American Idiot
American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Green Day, released on September 21, 2004, by Reprise Records. As with their previous four albums, it was produced by Rob Cavallo in collaboration with the group. Recording sessions for American Idiot took place at Studio 880 in Oakland and Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, both in California, between 2003 and 2004. A concept album, dubbed a "punk rock opera" by the band members, American Idiot follows the story of Jesus of Suburbia, a lower-middle-class American adolescent anti-hero. The album expresses the disillusionment and dissent of a generation that came of age in a period shaped by tumultuous events such as 9/11 and the Iraq War. In order to accomplish this, the band used unconventional techniques for themselves, including transitions between connected songs and some long, chaptered, creative compositions presenting the album themes.
This article is about the album. For the lead single, see American Idiot (song). For the musical based off of this album, see American Idiot (musical). For other uses, see American Idiot (disambiguation).American Idiot
Following the disappointing sales of their previous album Warning (2000), the band took a break and then began what they had planned to be their next album, Cigarettes and Valentines. However, recording was cut short when the master tapes were stolen; following this, the band made the decision to start their next album from scratch. The result was a more societally critical, politically charged record which returned to the band's punk rock sound following the more folk and power pop-inspired Warning, with additional influences that were not explored on their older albums. Additionally, the band underwent an "image change", wearing red and black uniforms onstage, to add more theatrical presence to the album during performances and press events.
American Idiot became one of the most anticipated releases of 2004. It marked a career comeback for Green Day, charting in 27 countries, reaching for the first time the top spot on the Billboard 200 for the group and peaking at number one in 18 other countries. It has sold over 23 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling album for the band (behind their 1994 major-label debut, Dookie) and one of the best-selling albums of the decade and all time. It was later certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2013. The album spawned five successful singles: the titular track, "American Idiot", "Holiday", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", "Jesus of Suburbia" and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year winner "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".
American Idiot was very well received critically and commercially upon release, and has since been hailed as one of the greatest albums of all time. It was nominated for Album of the Year and won the Award for Best Rock Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Album at the Europe Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards, winning the former. Its success inspired a Broadway musical, a documentary and a planned feature film adaptation. Rolling Stone placed it at 225 on their 2012 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", and again in 2020, at 248.
Background[edit]
Green Day was one of the most popular rock acts of the 1990s.[1] However, their 2000 album Warning was a commercial disappointment[2] despite largely positive reviews.[3] In early 2002, they embarked on the Pop Disaster Tour, headlining with Blink-182.[4] The tour created momentum for the band, who were earning a reputation as "elder statesmen" of the pop punk scene, which consisted of bands like Good Charlotte, Sum 41, and New Found Glory.[5][6]
Things had come to a point regarding unresolved personal issues between the three band members. The band was argumentative and miserable, according to the bassist Mike Dirnt, and needed to "shift directions".[7] In addition, the band released a greatest hits album, International Superhits!, which they felt was "an invitation to midlife crisis".[8] The singer Billie Joe Armstrong called Dirnt and asked him, "Do you wanna do [the band] anymore?" He felt insecure, having become "fascinated and horrified" by his reckless lifestyle, and his marriage was in jeopardy.[9] Dirnt and Tré Cool viewed the singer as controlling, while Armstrong feared to show his bandmates new songs.[7] Beginning in January 2003, the group had weekly personal discussions, which resulted in a revitalized feeling among the musicians.[10][11] They settled on more musical input from Cool and Dirnt, with "more respect and less criticism".[9]
Green Day had spent much of 2002 recording new material at Studio 880 in Oakland, California for an album titled Cigarettes and Valentines,[12] creating "polka songs, filthy versions of Christmas tunes, [and] salsa numbers" for the project, hoping to establish something new within their music.[7] After completing 20 songs, the demo master tapes were stolen that November.[13] In 2016, Armstrong and Dirnt said that they eventually recovered the material and were using it for ideas.[14]
