Preview

Green Day's "American Idiot"

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
668 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Green Day's "American Idiot"
American Idiot by Green Day The song that I chose to write about is titled American Idiot by Green Day. This song was on Green Day’s album titled American Idiot. This album was originally released in 2004. American Idiot, the song, peaked at number 61 on the Billboard Hot 100. My reason for choosing this song is that it talks about how the media runs society and how people shouldn’t let the media run their lives. The main social issue that is talked about in this song is how the media runs our lives and society. One of the lines in the song is “Don’t wanna be an American idiot, one nation controlled by the media.” This line refers to how people in America rely heavily on the media for everything. They trust every word that is printed in a newspaper or magazine or said on television without question. People hang on every word that is pumped through the media. I don’t consider this to be a personal problem because it refers to all people being controlled by the media. It is not as if the singer in the song is the only one that the media affects. Media is worldwide ways of letting people know what is going on around them. What Billy Joe Armstrong is saying throughout this song is that people need to realize is that not everything that a person hears is necessarily true and people should not panic just because of what the news says. Green Day is an American rock band that was formed in 1987. the group consists of three members: Billy Joe Armstrong(vocals), Tre` Cool(drums), and Mike Dirnt(bass). In 1988, they signed to Lookout Records and then in 1989 they released their first EP titled 1,000 Hours. However, the band didn’t have much success until it released the album Kerplunk in 1993. After Kerplunk’s success, Green Day proceeded to leave Lookout Records and sign with Reprise Records. In 1994, they released their first major label debut, Dookie. Over the next few years, Green Day would have much success but then decided to take a break in 1996. They returned

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The song is about negative issues that are on a global level. In an interview about the song Butler says “It’s hard not to look around and try to ask the questions, “Does anybody see the insanity that’s going around at the moment? Is it just me, or has anyone else seen this craziness, this madness of destruction, whether through war or killing people through the economy?”” The theme of the song is about standing up for a change and the fact that…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Toby Keith’s “American Soldier” demonstrates examples of pathos, ethos, and logos. The song explains a soldier’s feelings and responsibilities at hand. The emotions shown through the song are thankfulness, intenseness, and courageousness. The sound of the song is very soft in the beginning and picks up when he begins to talk about the duty he has. Ironically, the music change makes sense because he has to balance his time between work and family, and family is calming, while work on the other hand is intense. Toby Keith establishes credibility because he lives in America, knowing that freedom doesn’t come free, and the song is written in first person, describing when the songwriter went overseas. Toby Keith also establishes logos in his song…

    • 243 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When Billy turned 16 he got involved with alcohol and drugs, he did not complete high school and dropped out senior year. Mike Dirnt is the bassist for Green Day and had been friends with Billy since childhood, they used to be called Sweet Children until their drummer quit on them, and that is when they met Tre Cool the current drummer for Green day and changed their name to Green Day. When Billy started Green Day with these guys he strayed to the path of God again. He made very poor choices in his life. Billy is a Christian and has done a few songs about God, one of them being The Saints are Coming performed live with the famous band U2. Billy Joe Armstrong has always believed in God and always…

    • 272 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” is a short story about the connection between one’s soul and life. The story centers around Hulga (Joy) Hopewell and the life-changing experience she has with a traveling Bible salesman (Meyer 265). As a whole, “Good Country People” shows how a person’s point of view can affect the experiences they have. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hopewell (Hulga’s mother) has a positive experience with the Bible salesman.…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”, written by Niall Ferguson, a historian who teaches at Harvard University, in 2011, explores why civilizations collapse, and how America can avoid this. He does not focus only on America, but many civilizations in the past that have collapsed. Niall Ferguson is the author of Civilization: The West and The Rest. The article is creatively and cleverly written using the metaphor of modern technology to describe the way in which the societal collapse occurs. This shows that the article was written for adults who are highly educated and understand and relate to technology. The article discusses the possibilities of what complete collapse would look like in American society. I believe the author successfully demonstrates and explains the very real possibility of America’s societal demise.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Opportunity - Pete Murray

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Good morning class the song I chose is called Opportunity. Opportunity is a song by an Australian singer, Pete Murray. The ideas presented in his songs are how people experience things in life, particularly personal dilemmas and relationships.…

    • 857 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Woodstock Research Paper

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages

    He tries to show that the American culture was coming to an end and a new culture was taking over. People had a new mentality in which they argued with political aspects. In 1970 when “Chicago Seven attorney William Kunstler gave a speech at the University of California, Santa Barbara, following which protesters set fire to the Bank of America”. Prior to the 1970’s, the old American culture was not as violent as the new counter culture. They did not express their opinions like the counterculture did. Woodstock was kind of like a goodbye to the 1960’s American culture, and a hello to a new one. After the concert, “hair styles were longer, entertainment promoters realized the fruitful market for rock concert… movements such as Black panthers and the Symbionese Liberation Army became more prominent”. This is an example of how society was changing because of the ideas influenced by Woodstock. Woodstock was a symbol of peace and it influenced the Black Panthers getting more attention and the end of the Vietnam War. Chris Mullins shows that Woodstock was not only a symbol of peace and new ideas, but it was a farewell to the American Culture and an experiment of a new…

    • 1247 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In every era of American history, the population looks towards leaders of the free world and their politicians for much of the guidance and answers that they seek. But often times the lesser influences of “pop culture icons” are often overlooked. When the general masses idolized a single event, trend, or person so much, the latter can have an impact on social trends with enduring and meaningful significance. Often times a prominent musician, for example, has the power to sway the masses, and create social movements that encourage positive (or even sometimes negative) change that encompass a surrounding society. Through his Americana lyrics, and strong embrace of the American dream and spirit, Woody Guthrie has achieved a cultural and iconic status in the American landscape.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Toby Keith Research Paper

