Rage & Love: 20 Years of Green Day's 'American Idiot'
Green Day's biggest and best album turns 20 tomorrow.
“Rage and love, the story of my life,” Billie Joe Armstrong sings before one chorus in “Are We the Waiting,” and it’s the perfect summation of American Idiot, the record that gave Green Day a second wind and ensured that they’d play for massive crowds until the end of time. Now, 20 years since the album was first released, its message feels even more resonant.
Green Day were following up 2000’s Warning with American Idiot. As the story goes, the band were working on a record called “Cigarettes and Valentines” when the demoes were stolen. They opted to start from scratch, with each member writing mini-songs that later became the epics “Jesus of Suburbia” and “Homecoming,” which features segments where bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool sing lead vocals. As those tracks took shape, so did the story of the disillusioned slacker “Jesus of Suburbia.”
When people talk about American Idiot, people highlight the fact that as politics have become more divided and media-manipulating figures like Donald Trump have risen, songs like “American Idiot” and “Holiday” feel all the more relevant.
Of course, these people aren’t wrong. While “Idiot” was written as a reaction to the Bush administration and the invasion of Iraq following 9/11, the song is general enough that it can be applied to whichever politician you like. As Green Day have become more explicitly left-leaning, this has triggered a few people who have become upset that Armstrong has changed one line to read “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.” In some sense, it’s almost like the song is the millennial “Born in the USA,” for how often people miss the messaging.
During the band’s show at Citi Field as part of the Saviors tour, where Idiot and Dookie were played in full, Armstrong introduced “Holiday” as an anti-war song. Though, he could’ve been more explicit about the track being about Israel and Palestine or even Ukraine and Russia, the messaging is still relevant. Even today, we see how wars and division are even further highlighted to fund corporations and lobbyists. There’s cash to be made from war. “Another protester has crossed the line to find the money’s on the other side,” Armstrong sings in “Holiday.”
Each election cycle, it’s seemed that “American Idiot” has resurfaced, and it is rightfully the best of Green Day’s political songs. Before the title track, the band had dabbled in political messages on songs like “Minority,” but none were as direct an indictment as this one. After Idiot, the band has released a handful of political-oriented songs, including much of 21st Century Breakdown, “99 Revolutions”, and “The American Dream Is Killing Me,” but none have gained the steam that “Idiot” has.
Of course, when Idiot first dropped, I didn’t really have much knowledge about politics. I knew that most of my family members were Republicans, so I assumed that George W. Bush must’ve been a great president. I was aware of the war in the Middle East, but I didn’t realize how misguided so many of the actions were. We’re still seeing and feeling the repercussions today, but new players have risen, conflicts that I couldn’t have predicted at 10, and more. Even a song like the b-side “Favorite Son” feels more and more relevant.
“American Idiot” was the first time that I started questioning whether the president was really the person that deserved my support. Of course, I couldn’t vote at the time, but I wondered if there was something wrong. Even though I’d like to say that this was a lightbulb shifting for myself, it took many more years for myself to find my political beliefs, and they’re still evolving. As much as it feels good to scream an anthemic line like “Don’t wanna be an American Idiot/One nation controlled by the media,” I still see Green Day as more centrist than I’d like.
Seeing Green Day play both Dookie and American Idiot in full on the Saviors Tour does work as a perfect parallel. Besides each record celebrating major anniversaries (Dookie turned 30 in February), they’re each coming-of-age albums with slightly different viewpoints on the world.
Dookie is an album about feeling stuck and navigating adolescent/young adult emotions. With tracks that tackle sexuality (“Coming Clean”), ennui (“Longview”), and general feelings of listlessness (“Basket Case”, “Burnout”, etc.), the band were singing about things that any typical Gen X slacker could relate to. Even though there’s some search for escape, like “Welcome to Paradise,” ultimately, the record doesn’t see a grand exit from the mundane-ness of everyday life. So many pop-punk albums owe their existence to Dookie, with the ideas of escaping from boredom, small towns, and daily life, but ultimately, the band ends up sort of in the same place that they began, getting bogged down in a petty feud with “F.O.D.” to wrap up on the secret, joke song about masturbation “All By Myself,” before the album cycles back.
The protagonist in American Idiot is a little more proactive in seeking out a change to his less than ideal life. While “American Idiot” sets the tone for a lonely person who simply consumes media, “Jesus of Suburbia” shows the type of lost millennial who would probably get stuck in a rut of doing all the things Armstrong sang about on Dookie. The only difference is he decides to leave.
Just like the characters in the Mountain Goats’ “Going To…” series, Jesus of Suburbia soon learns that those problems that he was feeling in the suburbs are going to follow him. Sure, he’s no longer bogged down by his mom and step-father, but he’s feeling just as lost and abandoned just as soon as he arrives. Like so many others, he starts self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and trying to reinvent himself into the mischievous and rambunctious “St. Jimmy.” Even though it works in the way that he meets his dream girl, he also loses sight of himself and blows it with the girl, even forgetting her real name, sticking with just the nickname “Whatsername.”
By the time the record reaches “Homecoming,” JOS has become disillusioned by the excesses and becomes a working stiff, getting a day job, but he’s still haunted by his lost potential, ultimately resigning himself to return home. When the record closes with “Whatsername,” he’s still stuck in this space where he’s not happy with the way things ended with his love interest, and he doesn’t seem thrilled to have returned home. Still, he’s going to try to treasure those moments that he did have.
Seeing the band play all of American Idiot on the Saviors Tour, it’s easy to ignore the story. It’s not as in-your-face as the Broadway musical was. Even though diehards followed the story from the jump, the band always did prioritize the songwriting to the point that even a casual listener could enjoy Idiot and not feel like they’re in over their heads.
As a preteen and teenager listening to American Idiot, there was a glamorous allure to living life like the Jesus of Suburbia, all rage and love. During the band’s performance of the record, it was a reminder that that life isn’t nearly as sexy as it seems on the record. Ultimately, at 30, I’ve found myself feeling more aimless, more unsure about the future, and more uncertain about what the best next step is.
Not only that, I see the more political nature of the songs like “Jesus of Suburbia”, “St. Jimmy” or “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.” These aren’t people who just chose to be broke, turn to drugs, or see uncertainty in the life they’re trying to live. They’re products of a broken system that has continually failed for the 20 years since the record came out. There’s always going to be American idiots in control, using bad faith arguments and abusing power, and the ones left to suffer the consequences are usually people like the ones that are featured on the album.
Even though now I have a more critical eye to bands that have shaped my childhood, over the summer, I was still swept up in the magic of American Idiot seeing the band play the whole album through. Even though songs like “American Idiot” and “Holiday” are setlist staples, the deep cuts like “She’s a Rebel” and “Letterbomb” have continued to hit hard. At this point in my life, I see more why Jesus of Suburbia was looking for escape, but now, I understand why he went home, and how he ultimately feels there.