It drives my completely insane that I can't find music that completely enthralls me! Don't get me wrong, I've found artists and albums that I like, but nothing that completely captivates me. So I've decided to follow through on a little exercise and start listing albums that I've loved and obsessed over along with a few of the reasons why I loved it. What will this do? Hopefully, it'll help jog whatever is clogged in my mind and let me get back to enjoying music! So here's my first entry:
Green Day - American Idiot
If you want a solid example of what modern punk should be, Green Day's American Idiot is hands down it. Forget all the others like Good Charlotte and Sum 41 (they were both more pop anyway), Green Day is a real punk band with an honest sense of sound and self-identity.American Idiot was the rebirth of Green Day, a come back in the truest sense of the word. They had not really disappeared from the mainstream, but they certainly weren't the leading men of Rock when AI released. At the time, we had begun the Iraq war and were mired deep into the Bush presidency and our country was full of anger, angst, confusion, and betrayal. We didn't know who to believe, and anyone that question the obvious authority of our reigning regime were relegated to the idiot corner. The boys in Green Day had something very poignant to say about the whole situation.
The opening track, American Idiot, was a rousing punk anthem that immediately gave voice to everyone that hated where we were as a nation and who was leading us. The song, along with the video, was one of the first public criticisms of Bush's War. It was an immediate hit, rising quickly to the #1 slot on the charts. At the time, Pop and Hip Hop dominated the charts, so it was an even larger achievement for these 90's alt-rockers to burst back on the scene nearly a decade after their first major hit. I was in love again.
The album is built in a more theoretical style. Most albums are really just a collection of tracks without much more thought than "this song is good." Green Day took a different angle, quite possibly an older angle, with American Idiot: they went with a concept album/rock opera. They wanted to tell a story with their album, which is a relic of the '70s rock scene. Very few artists have really been able to pull off the concept album well because they either sacrifice pop-sensibility for artistic vision or the listeners just get confused and move on. Somehow, Green Day crafted a beautiful epic story laid into the foundation of 13 tracks.
Now when I say this was a story, I don't mean in a literal chapter by chapter sense. This was the story of a broken America. The story revolved around the American dream and trying to cope with the fact that that dream is gone for so many people. In the process though, the fellas in Green Day put together 13 amazing tracks, each with it's own story and feel, each easily a radio single. There was no "filler" on this record. Every track was good.
How good? People that didn't like Rock music, much less Punk Rock, were eating up this album (my oldest brother, for example). That was part of the magic of American Idiot though: it wasn't just the music that drew me and others in, it was the emotion. We felt it. We knew the story of the album and of the songs. We knew that we had a voice in this album and that we didn't have to sit back and pretend like everything was OK any longer.
I still listen to American Idiot, I'd say once a week or so. It's an extremely empowering album and very well done music.
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