Green Day journalism FAIL

I saw them a couple times when I was in high school from 1990-92 and if you saw that band, as good as they were and said that they'd become a mainstream act, I would have said you were insane.

Of course, people said the same thing about Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, etc...

 

"When I Come Around" gets airplay, but does anything else?

They had two signature albums. One was 20 years ago, and the other was 10 years ago. One song from the earlier album is still somewhat relevant.

I think they are very much "of their time". (Time of your Life excluded, because it will live on at graduations and proms.)

 

Here's my two-minute grouping of some of the commercial acts of that era:

HOF
Pearl Jam
Nirvana
Weezer
Green Day
Alice in Chains
Smashing Pumpkins
Hole
Jane's Addiction
Nine Inch Nails
Beastie Boys
Foo Fighters
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Beck
Sublime
Oasis
Radiohead

Hall of Very Good
Stone Temple Pilots
Soundgarden
Offspring
Better Than Ezra
Bjork
Tori Amos
Silverchair
Everclear
Live
Filter

Woodwork
Bush
Collective Soul
Candlebox
Local H
Seven Mary Three
Blink 182

One-Hit Wonders
Spacehog
The Toadies
Eve 6
(Bunch of others)

Underrated, but HOF-level Performers
Cracker
Blind Melon
Black Crowes
Screaming Trees

 

Well, and that kind of goes to the heart of the criticism, right?

Their first two albums could be defined as actual punk.

Then they signed with a major label, got repackaged, cleaned up, and started to put out faux-punk. They were a pop band, with a little bit of an edge, but that was attractive to radio and MTV.

 

There's just not really a home for music from that era any more, though, on commercial radio.

 

Basket Case, Longview, Welcome to Paradise are all still played a lot.

 

If you want to say it's a classic example of a band that started taking itself way too seriously, I would definitely agree.

But Dookie holds up.

 

I think part of the reason they are in the discussion is because it was a weak time in the history of Rock and Roll.

Guitar based bands were on the way out until "grunge" was discovered, and Nirvana and Pearl Jam were launched into super stardom.

In a stronger time, Green Day is a pimple.

 

It wasn't weak. It just wasn't what you think of as rock - i.e. the blues influence was muted.

Rock is dead now, of course. The occasional successful guitar act like the Black Keys is a novelty.

 

Until this thread, I thought Green Day was something noted on the calendar this week. Oh, that's Earth Day.

Never mind.

 

I've never heard Green Day associated with grunge before this post.

I actually didn't really care for GD when Dookie hit, but as time has gone on, I've come to really appreciate them. They're a great band and American Idiot is one of the great albums of the 2000s.

 

Would have loved to see what Blind Melon would have produced if Hoon didn't kill himself.