After the theft, the band consulted longtime producer Rob Cavallo. Cavallo told them to ask themselves if the missing tracks represented their best work.[15] Armstrong said that they "couldn't honestly look at ourselves and say, 'That was the best thing we've ever done.' So we decided to move on and do something completely new."[5][16] They agreed and spent the next three months writing new material.[17]
Recording and production[edit]
The members of Green Day individually crafted their own ambitious 30-second songs. Armstrong recalled, "It started getting more serious as we tried to outdo one another. We kept connecting these little half-minute bits until we had something." This musical suite became "Homecoming", and the band wrote another suite, "Jesus of Suburbia".[5] It changed the development of the album, and the band began viewing songs as more than their format—as chapters, movements, or potentially a feature film or novel.[6] Soon afterward, Armstrong penned the title track, which explicitly addresses sociopolitical issues. The group then decided that they would steer the development of the album toward what they dubbed a "punk rock opera."[18]
Prior to recording, Green Day rented rehearsal space in Oakland, once again at Studio 880. Armstrong invited Cavallo to attend the sessions and help guide their writing processes. Cavallo encouraged the idea of a concept album, recalling a conversation the two had a decade prior, in which Armstrong expressed his desire for their career to have a "Beatles-like arc to their creativity."[18] During the sessions at Studio 880, Green Day spent their days writing material and would stay up late, drinking and discussing music. The band set up a pirate radio station from which it would broadcast jam sessions, along with occasional prank calls.[16] The band demoed the album sufficiently so that it would be completely written and sequenced before they went to record.[19]
Hoping to clear his head and develop new ideas for songs, Armstrong traveled to New York City alone for a few weeks, renting a small loft in the East Village of Manhattan.[20] He spent much of this time taking long walks and participating in jam sessions in the basement of Hi-Fi, a bar in Manhattan.[21] He began socializing with the songwriters Ryan Adams and Jesse Malin.[22] Many songs from the album were written based on his time in Manhattan, including "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Are We the Waiting". While there, he also formulated much of the album's storyline, about people "going away and getting the hell out, while at the same time fighting their own inner demons."[22]
With demos completed, Green Day relocated to Los Angeles.[23] They first recorded at Ocean Way Recording, then moved to Capitol Studios to complete the album.[24] Cool brought multiple drum kits, including over 75 snares.[25] Drum tracks were recorded on two-inch tape to produce a compressed sound and were transferred to Pro Tools to be digitally mixed with the other instruments.[24][26] All drum tracks were produced at Ocean Way Studio B, picked for its high ceiling and acoustic tiling, which produced better sound.[26] The songs were recorded in order as they appear on the track listing, a first for Green Day.[27] Each song was recorded in its entirety before proceeding to the next.[28] They reversed the order in which they recorded guitars and bass (recording the guitars first), as they heard that was how the Beatles recorded songs.[26] Armstrong said that at points he expressed fear at the amount of work before him, likening it to climbing a mountain.[6]
The band took a relaxed approach to recording. For five months, they stayed at a Hollywood hotel during the recording sessions, where they would often play loud music late at night, prompting complaints.[29] The band admitted to partying during the L.A. sessions; Armstrong had to schedule vocal recording sessions around his frequent hangovers. Armstrong described the environment: "For the first time, we separated from our pasts, from how we were supposed to behave as Green Day. For the first time, we fully accepted the fact that we're rock stars."[30] American Idiot took 10 months to complete, at a cost of $650,000.[22] By the end of the process, Armstrong felt "delirious" regarding the album: "I feel like I'm on the cusp of something with this. [...] I really feel […] like we're really peaking right now."[31]
Composition[edit]
Music[edit]
Speaking on the album's musical content, Armstrong remarked, "For us, American Idiot is about taking those classic rock and roll elements, kicking out the rules, putting more ambition in, and making it current."[34] Part of recording the album was attempting to expand their familiar punk rock sound by experimenting with different styles such as new wave, Latin, and polka music.[36] The band listened to various rock operas, including the Who's Tommy (1969) and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972).[5] Armstrong was particularly inspired by the Who's Quadrophenia, finding more in common with its "power chord mod-pop aesthetic" than other concept records, such as The Wall by Pink Floyd.[34] In addition, they listened to the cast recordings of Broadway musicals West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Show, Grease, and Jesus Christ Superstar,[34] and they let contemporary music influence them, including the rappers Eminem and Kanye West, as well as the rock band Linkin Park.[11] Armstrong considered rock music a "conservative" business with regard to the rigidity in which a band must release a single, create a music video, or head out on tour. He felt groups like the hip hop duo OutKast were "kicking rock's ass, because there's so much ambition."[16]
