Punk Actually Goes Punk?! Green Day and Critical Thinking

// Last.fm

As many early 2000’s music lovers go, most have probably heard of Green Day, the punk rock band that produced top hits like Wake Me Up When September Ends, 21 Guns, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and American Idiot. They have become one of the greatest anchors of the punk music genre, defining a generation filled with angst. Many have come to love their music in this modern day and age, but oftentimes, people forget that music can carry heavy meanings. With a genre like punk, it is often affiliated with activism. 

This hard genre emerged during the 1970’s from the garage rock era as a way to combat the commercialization and gentrification of society. It kicked off with The Stooges performing absolute chaos on Halloween night, defining punk as it is today. They were provocative and raw: the ideal punk rock band. 

Punk began as a challenge to push the boundaries of societal norms to express the activist’s own ideologies, beliefs, and values that were often considered Avant-garde. The loss of translation has led society to believe that punk is just an aesthetic that is a form of fashion expression; Vivienne Westwood, mohawks, spiked jewelry, chains, heavy eyeliner, etc. 

Punk is a reaction to an experience. That experience can be injustice, existential crises, abuse, abandonment, oppression, etc. Punk is the freedom to react to an experience one has in a raw form.” 

Alexander Wolke in The Philosophy of Punk, The Nonconformist

Green Day has since emerged once again into the spotlight this early January after their impromptu lyric change at Johannesburg’s FNB Stadium, targeting their song ‘American Idiot’ towards a prominent business and political figure, Elon Musk. 

With lyrics like “In television dreams of tomorrow; We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow” and “Don’t wanna be an American idiot; One nation controlled by the media; Information age of hysteria; It’s calling out to idiot America.” It was already filled with criticism against the United States and its governing system, chanting the punk anthem of anti-conformity. Billie Joe Armstrong (lead singer of Green Day) decided that the original lyrics were not enough to get his and the band’s points across of what they think of the affiliated figure. 

The original lyrics were already borderline risque: 

“I’m not a part of a redneck agenda.”

But their jabbing new lyric change called out Elon Musk:

“I’m not a part of the Elon agenda.”

The only way to describe this is bold. Though this wasn’t the band’s first time changing the lyrics of the iconic song, it was a definite rage booster for both sides of the affected parties. Fortunately, the band commented on their performance with Mike Dirnt, Green Day bassist, stating in a Rolling Stone’s interview that, “Elon Musk actually is the machine. I can’t take anything else from that. He’s not shy about saying stupid sh*t on the internet. Whatever.” 

There have been arguments about whether Green Day is actually punk or any of its subcultures: pop-punk, punk-rock, etc. It is typically subjective, but despite Green Day not being all punk fan’s cup of tea, they get the message across that even if they may subjectively not be the best band to represent the music genre, they have cultivated an iconic generation of speculative youths. 

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