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Inside the Lyrics in 'American Idiot
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Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, drummer Tré Cool and guitarist and backing vocalist Jason White. Green Day is one of the worlds best-selling groups of all time, selling over 75 million albums worldwide. They are best knowen for their realease of the song "American Idiot" on September 20th 2004 which can be found on their "American Idiot" Album. American Idiot quickly became popular worldwide and created a lot of contrivercy because people believe that it is anti-American due to its title and harsh sarcastic comments throughout the song. However, if you pay attention to the lyrics you may see that in many ways the song is highly patriotic.
Green Day began in the town of Rodeo, California, just 15 miles north of Berkeley. There, ten-year-old Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Pritchardin met in their school cafeteria. Neither of them had had a good home life. When Billie Joel Armstrong was ten his father passed away, fragmenting his family. Armstrong found solace in his new friend and in music. He used music as an escape from his everyday life. Dirnt, was born into a family who abused drugs, and because of that he was soon adopted by a Native American mother and father who divorced when he was seven. When his mom moved north when Dirnt was 15, causing Dirnt to moved in with fellow band member Billie Joe Armstrong. The harsh life that these boys had to deal with growing up made them very aware of serious political issues and what's happening in the world, and it shows in their music.
The most well known member for Green Day is Billie Joe Armstrong mainly because he composes all of Green day's songs ...
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...eryday life. Green day makes us really reflect on our everyday lives and makes us dig deep to see if we ourselves are letting the media tell us what kind of person we should be. We are all guilty of losing ourselves, or trying to change ourselves to try and fit in better socially at some points at our lives, weather its in school, our job or our personal life. We are constantly seeking to be accepted by our peers to feel loved, and it's sad that we would go to the extreme of changing who they truly are just to seek this acceptance without even noticing we are doing it. I feel some people did find this song offensive because it is very straight forward, harsh and honest. There is no beating around the bush with the message potrayed in this song. Billie Joe Armstrong is telling us that we are a brainwashed generation and are turning into complete idiots because of it.
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band originated from Chicago's hard-core punk scene, with which Wentz was heavily involved. The group was formed by Wentz and Trohman as a pop punk side project of their respective hard-core bands, and Stump joined shortly thereafter. The group went through a succession of drummers before landing Hurley and recording their debut album which became a huge success.
The relevance of the song was portraying that using drugs and alcohol will help you escape life situations. Regardless of how hard or tough it is. All you need to do is to get drunk or get high, than your problems will flush away. But the video don’t explain the reality of the outcome of how drugs and alcohol will or could affect your lifestyle and how it could lead you to lose your job, family and life. All it shows is the fun side of being intoxicated. Which, it raises a big flag on kids or teens that do have access to the media like the
Pathos: The emotions that are really being played on the most are anger. People have so much anger when they can not understand the world or what is going on in it. The audience becomes furious to all the killing and death in the world and they need someone there to sympathize with them. Anti-Flag gets the listener angry by exposing the faults of the world. The listener appreciates this because Anti-Flag will not sell into the wrongs of the world. It uses the emotion of finding comfort in that there is someone else out there that has the same views as the listener does. The band uses punk rock music as a common ground with the listeners and expresses their views through their songs. This relates back to the author because this is a great way to protest through music.
The 1960s was the era of rebellion. It was a time when views of many people started to change dramatically as unexpected things were happening from the Cold War to the assassinations of nation’s leaders. So within this disturbed era, many citizens started to rebel and question the authorities saying that they were ruining the country. The younger generation, especially, stood firmly in front to lead the action to change the ideas of the older generation. One of the main methods they used to speak their opinions was through music and we can see the power it had on the people through one of the main protest anthems called “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. The song speaks out to the elite controlled America and becomes one of many instances of the younger generation questioning and rebelling against the authority in the late 1960s. They send people a message that the citizens of United States do not live in a fair world and the authorities are not doing their jobs. By creating images through the comparative and descriptive lyrics such as who “waves the flag” , and “some folks are born with silver spoons in hand”, its repetition of the chorus “it ain’t me” and the instrumentation of the song which sounds like the cry of the working class to signify that the Vietnam War is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, this song by the Creedence Clearwater Revival shouts to the world that the elite-controlled America is unfair as it can get; and becomes a big part of the counterculture movement. However, contrary to the message of the song, challenges to authority and privilege did not come exclusively from the working class. Rather, members of the upper class were also involved in opposition movements, for instance vi...
This song implies that individual’s are violating the norms and values of society. They start the song with a verse that expresses this concern. “What’s wrong with the world, mama/ People livin’ like they ain’t got no mamas…” (lines 1-2). This makes one aware of the disobedience of values that are held in the family. Values are “standard[s] of judgment by which people decide on desirable goals and outcomes.” (Newman, 32) Another verse in this song that illustrates how society is defying norms and values is when they sing: “People killin', people dyin'/ Children hurt and you hear them cryin/ Can you practice what you preach/ And would you turn the other cheek…” (lines 50-53). These lines utter that society has failed to act in a sane and coherent way that society once viewed as correct. The actions affirm that individuals are not living up to society’s norms. Norms are similar to “rules of conduct” and suggest how an individual “should” act. (Newman, 34) In the song they question the acts that would be taken that violate certain norms. Another example of the infringement of society’s norms and values is expressed when the s...