The band used more loud guitar sounds for the record. Armstrong said "We were like, 'Let's just go balls-out on the guitar sound—plug in the Les Pauls and Marshalls and let it rip'".[37] Armstrong added tracks of acoustic guitar-playing throughout the record to augment his electric guitar rhythms and Cool's drumming.[24]
For most of the record, Dirnt used an Ampeg SVT bass amplifier, recording with his signature Fender Precision Bass.[38] For the album, he and Cavallo strived for a "solid, big, thunderous" bass sound as opposed to one centered on countermelodies. Dirnt ran his bass guitar through an Evil Twin direct box, a staple of his recording methods since Dookie.[38] Cool also employs unorthodox instruments for punk music—timpani, glockenspiel, and hammer bells—which he received out of a promotional deal with Ludwig.[28] These instruments are especially evident on "Homecoming" and on "Wake Me Up When September Ends", the latter of which includes an African bead gourd that was welded to a remote hi-hat pedal for future live performances.[28] "Extraordinary Girl", originally titled "Radio Baghdad", features tablas in the intro performed by Cool.[39] For "Whatsername", Cool recorded drums in a room designed to record guitars to achieve a dry sound.[25] With all these techniques and influences considered, critics have called the album pop-punk[40][41] and alternative rock,[42][43] but primarily the aforementioned punk rock.[19][44][45][46][47]
Lyrics[edit]
American Idiot is a concept album that describes the story of a central character named Jesus of Suburbia, an anti-hero created by Billie Joe Armstrong.[34] It is written from the perspective of a lower-middle-class suburban American teen, raised on a diet of "soda pop and Ritalin."[34] Jesus of Suburbia hates his hometown and those close to him, so he leaves for the city.[48] The second character introduced in the story is St. Jimmy, a "swaggering punk rock freedom fighter par excellence."[49] Whatsername, "a 'Mother Revolution' figure," is introduced as a nemesis of St. Jimmy in the song "She's a Rebel".[49] The album's story is largely indeterminate, because the group was unsure of where to lead the plot's third quarter. In this sense, Armstrong decided to leave the ending up to the listeners' imagination.[24] The two secondary characters exemplify the record's main theme—"rage versus love"—in that while St. Jimmy is driven by "rebellion and self-destruction," Whatsername is focused on "following your beliefs and ethics."[24] Jesus of Suburbia eventually decides to follow the latter, resulting in the figurative suicide of St. Jimmy, which is revealed to be a facet of his personality.[24] In the album's final song, Jesus of Suburbia loses his connection with Whatsername as well, to the point in which he can't even remember her name.[24]
Through the story, Armstrong hoped to detail coming of age in America at the time of the album's release.[50] While he considered their previous record heartfelt, he felt a more instinctual feeling to speak for the time period in which the album was released.[32] He had felt the desire to increase the amount of political content in his lyricism as he grew into adulthood, noting that the "climate" surrounding his aging produced feelings of responsibility in the songs he wrote.[51] Armstrong said, "As soon as you abandon the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge song structure ... it opens up your mind to this different way of writing, where there really are no rules."[34] In addition to the album's political content, it also touches on interpersonal relationships and what Dirnt labeled "confusion and loss of individuality."[19]
"American Idiot" contends that mass media has orchestrated paranoia and idiocy among the public, particularly cable news, which Armstrong felt had crossed the line from journalism to reality television, only showcasing violent footage intercut with advertisements.[37] The song emphasizes strong language, juxtaposing the words "faggot" and "America" to create what he imagined would be a voice for the disenfranchised.[31] "Holiday" took two months to finish writing, because Armstrong continually felt his lyrics were not good enough. Encouraged by Cavallo, he completed the song.[6] He later characterized the song as an outspoken "fuck you" to Bush.[5] "Give Me Novacaine" touches on American reality television of that time, which Armstrong likened to "gladiators in the coliseum."[31] "She's a Rebel" was inspired by Bikini Kill's "Rebel Girl".[49]
Artwork[edit]
