularly inspired by the Who's Quadrophenia , finding more in common with its "power chord mod-pop aesthetic" than other concept records, such as The Wall by Pink Floyd . In addition, they listened to the cast recordings of Broadway musicals West Side Story , The Rocky Horror Show , Grease , and Jesus Christ Superstar , and they let contemporary music influence them, including
12354-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
12528-604: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
12702-527: The United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
12876-415: The United States, selling 267,000 copies in its first week of release, their biggest opening sales week. The album became 2005's fourth-highest seller, moving over 3.4 million units. American Idiot remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 upwards of a year following its release, staying on the chart for 101 weeks. The album also debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, selling 89,385 copies in
13050-722: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
13224-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
13398-432: The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; one online blogger paired the song with television coverage of the disaster, creating a viral video. Ian Winwood of Kerrang! said that the album pushed rock music back into the mainstream. American Idiot was considered a career comeback for Green Day, and their unexpected maturation "stunned the music industry." In 2020 Rolling Stone placed the album at 248 on their updated list of
13572-452: The album themes. Following the disappointing sales of their previous album Warning (2000), the band took a break and then began what they had planned to be their next album, Cigarettes and Valentines . However, recording was cut short when the master tapes were stolen; following this, the band made the decision to start their next album from scratch. The result was a more societally critical, politically charged record which returned to
13746-485: The album would make good material for an adapted feature film. Shortly after the album was released, there was speculation that American Idiot might be made into a film. In an interview with VH1 , Armstrong said, "We've definitely been talking about someone writing a script for it, and there's been a few different names that have been thrown at us. It sounds really exciting, but for right now it's just talk." On June 1, 2006, Armstrong announced in an interview with MTV that
13920-468: The album's 20th anniversary, the album is currently being played in its entirety—alongside Dookie , which is celebrating its 30th anniversary—on their Saviors Tour . John Colapinto of Rolling Stone summarized its immediate impact in a 2005 story: American Idiot [...] gives voice to the disenfranchised suburban underclass of Americans who feel wholly unrepresented by the current leadership of oilmen and Ivy Leaguers, and who are too smart to accept
14094-457: The album's political content, it also touches on interpersonal relationships and what Dirnt labeled "confusion and loss of individuality." "American Idiot" contends that mass media has orchestrated paranoia and idiocy among the public, particularly cable news, which Armstrong felt had crossed the line from journalism to reality television , only showcasing violent footage intercut with advertisements. The song emphasizes strong language, juxtaposing
14268-434: The album's promotion, and they began to wear black and red uniforms onstage. Armstrong considered it a natural extension of his showmanship, which began in his childhood. Touring in support of the album began in the US, where the band performed in conservative stronghold states like Texas , Tennessee , and Georgia . The group headlined arenas that were only "60 to 75 percent full" and were often booed for performing songs from
14442-531: The album, and the band began viewing songs as more than their format—as chapters, movements, or potentially a feature film or novel. Soon afterward, Armstrong penned the title track, which explicitly addresses sociopolitical issues. The group then decided that they would steer the development of the album toward what they dubbed a "punk rock opera." Prior to recording, Green Day rented rehearsal space in Oakland, once again at Studio 880. Armstrong invited Cavallo to attend
14616-603: The album. Armstrong often chanted "Fuck George W. Bush!" Jonah Weiner of Blender likened the band's live performances of the time to an "anti-Bush rally." Armstrong admitted that they did "everything to piss people off," including wearing a Bush mask onstage in weeks preceding the election. The European tour sold 175,000 tickets in less than an hour. In April, the band began a one-month US arena tour. The band soon began playing stadiums, performing at New Jersey's Giants Stadium, San Francisco's SBC Park, and Los Angeles' Home Depot Center between September and October 2005. In honor of
14790-412: The album. Cool brought multiple drum kits, including over 75 snares . Drum tracks were recorded on two-inch tape to produce a compressed sound and were transferred to Pro Tools to be digitally mixed with the other instruments. All drum tracks were produced at Ocean Way Studio B, picked for its high ceiling and acoustic tiling, which produced better sound. The songs were recorded in order as they appear on
14964-496: The auteur", adding that "there's no economics, no race, hardly any compassion." Ian Winwood of Kerrang! called it a "modern day masterpiece". Josh Tyrangiel of Time said, "For an album that bemoans the state of the union , it is irresistibly buoyant." In 2005, American Idiot won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and was nominated in six other categories including Album of the Year . The album helped Green Day win seven of
15138-399: The band had successfully "hit upon an actual 'adult' style of pop punk", while USA Today ' s Edna Gundersen wrote that they had steered away from the "cartoonish" qualities of their previous work in favor of more mature, politically oriented themes. Entertainment Weekly said that despite being based on a musical theater concept "that periodically makes no sense", Green Day "makes
15312-439: The band saw in art galleries on Melrose Avenue and recruited artist Chris Bilheimer, who had designed the art for the previous records Nimrod and International Superhits! to create the cover. The band aimed for the cover to be "at once uniform and powerful". The album's artwork—"a Posada -stark print of a heart-shaped hand grenade gripped in a blood-soaked fist"—is representative of its political content. After listening to
15486-420: The band's punk rock sound following the more folk and power pop -inspired Warning , with additional influences that were not explored on their older albums. Additionally, the band underwent an "image change", wearing red-and-black uniforms onstage, to add more theatrical presence to the album during performances and press events. American Idiot became one of the most anticipated releases of 2004. It marked
15660-675: The basement of Hi-Fi, a bar in Manhattan. He began socializing with the songwriters Ryan Adams and Jesse Malin . Many songs from the album were written based on his time in Manhattan, including " Boulevard of Broken Dreams " and "Are We the Waiting". While there, he also formulated much of the album's storyline, about people "going away and getting the hell out, while at the same time fighting their own inner demons." With demos completed, Green Day relocated to Los Angeles. They first recorded at Ocean Way Recording , then moved to Capitol Studios to complete
15834-575: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
16008-405: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
16182-456: The coliseum." "She's a Rebel" was inspired by Bikini Kill 's " Rebel Girl ". After finishing the music for the album, the band decided that the artwork needed to reflect the themes on the record, likening the change of image to a political campaign. Armstrong recalled, "We wanted to be firing on all cylinders. Everything from the aesthetic to the music to the look. Just everything." Green Day drew inspiration from Chinese communist propaganda art
16356-432: The color deemed it appropriate for use on the cover. He explained, "I'm sure there's psychological theories of it being the same color of blood and therefore has the powers of life and death... And as a designer I always feel it's kind of a cop-out, so I never used it before. But there was no way you couldn't use it on this cover." American Idiot received critical acclaim from music critics . At Metacritic , which assigns
16530-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
16704-508: The demo master tapes were stolen that November. In 2016, Armstrong and Dirnt said that they eventually recovered the material and were using it for ideas. After the theft, the band consulted longtime producer Rob Cavallo . Cavallo told them to ask themselves if the missing tracks represented their best work. Armstrong said that they "couldn't honestly look at ourselves and say, 'That was the best thing we've ever done.' So we decided to move on and do something completely new." They agreed and spent
16878-451: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
17052-455: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
17226-457: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
17400-471: The eight awards it was nominated for at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards ; the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" video won six of those awards. A year later, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year . In 2009, Kerrang! named American Idiot the best album of the decade, NME ranked it number 60 in a similar list, and Rolling Stone ranked it 22nd. Rolling Stone also listed "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "American Idiot" among
17574-510: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
17748-451: The entire nine-minute composition for the longest performance to that point on Top of the Pops in the week preceding the single. It did not perform as well on the charts as the preceding four songs. Samuel Bayer directed music videos for all five of the album's singles. In 2005, commenting on the success American Idiot brought the band, he stated, "The Billie Joe that I work with now is not
17922-568: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
18096-472: The famous Monsters of Rock tours; the idea was to have, effectively, a Monsters of Punk tour. The tour, from the band's point of view, had been put together as a show of unity in the face of consistent accusations of rivalry between the two bands, especially in Europe. Instead, Green Day's Tré Cool acknowledged in a Kerrang! interview that they committed to the tour as an opportunity to regain their status at