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    He begins the song by saying American men or women “will always stand up and salute” defining their support for our nation(Keith). He didn’t want to just have focus on the national patriotism but relate to his father and the people who serve in our troops. He begins to mention the fact that we do have soldiers who have died for the country but justified it so that we can sleep “in peace” at night(Keith). Toby is clearly a “proud supporter of our army” standing by that our troops are fighting for a reason(Gillespie 9). He continues to tell the story of his father, who lost his right eye in the army, and yet still flew the American flag out in their yard till the day he died. Seeming to be random to add in his song but Keith is telling us to still stand by our nation even if something does go wrong. Of course corresponding to September 11, Keith calls the nation to act on after we have been “fallin’ under attack”(Keith). For us to tell the intruders that were going to “lit up your world”(Keith). To act “like the fourth of July,” when we take action. Him choosing these concrete words of a certain national independence holiday enfaces that he wants us to act like our “our fathers and forefathers did” to get the independence we live in…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tupac Rhetoric

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tupac starts the song with a very clear statement “I’m tired of bein’ poor and, even worse, I’m black” that announces what the song’s is going to talk about. In a decade where police brutality in Afro-American neighbourhood was a real debate, Tupac claims “Cops give a damn about a negro, Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he’s a hero”. Problems are never far from you in these communities even for the younger “Give the crack to the kids, who the hell care? One less hungry mouth on the welfare!”. In this song, Tupac seems to put the fault on the system that doesn’t help them in any way. These inequalities are necessary to keep the American system on track. As an example, the singer says “First ship’em dope and let’em deal to brothers. Give ‘em guns, take a step back, watch them kill each other”. In the second verse, Tupac puts more accent on racism “I see no changes, all I see is racist faces. Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races”. Overall, lyrics undoubtedly shows the presence of an ethical issue and the author protest by saying that things need to change all along the song “We gotta start makin’ changes, learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers”.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    american idiot

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The song starts by basically talking about how America is now a nation where media controls the way people think, in which, Americans are subc being brainwashed. This so by providing hysterical information about the war as well as using propaganda. Although the writer believes that the media is nothing but a biased propaganda, he feels that it’s not only the media that is causing people to become brainwashed. He feels that it’s the people themselves that are the reason why we’re so easily convinced. We believe and rely on everything that the media says, which often causes people to become someone who they’re not. This is killing individuality in America. The writer views individuality as a positive thing, so he says, “We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow” in order to promote and embrace individuality.…

    • 339 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Taste Of Country Analysis

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pretty much every song I’ve written is either something that’s personal to me or something I know somebody’s been through. Just write about real life, that’s what it’s about."…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music and Technology

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The connection between politics and music can sometimes be rather discreet, and a lot of songwriters today include many messages in their song lyrics which would appear subliminal until analysed. Political issues are expressed in music and I believe this is because music is one of the most effective ways to reach out to people, as not everyone watches the news or picks up a newspaper. Because popular musicians have such a large fan base and a strong influential impact on their fans, it would work effectively to openly promote and support political candidates as well as particular causes, or write their music in order to rebel against them. A great example of this is the song 'if I was president' by Wycliffe jean, this song was inspired by conspiracy theory, because it was believed that unnecessary amounts of money has been spent on the war and the president just sits back and looks at what is happening, Wycliffe believes that every time somebody comes along to try and present the truth, they'd be ‘assassinated’. He wrote this song and put himself in the president's position, believing that he himself would be assassinated the same as martin Luther King and John F Kennedy did. Wycliffe believes that the 'children' should be told the truth, and everyone should strive to be the president. In 2008, will I am produced two video's which were made in order to make America support the work of Barrack Obama. The song 'we are the ones' features people from different walks of life explaining what they would like to change about the earth. One example is 'I think it's time to change, I want a better future for my children' after each person gives an opinion. All of the people featured in the video recite Obama's name. This video and the video 'yes we can' became very popular with over 28 million views between them. ‘Will.i.am didn't set out to make history. In fact, says the Black Eyed Peas front man, he's not even…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Don’t wanna be an American Idiot, one nation controlled by the media, information age of hysteria, I’m calling out to idiots, America” shows that Armstrong is targeting the type of idiocy in which those who follow the media religiously will not doubt a word that is said. The media, in my opinion, has a way of twisting situations into something other than the truth. For example, the situation happening in Ferguson in the previous year. The police violence had a presence, and that was hard to ignore, but it was also difficult to project this event in an unbiased way. The general media had a negative view about the riots, they portrayed the protesters as violent anarchists that had mob-like tendencies, which in some situations was true, but there were also those who wished for peaceful protest and to follow in the ways of Martin Luther King Jr. The media generalized the protesting and caused them to look like unrelentless rebels. The #BlackLivesMatter movement also takes simple happenings and blows them out of proportion. The lyrics, “Welcome to the age of paranoia”, accurately describes this because the #BlackLivesMatter group is taking every instant of police arresting a black person as brutality and excessive force. Both forms of media are changing situations to fit their…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Rolling Stones were a big part of early Rock N’ Roll. They pushed the envelope more then any other band of their time. Paint it black which was released in 1966 is a very good example of the Rolling Stones not caring attitude. The Stones experimented a lot with different instruments, and gave their music a distinct sound, which I think helped with the influence of other bands and other genres to be made later on such as metal, some punk and emo music.…

    • 449 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays