Why We’re Still American Idiots 15 Years Later
courtesy of @greenday instagram
This past September self-proclaimed “God’s Favorite Band,” Green Day, celebrated the 15th birthday of their successful, career comeback album, American Idiot. Aside from being a jarring wake-up call for us to recognize how old we are, it also gave us the opportunity to reflect on the musical and cultural impact that this album has, both inside and outside of the punk scene. Although our favorite record is technically now older than sophomores in high school, here’s how American Idiot still manages to stay critically relevant to America today-- and kick serious ass while doing so.
The early 2000s was a pivotal time for rock music. Led in part by Green Day, the punk movement had gained momentum across the country during the 1980s and ‘90s, while angry, aggressive, and more purely emotional songs were beginning to hit the charts. This eventually span off into the emo and scene genres, which of course left our middle school selves shaking and buying every dark graphic tee from Hot Topic that we could get our hands on.
But for now, let’s talk about punk. Political lyrics have always been a central aspect of the punk-rock movement, and Green Day is no exception to that rule. In fact, their lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, has always been an outspoken critic of many political figures he disagrees with (the most recent example being President Donald Trump ). This was certainly the case back in 2003 when the band was writing songs for American Idiot. Although Green Day denies that President George W. Bush was the sole target of the album’s title track, his administration, and more specifically the U.S.’ involvement in the Iraq War, certainly inspired many of the lyrics and messages behind the album.
Additionally, Green Day fought against the then-nonexistent but the now-prevalent concept of “fake news” far before the term had ever entered the public sphere. After all, the first lyrics of American Idiot are “Don’t wanna be an American idiot / Don’t want a nation under the new media / And can you hear the sound of hysteria? / The subliminal mind-fuck America.” If there’s a more straightforward way than this to say you dislike the way the media portrays the world, we wouldn’t be able to tell you what it is. Armstrong and his band members, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool, were disgusted by the politicization of the news during this time, giving rise to highly radical and relevant lyrics that would be well at home in the 2019 political climate.
In parallel to this, there is another undercurrent in this album that is equally as important: mental health. It is no secret that Armstrong has had a lifelong struggle with drug addiction, and this is a critical part of the album’s storyline. It is widely speculated that Armstrong invented the character of “St. Jimmy”, who is repeatedly referred to throughout the album, as a personification of his impulsive nature.
In fact, St. Jimmy has his own song on the album, aptly named “St. Jimmy”, in which he says: “I’m the patron saint of the denial / With an angel face and a taste for suicidal.” In the early 2000s, it was not fashionable (or even acceptable) to speak openly about such serious mental health issues, so Green Day was once again far ahead of their time. This is not to say that they were the first rock artists to so openly speak on depression and suicidal ideation, but they certainly contributed to the normalization of open discussions regarding these difficult and sensitive topics.
If we wanted to intimately examine every lyric and message in American Idiot and assign it relevance to the modern world, it would take us much longer than just a handful of paragraphs. Suffice it to say, this album has remained extremely topical in our current social and political climates. We recommend you give it another listen-- even if you haven’t since seventh grade-- because you might just find something that lights your fire again.