18270-424: The film was now being made at HBO and the script was getting rewrites. He confirmed he would reprise his Broadway role as St. Jimmy. In November 2016, Armstrong stated that the film was "going to be a lot different from the musical. It's kind of, more surreal but I think there's going to be parts of it that might offend people – which is good. I think it's a good time to offend people. I think there's just going to be
18444-491: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
18618-412: The first time, we fully accepted the fact that we're rock stars." American Idiot took 10 months to complete, at a cost of $ 650,000. By the end of the process, Armstrong felt "delirious" regarding the album: "I feel like I'm on the cusp of something with this. [...] I really feel […] like we're really peaking right now." Speaking on the album's musical content, Armstrong remarked, "For us, American Idiot
18792-433: The first week. The album has received certification awards in many territories; among them being certified six times platinum status in the United States and Australia, and diamond in Canada. As of August 2024, American Idiot has sold 23 million units worldwide. The album spawned five singles: "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", and "Jesus of Suburbia". The title track
18966-451: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
19140-503: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
19314-587: The greatest albums of all time. It was nominated for Album of the Year and won the Award for Best Rock Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards . It was also nominated for Best Album at the Europe Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards , winning the former. Its success inspired a Broadway musical , a documentary and an unmade feature film adaptation. Rolling Stone placed it at 225 on their 2012 list of
19488-567: The guitar sound—plug in the Les Pauls and Marshalls and let it rip'". Armstrong added tracks of acoustic guitar-playing throughout the record to augment his electric guitar rhythms and Cool's drumming. For most of the record, Dirnt used an Ampeg SVT bass amplifier, recording with his signature Fender Precision Bass . For the album, he and Cavallo strived for a "solid, big, thunderous" bass sound as opposed to one centered on countermelodies . Dirnt ran his bass guitar through an Evil Twin direct box,
19662-453: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
19836-441: The intro performed by Cool. For "Whatsername", Cool recorded drums in a room designed to record guitars to achieve a dry sound. With all these techniques and influences considered, critics have called the album pop-punk and alternative rock , but primarily the aforementioned punk rock. "Everybody just sorta feels like they don't know where their future is heading right now, ya know?" —Armstrong, October 2004 American Idiot
20010-460: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
20184-424: The journey entertaining enough". It described some of the songs as forgettable, though, arguing the album focuses more on lyrics than music. Rolling Stone said the album could have been, and was, a mess, but that the "individual tunes are tough and punchy enough to work on their own". The Guardian also called American Idiot a mess—"but a vivid, splashy, even courageous mess". Slant Magazine described it as
20358-511: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
20532-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
20706-481: The latter, resulting in the figurative suicide of St. Jimmy, which is revealed to be a facet of his personality. In the album's final song, Jesus of Suburbia loses his connection with Whatsername as well, to the point in which he can't even remember her name. Through the story, Armstrong hoped to detail coming of age in America at the time of the album's release. While he considered their previous record heartfelt, he felt
20880-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
21054-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
21228-669: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
21402-603: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
21576-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
21750-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
21924-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
22098-477: The movie was "definitely unfolding" and that "every single week there's more ideas about doing a film for American Idiot , and it's definitely going to happen". In April 2011, production company Playtone optioned the musical to develop a film version, and Universal Pictures began initial negotiations to distribute it. Michael Mayer, who directed the Broadway production, was named as director. Dustin Lance Black
22272-402: The musical, Jones said, "The idea is to get it a little dirtier and a little nastier and translate it into visual terms. There's not going to be a lot of dialogue and it probably should be a little shorter, too. After that, it just takes its 'movie time' in getting done". He expected to finish the script by the end of the month. In October 2016, in an interview with NME , Armstrong revealed that
22446-461: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
22620-478: The new music on his computer, Bilheimer took note of the lyric "And she's holding on my heart like a hand grenade" from "She's a Rebel". Influenced by artist Saul Bass 's poster for the 1955 drama film The Man with the Golden Arm , Bilheimer created an upstretched arm holding a red heart-shaped grenade. Although he felt that red is the "most overused color in graphic design", he felt that the "immediate" qualities of
