Green Day journalism FAIL

Jack White

 

Jesus of Suburbia

You won't hear it on 99% of all radio stations, and it's their gold standard. If you have never heard this song, or have no idea it exists, then it's tough to judge this band.

 

They are criminally underrated. Nico is an album that I seem unable to tire of hearing. One of the few 90s albums still in my regular rotation.

 

It's alive, just not as much commercially. For whatever reason, rock radio has tried to latch onto the revival of the 80s new wave sound or those that feature a heavy amount of electronica or EDM in with their guitars. When artists like Lorde, Bastille and Vance Joy or Imagine Dragons and Kongos are all at the top of the end-of-year Billboard "rock" charts, it's sort of a corruption of a genre.

It's kind of funny, but bands could pump out a pure rock album and not get the radio airplay to support it. You can actually hear that happening now on "alternative" stations across the country. The local Clear Channel "alt" station plays Metallica, Soundgarden, Radiohead, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, et al. And they'll play the nu-metal stuff - Korn, Linkin Park. But then they'll play all of the new wave stuff, and ignore the newer releases. Muse, one of the biggest selling rock bands in recent years, just ditched much of its more recently developed electronic sound for its old-school power trio sound. Local station barely plays the two new singles. Plays the electronic-heavy stuff non-stop though.

Go figure.

It's why radio isn't the way bands make money. Radio air play is all over the place. So rock bands would rather explode on YouTube, keep popping up on Spotify/Pandora playlists, etc. No radio conglomerate middle man.

 

You won't hear it on 99% of all radio stations because it's 9 fucking minutes long. That's not exactly radio friendly, and Green Day acknowledged that as it was the 5th single they release off of the album.

But, when you consider that American Idiot is a concept album -- a "Rock Opera" if you will -- intended to be listened to in its entirety, it's pretty disingenuous to assume that folks who are acquainted with Green Day's work would be unfamiliar with this track.

But then you like to assume that you know more about some issue/topic than others, and this justifies your belief that your opinion is superior. I'm not sure it's necessary to point out how flawed these assumptions have proven to be in the past.

 

I wouldn't argue that Green Day should be categorized as grunge. But, it was the rise of grunge, of the "Seattle Sound", that kicked off the whole "alternative rock" category, of which Green Day is a member.

The success of grunge bands sent record companies searching for guitar based rock bands. Prior to this, guitar based rock was nearly dead. Radio and record companies were focused on dance, rap/R&B, boy bands, etc.

Green Day was plucked from relative obscurity, cleaned up,and teamed up with a producer to produce radio friendly faux-punk hits.

 

If he's so smart why is their music so shitty?

 

Almost everyone has heard Born to Run or Born in the USA, but a fraction of those people have heard Jungleland.

 

The Pixies are alternative rock. U2 was an alternative rock band for Boy and October.

 

I love the Pixies and U2, but the 'alternative' moniker didn't exist at the that time, really.

 

College rock, indie rock, modern rock... I swear I heard "alternative" before 1991 and Smells Like Teen Spirit. What was MTV calling 120 Minutes in the 1980s?

Alternative rock is the biggest misnomer out there because it is mainstream music.

 

Why do you do this?

Let's take Born in the USA out of the discussion since it's not even on the same album as Born to Run and Jungleland.

The point is that Born to Run is not a concept album. It's not a "Rock Opera". A better comparison to American Idiot would be the Who's Tommy or Quadrophenia. Now, does every casual fan who is familiar with Tommy Can You Hear Me or Pinball Wizard know every other song off of Tommy? Probably not.

But, if someone is a fan of Green Day, and is a fan of American Idiot, then they are likely familiar with the whole album, as it's not just a collection of singles, and fillers.

The comparison to Jungleland further falls apart because, while it too is over 9 minutes long, and was never released as a single, it's been a concert staple for 40 years. Is there a single Springsteen fan who is unfamiliar with the song?

Setlist.fm lists it as the 15th most often song played live: Bruce Springsteen Tour Statistics | setlist.fm So, it's not exactly Johnny 99, let alone Highway Patrolman.