He’s the one who likes
All our pretty songs and he
Likes to sing along and he
Likes to shoot his gun but he
Don’t know what it means
Yaaaaaa
For context, original lyrics:
Don’t wanna be an American idiot
Don’t want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck AmericaWelcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alienation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argueWell maybe I’m the faggot America
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along to the age of paranoiaWelcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alienation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argueDon’t want to be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
It’s calling out to idiot AmericaWelcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alienation
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow
For that’s enough to argueSuper tame.
In the New Year’s show, they changed “a redneck agenda” to “the MAGA agenda”. Okay, little bit more explicitly partisan, but basically the same thing.
I think part of the problem (aside from people that don’t ever listen to the words in songs) is less that the song/green day is apolitical in their interpretation, but more that for a lot of people the word “politics” means partisan politics. Being explicitly about a party or one of their core issues is what makes something 𝓅𝑜𝓁𝒾𝓉𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓁 to them.
What is and is not political is defined by oppressors. Their crosses, punisher skulls, and blue lives matter stickers are not political. The atheist symbol, antifa arrows, and black lives matter stickers are political. A keffiyeh is a political statement, but an IDF shirt isn’t. “Political” functionally means “talking about your oppression or the oppression of others.”
JSYK, using special characters to write “political” like that doesn’t work with screen readers. Best case scenario it skips the word entirely, worst case it reads out the name of each special character individually.
Well that change in lyrics certainly got the point across. 😂
Was f##got broadcast uncensored over the air?
We found him, its the American Idiot!
American Idiot was already political and already critical of the Republicans. I guess all these American idiots didn’t know the lyrics before?
Politics? In my Green Day?
It’s more likely than you think.
It’s funny - I agree with Green Day in most ways politically, but stopped listening after American Idiot because so much of their music was blatantly political. That’s what they were going for, it is CLEAR and OBVIOUS to anyone listening to their music, where they stand. I am all for it, I would just rather be escaping the world’s issues while listening to music :)
Dude, they’re a punk band, or at least they were. That’s literally the point of the genre
I listen to punk because of the politics lol. Rage against the machine, green day, the offspring, etc. Love them all
Army of Zombies by Lars Frederickson and The Bastard.
It’s funny to me…I didn’t say they were bad, I didn’t say I didn’t like them, I didn’t say anything except for that they clearly took their music in a more in your face, political direction. That’s fine, I support them making that choice. I get that punk is inherently political, and that most music has hints of it. When I started listening, when 1039 came out - I was too young to understand what the music was about. Then came kerplunk and dookie. Dookie has many songs that are just about boredom, wasting time, or girls. Same thing for Insomniac and Nimrod. You cannot argue that EVERY song on those albums was political, it’s just not true. They became a pop-punk alternative band. That’s great, they still make great music, I just choose other styles and genres. Downvotes aren’t hurting me, but it seems excessive for sharing my thoughts.
For the record, I was a ride or die fan in the 90’s. 5 shows, one of them I waited by the outdoor stage for 3 hours to get a good spot. I had my art featured on the earliest version of their website, back in the AOL days. I still love the music I grew up with. Bands style, peoples preferences change…I just don’t want to think about the broken world when I listen to music anymore.
Maybe punk just isn’t your thing
It’s not anymore. You’re very correct.
I quit listening to Green Day because it was impossible to escape When September Ends. Couldn’t go out in public without hearing it somewhere.
I’ve never been more sure that someone wasn’t around in 1994.
Radio stations were practically airing Dookie on a loop.
Honestly, 21 Guns and Boulevard of Broken Dreams were their only good songs with some actual depth. Everything else I consider cringe today.
You xweet is why.