Green Day
Green Day are a contemporary American rock group who, along
with The Offspring, are credited with jump-starting the punk revival of the
1990’s. The trio consists of vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bass
guitarist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool. The band began
life in California under the name Sweet Children, which they soon ditched due
to a titular similarity with another local act, Sweet Baby. Apparently a nod to
their liking for the drug marijuana, the band changed their name to Green Day
before they began to release any recorded material.
An underground act in the late 1980’s, their first two albums ‘39/Smooth’ and ‘Kerplunk’ were released under the independent label Lookout! Records. They quickly generated a loyal grassroots following, and ‘Kerplunk’ achieved sales of around 50,000 copies in the US: impressive for an independent act playing what was then an emergent musical genre. However, the success of ‘Kerplunk’ led to interest by bigger labels, and Green Day duly signed for Reprise Records in 1993. Although this move provoked some animosity from their original audience, who accused them of selling out, the transition to a more mainstream audience proved a great success for the band. Their major label debut album, ‘Dookie’, has sold 15 million copies worldwide to date. In 1995, ‘Dookie’ won the Grammy for Best Alternative Album, and in the same year the band were nominated for 9 MTV Video Music Awards.
Later that year, Green Day released their fourth album, ‘Insomniac’. With a tone much darker than their previous album, ‘Insomniac’ met with a positive critical response. However, the heavier vibe appeared to lose the band some of their more mainstream fans. As a result the album did not match the commercial success of ‘Dookie’, although it still sold over 2 million copies in the US alone. After taking a break in 1996, citing exhaustion, Green Day began work on a new album in 1997, which was released in October that year. Titled ‘Nimrod’, the content was a marked departure from the band’s previous pop-punk output, featuring genres ranging from ska to acoustic ballads.
Green Day followed up this new style with the album ‘Warning’ in 2000. Although not selling anything like the numbers of their previous albums, and meeting with a varied critical response, the band won eight awards at the 2001 California Music Awards. Their popularity, however appeared to be waning. In response to this, the band reinvented themselves yet again, and scored their first ever album number one with ‘American Idiot’ in 2004. They then engaged decided to focus on some smaller projects, releasing an album called ‘Stop Drop and Roll!!!’ under the name ‘Foxboro Hot Tubs’ in 2007. After this, a long period of writing new material finally culminated with the release of ‘21st Century Breakdown’ in 2009, which achieved Green Day’s best chart performance to date. The band have experienced ups and downs, spats and reconciliations, but they endure, and remain fresh and inventive to this day.