22794-591: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
22968-416: The next three months writing new material. The members of Green Day individually crafted their own ambitious 30-second songs. Armstrong recalled, "It started getting more serious as we tried to outdo one another. We kept connecting these little half-minute bits until we had something." This musical suite became "Homecoming", and the band wrote another suite, " Jesus of Suburbia ". It changed the development of
23142-415: The pop punk scene, which consisted of bands like Good Charlotte , Sum 41 , and New Found Glory . Things had come to a point regarding unresolved personal issues between the three band members. The band was argumentative and miserable, according to the bassist Mike Dirnt , and needed to "shift directions". In addition, the band released a greatest hits album, International Superhits! , which they felt
23316-465: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
23490-514: The rappers Eminem and Kanye West , as well as the rock band Linkin Park . Armstrong considered rock music a "conservative" business with regard to the rigidity in which a band must release a single, create a music video, or head out on tour. He felt groups like the hip hop duo OutKast were "kicking rock's ass, because there's so much ambition." The band used more loud guitar sounds for the record. Armstrong said "We were like, 'Let's just go balls-out on
23664-471: The recording of American Idiot . It was directed by John Roecker and filmed over the process of fifteen months between 2003 and 2004. It is a documentary about the songwriting and recording process of the album. The film had a limited, one night release in Hollywood at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on March 25, 2009, to a crowd of more than 400 people. Rock music Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in
23838-628: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
24012-445: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
24186-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
24360-517: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
24534-508: The same guy that walked onto the "American Idiot" set a year ago. Now, he's a rock star. They were famous. They had done big stuff. But it's transcended that. But he hasn't changed. And they haven't changed. They're three friends who love one another." Courtney Love also commented on the success of the band, stating "Billie Joe looks absolutely beautiful. You know how when people get super A-list, their face gets prettier? I think it's perception. It's something that happens in your subconscious". At
24708-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
24882-412: The sessions and help guide their writing processes. Cavallo encouraged the idea of a concept album, recalling a conversation the two had a decade prior, in which Armstrong expressed his desire for their career to have a " Beatles -like arc to their creativity." During the sessions at Studio 880, Green Day spent their days writing material and would stay up late, drinking and discussing music. The band set up
25056-543: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
25230-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
25404-491: The song "She's a Rebel". The album's story is largely indeterminate, because the group was unsure of where to lead the plot's third quarter. In this sense, Armstrong decided to leave the ending up to the listeners' imagination. The two secondary characters exemplify the record's main theme—"rage versus love"—in that while St. Jimmy is driven by "rebellion and self-destruction," Whatsername is focused on "following your beliefs and ethics." Jesus of Suburbia eventually decides to follow
25578-633: The songs on the radio and "enjoyed it." An American Idiot stage musical adaptation premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in September 2009. The musical was a collaboration between Green Day and director Michael Mayer . Green Day did not appear in the production, but the show featured an onstage band. The production transferred to Broadway at the St. James Theatre , and opened in April 2010. The show received mixed reviews from critics, but received
25752-488: The then-upcoming presidential election . He felt confused by the country's culture war , noting the particular division among the general public on the Iraq War. Summing up his feelings in an interview at the time, he said, "This war that's going on in Iraq [is] basically to build a pipeline and put up a fucking Wal-Mart ." Armstrong felt a duty to keep his sons away from violent images, including video games and news coverage of
25926-610: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
26100-494: The time of American Idiot ' s release, the album was not sold in Wal-Mart due to its explicit content. A 20th anniversary deluxe edition of American Idiot was released on October 25, 2024, featuring 15 unreleased demos, 15 live tracks recorded at Irving Plaza , 9 other unreleased live recordings and 14 songs previously available only as B-sides and bonus tracks . The band underwent "a significant image change" surrounding
