Punk rock has been a platform for societal issues since its inception. High energy, sometimes rage fueled, short two to three minutes blasting what’s wrong in the world. It was a way to talk about and deal with issues that affected a generation that needed an outlet, a voice.
Then came those punk bands that mixed in immature silly content, like blink-182, Sum 41 and Green Day.
But even Green Day got political in 2004 with their album, American Idiot. The concept record, a rock opera really, inspired by the events and media coverage of 9/11, Green Day took us back to the punk roots of wanting to scream “WTF is going on with our world?” at the top of our lungs. Hell not only did it win a Grammy, it was even turned into a Broadway musical.
In the albums that followed, Green Day steered away from politics, but now as they are prepping the release of album number 14, they may have hit their most political content yet.
In a recent interview, frontman Billy Joe Armstrong revealed that their new track, “The American Dream is Killing Me”, was actually written several years ago when the band was working on the Father of All… album. He stated they didn’t include it on that record because the timing didn’t seem right, saying they steered away from politics on that album because:
“It was so obvious and it was such low-hanging fruit because we had such terrible politics and terrible division in the United States…With political songs, it takes a lot of heart to do that and I think if you keep doing it for the sake of doing it just because you’re are angry, then you take the heart out if and it just becomes part of what everyone is complaining about.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
However, Armstrong thinks now is the time to return to political music saying “It takes those special, inspired moments to have a moment like “The American Dream is Killing Me”.
The world is a mess, no question, no argument. Music has always been cathartic, therapeutic; and punk rock has always been a great outlet when it comes to those messes.
Green Day will release their new album, Saviors, on January 19th with a tour to follow, hitting the States in July. On top of promoting a new album and a return to politics, they will also be celebrating the 30th anniversary of their major label debut, Dookie and the 20th anniversary of American Idiot. This is going to be massive!
Shows are scheduled for St Louis on 8/15, Atlanta, GA 8/28 and Nashville on 8/30.
