The seventh studio album by Green Day, American Idiot is a rocking, politically driven concept album about an American anti-hero, the teenager Jesus of Suburbia. This “punk rock opera” contained five extremely successful singles and discusses the generational dissent and disapproval of the current American government which had been involved with many controversial things like the Iraq war. The punk rock album’s success is not to be understated as it won best rock album at the Grammys in 2005 and inspired a successful Broadway act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpVUc2GOdK0&t=2527s
Some important political themes on the album include criticising American politics especially President George W. Bush and how he has caused American dysfunction. Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer, also focuses on American warmongering throughout the record and large corporations that “destroy” small businesses. In a sense, Green Day was trying to use this character, Jesus of Suburbia, in order to demonstrate to the world what they saw was wrong with the country, in the hope to bring awareness and change. The album was inspired by other rock operas like David Bowie‘s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and The Wall by Pink Floyd.
The five most notable best tracks on the record include the title track American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and Wake Me Up When September Ends.
American Idiot, the track, criticises the American approach to the Iraq war as well as the media coverage of it and the mass perception and paranoia from the event. It is very political and establishes that America is not great by juxtaposing it with words such as f*aggot and propaganda.
Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the second single and my favorite song of the album. This song has an amazing guitar riff and discusses how the Jesus of Suburbia feels alone in the American society. How isolation and fear can split people apart, leaving them restless and without opportunity, which is what many Americans experienced at the time.
Holliday is another extremely political song of the record and criticized the Republican party for alienating groups of Americans (such as the gay community) for political gain. Armstrong later said in an interview that the song was an FU to President Bush for the “disaster” of a country he had caused.
Wake Me Up When September Ends was written by Armstrong reflecting on the death of his father when he was ten. This is the only song that doesn’t relate to Jesus of Suburbia, although the metaphor of “September” being a tough time compared to the political and social climate of America at the time, as Armstrong calls to be woken up after the pain and suffering has ended.
Finally, Jesus of Suburbia is a nine-minute song which introduces the life of the anti-hero of the same name.