more about history of green day band

more about history of green day band

American Idiot and renewed popularity: 2003–2006

In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.^[28] After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of the year^[when?], Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring and they underwent serious "band therapy," engaging in several long talks to work out the members' differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was "the band's Nazi"^[29] and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band's first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album's first single, "American Idiot." The album was billed as a "punk rock opera" which follows the journey of the fictitious "Jesus of Suburbia".^[30] American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for "Best Rock Album" and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer's Choice Award.^[31]

Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates — the longest tour in its career — visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted 'The Best Show On Earth' in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except "Kerplunk" and "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours". The DVD featured behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17 respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People's Choice Award for favorite group.

On August 1, 2005, Green Day announced that that it had rescinded the master rights to its pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing a continuing breach of contract regarding unpaid royalties, a complaint shared with other Lookout! bands.^[32] The pre-Dookie material, which remained out of print for about a year, was reissued by the band's current label, Reprise, on January 9, 2007.^[33]In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"^[34] which spent 16 weeks at the number one position of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, a record it shared along with Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Scar Tissue" and Staind's "It's Been Awhile," (the record has been since been beaten by Foo Fighters' 2007 hit "The Pretender" which reigned at the top spot for 18 weeks).

Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007-present

Green Day recently released a new album under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!. In an interview with Kerrang!, Billie Joe revealed that 2008 would "be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album."^[35] In a recent interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig would be producing Green Day's forthcoming album.^[36] In October 2008 Green Day returned to the studios with Butch Vig, to start recording the new studio album. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on YouTube.^[37][38] In the tour section of the band's official website, the message "World Tour coming soon!" is shown.^[39] In the December 9 issue of Alternative Press, in-depth details about the new album were released. According to the interview, Green Day are recording in the same studio as they did for American Idiot, Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California. "This album is more... religious", and is influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles, to name a few.^[40] Green Day's new album is expected to be released in May 2009^[41], and Billie Joe Armstrong said when he was being interviewed for Kerrang!'s readers poll, that it will be more power pop than punk rock.^[42] The new album will be titled 21st Century Breakdown.^[41]

Music style and influences

Green Day's sound is often compared to first wave punk bands such as the Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, and the Buzzcocks.^[43][21] The majority of their song catalog is composed of distorted guitar, fast, manic drums, and relatively high-treble bass. Most of their songs are fast-paced and under four minutes. Billie Joe Armstrong has mentioned that some of his biggest influences are seminal alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü and The Replacements, and that their influence is particularly noted in the band's chord changes in songs.^[21] In fact, Green Day has covered Hüsker Dü's "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" as a b-side for the "Warning" single, and the character "Mr. Whirly" in their song "Misery" is a reference to the Replacements song of the same name.^[44] Among other influences, Green Day have also cited Queen,^[45] and proto-punks The Who. Armstrong's lyrics commonly describe alienation, ("Jesus of Suburbia", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Road to Acceptance", "Disappearing Boy", "Castaway") hysteria ("Basket Case", "Panic Song"), girls ("She", "80" "Only of You","Maria" "She's a Rebel"), growing up (Longview and Welcome to Paradise), and the effects of doing drugs ("Geek Stink Breath", "Green Day"). The Ramones had similar lyrical themes such as hysteria ("Anxiety", "Psycho Therapy"), alienation ("Outsider", "Something To Believe In"), girls ("I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"), and drugs ("Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", "Chinese Rocks"). Green Day has covered Ramones songs several times, including recording "Outsider" for the tribute album We're a Happy Family, and performing "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Teenage Lobotomy" when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Criticism and controversy

Beginning with the release of Dookie, and the subsequent explosion of MTV airplay it received, Green Day has received considerable criticism from those who see the punk genre as a social movement independent of corporate sponsorship. With the release of American Idiot and the subsequent draw of many new fans, much of this criticism has been revived.One of the more contentious issues is genre labeling. In reaction to both the style of music and the background of the band, many fans and musicians have taken heavy objection to the usage of the term "punk" when applied to Green Day. This is evidenced by the following comments issued by John Lydon (Johnny Rotten), former front man of both the 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols and the 1980s post-punk,Brandon Flowers of The Killers went on record in 2007 claiming that Green Day's politically driven concept album American Idiot displays "calculated Anti-Americanism." He explained that he has problems with the album content itself and also the fact that the band's recent live DVD, Bullet in a Bible, was filmed in England. The taping of the concert, featured on Bullet in a Bible, shows thousands of Europeans singing along to "American Idiot." Stating that he felt Green Day's DVD is a bit of a stunt, he said, "I just thought it was really cheap. To go to a place like England or Germany and sing that song - those kids aren't taking it the same way that he meant it. And he (Billie Joe Armstrong) knew it."[47]More recently, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher has accused the band of ripping off his song "Wonderwall" for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".^[48]

Related projects

Ever since 1991, some members of the band have branched out past Green Day and have started other projects with other musicians. Notable related projects of Green Day include Billie Joe Armstrong's Pinhead Gunpowder (which also features Green Day's live backup guitarist Jason White), The Frustrators in which Mike Dirnt plays bass, and The Network, in which all three members of Green Day play under fake stage names.^[49] Billie Joe Armstrong has also confirmed that the main members of Green Day are in the band Foxboro Hot Tubs. A Foxboro Hot Tubs album titled Stop Drop and Roll!!! was released on 2008-05-20.^[50]

Charity projects that the band have been involved with include the collaboration with U2 ("The Saints Are Coming") to help raise money for musical instruments lost in Hurricane Katrina, and teaming with the Natural Resources Defense Council for the "Move America Beyond Oil" campaign and other environmental concerns.In September 2006, Green Day teamed up with U2 and producer Rick Rubin to record a cover of the song "The Saints Are Coming", originally recorded by The Skids, with an accompanying video. The song is to benefit Music Rising, an organization to help raise money for musicians' instruments lost during Hurricane Katrina, and to bring awareness on the eve of the one year anniversary of the disaster.^[51]
In December 2006, Green Day and NRDC opened a web site in partnership to raise awareness on America's dependency on oil.^[52][53] (See related projects.)Green Day released a cover of the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero", that was featured on the album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. The band performed the song on the season finale of American Idol. The song was nominated for a Grammy in 2008, but lost to The White Stripes' "Icky Thump".That summer, the band appeared in a cameo role in The Simpsons Movie, where they perform the show's theme song. Their version was released as a single on July 24, 2007.