Green Day: A Musical Biography (The Story of the Band)
Kjersti Egerdahl
Language: English
Pages: 178
ISBN: 0313365970
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Green Day is almost certainly the world's most popular pop-punk band. How they got there is the subject of Green Day: A Musical Biography, the first book to follow the band from their beginnings through the spring 2009 release of 21st Century Breakdown. Tracing the band's evolution from fiercely independent punks to a global powerhouse, Green Day starts with the members' earliest musical influences and upbringing and the founding of the punk club 924 Gilman Street that shaped their sense of community. Discussion of their conflicted feelings about signing to a major label explores the classic rock 'n' roll conundrum of "selling out," while details of their decline and 2004 rebirth offer an inspirational story of artistic rejuvenation. Interviews with the band members and key figures in their lives, excerpted from punk 'zines and other publications, offer a perspective on their methods of self-promotion and the image they have chosen to project over time.
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Green Day This page intentionally left blank Green Day A Musical Biography Kjersti Egerdahl THE STORY OF THE BAND GREENWOOD PRESS An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC Copyright 2010 by Kjersti Egerdahl All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing
work my ass off.’ Dirnt: ‘We work super hard not to have to work.’ Tré : ‘We put in some serious f****** hours to be considered slackers.’”13 They honestly believed that their band deserved recognition, and were prepared to do the work to get there. But they were about to enter Generation X’s world, which overlapped with punk rock in the value it placed on credibility and its almost ascetic distaste for financial success. DOOKIE HITS THE FAN On February 1, 1994, Dookie was released on Reprise
the government’s eye, MRR readers were figuring out how to distribute foreign albums in their own countries and arguing over the meaning of punk rock in the letters section. The zine was arguably the first global self-created youth movement, former reader Gavin McNett wrote in an obituary: “For a teenage punk rocker in the ’80s—a rare, thinly spread sort of demographic entity—to link up with punks in Sao Paulo, Bangkok and Greenland was a world-changing experience.”27 Now Green Day was touring the
collection, International Superhits, released November 13, 2001. Reprise released a special edition of 4,000 records in pink and purple vinyl at the same time. The album covered only songs recorded for Warner Bros., so “Welcome to Paradise” and other equally worthy Lookout! songs didn’t make the cut. Two new songs did, though: “Maria” and “Poprocks and Coke.” The band made new videos for both songs for the companion DVD, International Supervideos. “Seeing a decade of your songs laid out like that
slow-moving machinery of the political campaign. At least the appearance on Letterman helped the band, even if it didn’t do much for the candidate. The next day, September 21, American Idiot debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard 200: a first for Green Day. It also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, Japan, and the UK, not to mention Apple’s iTunes online music store. Although they believed in the band, Reprise Records was shocked to see a veteran act with slipping sales leap back into the
