Green Day
Green Day is an American rock trio formed in 1987.[1] The band has consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion) for the majority of its existence.
Green Day was originally part of the punk rock scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Its early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned them a grassroots fanbase, some of whom felt alienated when the band signed to a major label.[2] Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone, and 15 million copies sold worldwide.[3] As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.[4][5] Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively.[6] Green Day's 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S.[7] The band's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, is expected to be released in spring 2009.
Green day has sold over 65 million records worldwide,[citation needed] including 22 million in the United States alone.[8] They have won three Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, and Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".
Band history
American Idiot and renewed popularity: 2003–2006
In the summer of 2003 the band went into a studio to write and record new material for a new album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines.[28] After completing 20 tracks, the master tapes were stolen from the studio. The band chose not to try to re-create the stolen album, but instead started over. By the end of the year[when?], Green Day collaborated with Iggy Pop on two tracks for his album Skull Ring and they underwent serious "band therapy," engaging in several long talks to work out the members' differences after accusations from Dirnt and Cool that Armstrong was "the band's Nazi"[29] and a show-off bent on taking the limelight from the other band members.
The resulting 2004 album, American Idiot, debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, the band's first ever album to top the chart, backed by the success of the album's first single, "American Idiot." The album was billed as a "punk rock opera" which follows the journey of the fictitious "Jesus of Suburbia".[30] American Idiot won the 2005 Grammy for "Best Rock Album" and the band swept the 2005 MTV music awards, winning a total of seven of the eight awards they were nominated for, including the coveted Viewer's Choice Award.[31]
Through 2005, the band toured in support of the album with about 150 dates — the longest tour in its career — visiting Japan, Australia, South America and the United Kingdom, where they drew a crowd of 130,000 people over a span of two days. While touring for American Idiot, they filmed and recorded the two concerts at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, which was voted 'The Best Show On Earth' in a Kerrang! Magazine Poll.
These recordings were released as a live CD and DVD called Bullet in a Bible on November 15, 2005. This CD/DVD featured hits from American Idiot as well as a few songs from all its previous albums, except "Kerplunk" and "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours". The DVD featured behind-the-scenes footage of the band, and showed how the band prepared to put on the show. The final shows of its 2005 world tour were in Sydney, Australia, and Melbourne, Australia, on December 14 and 17 respectively. On January 10, 2006 the band was awarded with a People's Choice Award for favorite group.
On August 1, 2005, Green Day announced that that it had rescinded the master rights to its pre-Dookie material from Lookout! Records, citing a continuing breach of contract regarding unpaid royalties, a complaint shared with other Lookout! bands.[32] The pre-Dookie material, which remained out of print for about a year, was reissued by the band's current label, Reprise, on January 9, 2007.[33]
In 2006, Green Day won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"[34] which spent 16 weeks at the number one position of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, a record it shared along with Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Scar Tissue" and Staind's "It's Been Awhile," (the record has been since been beaten by Foo Fighters' 2007 hit "The Pretender" which reigned at the top spot for 18 weeks).
Green Day engaged in several other smaller projects in the time following the hype of American Idiot. In the spring of 2007, Green Day recorded a cover of the John Lennon song "Working Class Hero", which appeared on a compilation album "Instant Karma", that benefitted victims in Darfur. In the summer of 2007, Green Day recorded a version of The Simpsons theme song for The Simpsons Movie, as well as having an appearance in the movie.
Foxboro Hot Tubs and 21st Century Breakdown: 2007-present
Green Day recently released a new album under the name Foxboro Hot Tubs entitled Stop Drop and Roll!!!. In an interview with Kerrang!, Billie Joe revealed that 2008 would "be a fair estimate of the release date of their new untitled eighth studio album."[35] In a recent interview with Carson Daly, Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson revealed that Butch Vig would be producing Green Day's forthcoming album.[36] In October 2008 Green Day returned to the studios with Butch Vig, to start recording the new studio album. Two videos showing the band in the studio were posted on YouTube.[37][38] In the tour section of the band's official website, the message "World Tour coming soon!" is shown.[39] In the December 9 issue of Alternative Press, in-depth details about the new album were released. According to the interview, Green Day are recording in the same studio as they did for American Idiot, Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, California. "This album is more... religious", and is influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and The Beatles, to name a few.[40] Green Day's new album is expected to be released in May 2009,[41] and Billie Joe Armstrong said when he was being interviewed for Kerrang!'s readers poll, that it will be more power pop than punk rock.[42] The new album will be titled 21st Century Breakdown.[41]