26274-465: The top of the tree, as their spotlight had faded over the years. "We set out to reclaim our throne as the most incredible live punk band from you know who", said Cool. Cool contended that "we heard they were going to quit the tour because they were getting smoked so badly […] We didn't want them to quit the tour. They're good for filling up the seats up front." The 2003 film Riding in Vans with Boys follows
26448-460: The track listing, a first for Green Day. Each song was recorded in its entirety before proceeding to the next. They reversed the order in which they recorded guitars and bass (recording the guitars first), as they heard that was how the Beatles recorded songs. Armstrong said that at points he expressed fear at the amount of work before him, likening it to climbing a mountain. The band took a relaxed approach to recording. For five months, they stayed at
26622-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
26796-451: The war in Iraq and the 9/11 attacks. Armstrong noted divisions between America's "television culture" (which he said only cared about cable news) versus the world's view of America, which could be considered as careless warmongers. Dirnt felt similarly, especially so after viewing the 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 . "You don't have to analyze every bit of information in order to know that something's not fucking right, and it's time to make
26970-445: The words " faggot " and "America" to create what he imagined would be a voice for the disenfranchised. "Holiday" took two months to finish writing, because Armstrong continually felt his lyrics were not good enough. Encouraged by Cavallo, he completed the song. He later characterized the song as an outspoken "fuck you" to Bush. "Give Me Novacaine" touches on American reality television of that time, which Armstrong likened to "gladiators in
27144-524: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
27318-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
27492-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
27666-570: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
27840-507: Was "an invitation to midlife crisis". The singer Billie Joe Armstrong called Dirnt and asked him, "Do you wanna do [the band] anymore?" He felt insecure, having become "fascinated and horrified" by his reckless lifestyle, and his marriage was in jeopardy. Dirnt and Tré Cool viewed the singer as controlling, while Armstrong feared to show his bandmates new songs. Beginning in January 2003, the group had weekly personal discussions, which resulted in
28014-627: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " (1960) and " Kon-Tiki " (1961), while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
28188-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
28362-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
28536-561: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
28710-506: Was initially hired to adapt the musical. Billie Joe Armstrong was asked to star as St. Jimmy, and the film was proposed for a 2013 release. Armstrong later posted on his Twitter account that he had not "totally committed" to the role but was interested in it. In March 2014, playwright Rolin Jones told the Hartford Courant that he was writing a new screenplay for the film. Comparing it to
28884-566: Was inspired by contemporary American political events, particularly 9/11 , the Iraq War , and the presidency of George W. Bush . There are only two overtly political songs on the album (" American Idiot " and " Holiday "), but the album "draws a casual connection between contemporary American social dysfunction […] and the Bush ascendancy." While the content is clearly of the times, Armstrong hoped it would remain timeless and become more an overarching statement on confusion. Armstrong expressed dismay at
29058-582: Was later certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2013. The album spawned five successful singles: the titular track, "American Idiot" , " Holiday ", " Wake Me Up When September Ends ", " Jesus of Suburbia " and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year winner " Boulevard of Broken Dreams ". American Idiot was very well received critically and commercially upon release, and has since been hailed as one of
29232-455: Was released as the second single on November 29, it would peak at number two on the Hot 100. "Holiday" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" would follow as the third and fourth singles on March 14 and June 13, 2005, respectively, the former peaking at number nineteen and latter peaking at number six on the Hot 100. "Jesus of Suburbia" was released on November 14, 2005, as the final single; the band played
29406-484: Was released to active rock and alternative radio stations preceding the album on August 6, 2004. Two weeks later, it became the band's first song to place on the Billboard Hot 100 , where it peaked at number 61. Internationally, it peaked much higher, reaching number three in the United Kingdom, and debuting at number one in Canada. The song was released at a time before Billboard began accounting for internet sales in its chart positions; after "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
29580-515: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
29754-606: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
29928-493: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
30102-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
30276-450: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
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