The American rock band Nirvana impacted American culture and society by paving the way for the punk rock subculture into mainstream corporate America. Punk rock music stems from the rock genre but has its own agenda. The crux of punk rock is that it is a movement of the counterculture against the norms of society. Punk rock in itself is made up of a subculture of people who rejected the tameness of rock and roll music during the 1970s. (Masar, 2006, p. 8). The music stresses anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian ideas in its lyrics as well as scorns political idealism in American society. Before Nirvana unintentionally made punk rock a multi-million dollar commercialized genre of music, underground rock paved the way for the punk rock genre by creating core values that punk rockers drew upon.
at age four, and then eventually he was the lead singer and front man of the family band.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 in Baltimore, Maryland. She was born to Sarah Fagan, who was just thirteen years of age when she gave birth to young Billie. Her father was Clarence Holiday, who was also only fifteen at the time of her birth. Also a musician himself, Clarence
Billie was born to the name, Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915. She was born in Philadelphia but grew up in the Fell's Point section of Baltimore. Her mother, was just 13 at the time of her birth; her father, was 15. Holidays' teenage parents, Sadie Harris (aka Fagan) and probable father, Clarence Holiday, never married, and they did not live together for a long time. Clarence, a banjo and guitar player worked with Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 30s. He remains a shady figure who left his family. Clarence would often be away from home, and during the stay with Henderson, which lasted until 1932, the guitarist severed connections with the Fagans. Billie was an angry chile who lived a hard life. She was raped at the age of 10 soon she dropped out of school at an early age and began working as a prostitute with her mother. She was sent to a home for wayward girls, and soon was arrested and served four months in prison for prostitution. “Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s than enough”(billie holiday)
Billie Holiday was an African-American and she was born in April, 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She had no formal music education when she was step into the stage of the club platform to sing. She had an amazing voice and several producers appreciated her talents and promoted her to become a recognition jazz singer. Her addiction of drugs and alcohol ultimately damaged her liver and heart. She was pledged to guilty in court when the police found a possession of an illegal substance in her New York City apartment. She passed away in the hospital near the Upper East Side due to liver failure.
The Song “American Idiot” by Green Day uses techniques to engage the audience to interoperate the issues. Green day through their style of music convey issues such as the medias over powering effect on society, greed and the division of the United States of American over political issues. Green Day’s negative stance on the issues through these techniques conveys the audience to agree with the main issues being focused.
Born on the Fourth of July in 1900, Armstrong was delivered in a cabin in a ddilapidated black slum in the Back o' Town section of New Orleans. Armstrong's father was a laborer named Willie Armstrong, and his mother a domestic and most likely a part-time prostitute named Mayann. Just after his birth, his father abandoned his family, and his mother decided to move into an area of town that was reserved for black prostitutes. Armstrong had no choice but to live with his grandma, Josephine, until he moved back with his mom, after she had moved to Storyville a few years later. At the time, Storyville was a tawdry, rundown, neighborhood or "brothels, cribs, seedy dance halls, and honky-tonks frequented by black laborers and some whites" (Kernfield 27). At such an early age, Armstrong was poorly cared for by his mother and spent much of his early years deprived physically, mentally, and emotionally to an extensive degree. Although his early life may have seemed rough and difficult, he grew up listening in the dance halls and clubs to what was then the blues and the new hot music emerging from the musical period of ragtime (Kernfi...
The Rolling Stones are one of the most well known hard rock bands. They have a distinctive history that separates them from other similar rock bands. Their unique sound formed the basis of rock and roll. The band had a huge influence on British music through things such as their fashion, fusion of obscure genres, and attitude. Over the course of the last fifty years, The Rolling Stones unique history, sound, and overall look still has an influence on modern British bands.
I believe that American Idiot by Green Day is a significant cultural artefact because it changed the way people saw America. It changed people’s minds about George Bush and his war on
Green day started way back in 1989 as a garage band centered around Berkeley California. Their third studio album and top seller Dookie came out in 1994 and sold over 20 million copies with 5 hit singles. Later on, in 2003, it even was ranked number 193 on the Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Until the album Warning, more specifically the single Minority 6 years later, they had little to no success. Many had thought Green day to have already left the scene, but in 2004 they released the album American Idiot. This album charted in 27 countries and even peaked at number one in 19 of them, including the United States, with a total of 5 successful singles. To this day they still continue to make popular albums. Over time they started evolving to please the time period and this is probably the main reason behind the many hits that followed the release of American Idiot. Their fans, on t...