After finishing the music for the album, the band decided that the artwork needed to reflect the themes on the record, likening the change of image to a political campaign. Armstrong recalled, "We wanted to be firing on all cylinders. Everything from the aesthetic to the music to the look. Just everything."[32] Green Day drew inspiration from Chinese communist propaganda art the band saw in art galleries on Melrose Avenue and recruited artist Chris Bilheimer, who had designed the art for the previous records Nimrod and International Superhits! to create the cover. The band aimed for the cover to be "at once uniform and powerful".[32] The album's artwork—"a Posada-stark print of a heart-shaped hand grenade gripped in a blood-soaked fist"—is representative of its political content.[32] After listening to the new music on his computer, Bilheimer took note of the lyric "And she's holding on my heart like a hand grenade" from "She's a Rebel". Influenced by artist Saul Bass's poster for the 1955 drama film The Man with the Golden Arm, Bilheimer created an upstretched arm holding a red heart-shaped grenade. Although he felt that red is the "most overused color in graphic design", he felt that the "immediate" qualities of the color deemed it appropriate for use on the cover. He explained, "I'm sure there's psychological theories of it being the same color of blood and therefore has the powers of life and death... And as a designer I always feel it's kind of a cop-out, so I never used it before. But there was no way you couldn't use it on this cover."[52]
Release and commercial performance[edit]
American Idiot was released on September 21, 2004.[103][65] It became Green Day's first number one album in the United States, selling 267,000 copies in its first week of release, their biggest opening sales week.[104] The album became 2005's fourth-highest seller, moving over 3.4 million units.[105] American Idiot remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 upwards of a year following its release,[106] staying on the chart for 101 weeks.[2] The album also debuted at number one in the United Kingdom, selling 89,385 copies in the first week.[107] The album has received certification awards in many territories; among them being certified six times platinum status in the United States and Australia,[108][109] and diamond in Canada.[110]
The album spawned five singles: "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Holiday", "Wake Me Up When September Ends", and "Jesus of Suburbia". The title track was released to active rock and alternative radio stations preceding the album on August 6, 2004.[111] Two weeks later, it became the band's first song to place on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 61.[112] Internationally, it peaked much higher, reaching number three in the United Kingdom, and debuting at number one in Canada. The song was released at a time before Billboard began accounting for internet sales in its chart positions;[113] after "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was released as the second single on November 29,[114] it would peak at number two on the Hot 100.[112] "Holiday" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends" would follow as the third and fourth singles on March 14 and June 13, 2005, respectively,[115][116] the former peaking at number nineteen and latter peaking at number six on the Hot 100.[112] "Jesus of Suburbia" was released on November 14, 2005, as the final single; the band played the entire nine-minute composition for the longest performance to that point on Top of the Pops in the week preceding the single.[117] It did not perform as well on the charts as the preceding four songs.[118]
Samuel Bayer directed music videos for all five of the album's singles. In 2005, commenting on the success American Idiot brought the band, he stated, "The Billie Joe that I work with now is not the same guy that walked onto the "American Idiot" set a year ago. Now, he's a rock star. They were famous. They had done big stuff. But it's transcended that. But he hasn't changed. And they haven't changed. They're three friends who love one another."[119] Courtney Love also commented on the success of the band, stating "Billie Joe looks absolutely beautiful. You know how when people get super A-list, their face gets prettier? I think it's perception. It's something that happens in your subconscious".[119] At the time of American Idiot's release, the album was not sold in Wal-Mart due to its explicit content.[19]
As of 2014, American Idiot has sold 6.2 million albums in the United States, making it second to Dookie within their catalogue.[105] In January 2013, its worldwide sales were estimated at 16 million copies.[2]
Heart Like a Hand Grenade
- Billie Joe Armstrong
- John Roecker
- Billie Joe Armstrong
- Mike Dirnt
- Tré Cool
John Roecker
- Scott Gawlik
- Dean Gonzalez
- Green Day
- Dylan Melody
Abramorama
- October 15, 2015
97 minutes
English
All lyrics written by Billie Joe Armstrong, except where noted; all music composed by Green Day.[151]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of American Idiot.[151]
Green Day
Additional musicians
Production
Artwork