What's so wrong with Green Day?

[auntpolly]

DH and my friends (the ones who care about music, anyway) roll their eyes when I talk about Green Day -- they are too pop, they are sell outs, what is it? . Or maybe it's just that women like me in their 40s like them???? Am I killing it for them????

They are just really good. They have a huge body of consistantly good work and the kind of songs that I sing (scream) in the car , making me look like a huge idiot (american idiot, of course) at traffic lights.

OK you hipsters, why am I a dork for liking Green Day?

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I don't think you are a dork for liking Green Day. I really dislike them myself. The only time I would roll my eyes in front if you is if you talked about them all the time. I just don't get why they are so popular and I don't ever see myself enjoying them, though I have tried.

 

[Christine]

Well, if you are talking to someone in their 30s who remembers Green Day when they were truly considered "punk" then you will get the "roll eye." Yes, the old, die hard Green Day fans think that Green Day has *sold out* and become too mainstream, too commercialized. I was in my very early 30s when Green Day first made it big. I never thought of them as "punk" back then because I remember "punk" from the 70s. But they were being called that and they were HUGE with the high school/college crowd back then.

 

[auntpolly]

I don't think you are a dork for liking Green Day. I really dislike them myself. The only time I would roll my eyes in front if you is if you talked about them all the time. I just don't get why they are so popular and I don't ever see myself enjoying them, though I have tried.

No, I don't have their posters on my bedroom wall or anything!!LOL, but I try to work a song or two into a mix and someone always says "Green Day?

 

[auntpolly]

Well, if you are talking to someone in their 30s who remembers Green Day when they were truly considered "punk" then you will get the "roll eye." Yes, the old, die hard Green Day fans think that Green Day has *sold out* and become too mainstream, too commercialized. I was in my very early 30s when Green Day first made it big. I never thought of them as "punk" back then because I remember "punk" from the 70s. But they were being called that and they were HUGE with the high school/college crowd back then.

DD says the music I like is punk -- it's not punk like I knew punk! The sex pistols -- that was punk.

 

[Christine]

DD says the music I like is punk -- it's not punk like I knew punk! The sex pistols -- that was punk.

I agree. That's why I never understood why Green Day was labled "punk" back in their earlier days. But like anything, music evolves and I guess that's what punk was in the early 90s.

 

[KelNottAt]

I kinda get the impression that they're politically outspoken. Maybe the eye-rollers disagree with Green Day's politics?

Sorry, I don't know what their political ideas are, so I can't articulate them. But, I do like their music.

 

[auntpolly]

I kinda get the impression that they're politically outspoken. Maybe the eye-rollers disagree with Green Day's politics?

No, my friends are all a bunch of liberal pains in the..... (like me).

 

[Christine]

I kinda get the impression that they're politically outspoken. Maybe the eye-rollers disagree with Green Day's politics?

Sorry, I don't know what their political ideas are, so I can't articulate them. But, I do like their music.

I think they don't like President Bush.

 

[auntpolly]

I think they don't like President Bush.

I don't think my friends do either.

 

[ducklite]

They are too pop for me.

I think a lot of the eye rolling is because of backlash. Anytime a band gets really big seemingly overnight (although often it was after many years of work) they can be on the recieving end of it. Nickelback is another example. Most of their long time fans will tell you they are good, but "I'm so over them." I think the same thing happened with Green Day. They were over exposed, and their fans (and everyone else) just got sick of them. The Dixie Chicks are another good example of over exposure.

I'm waiting to see the same thing happen over the next one to two years with Panic!, Fall Out Boy, Hinder, and Avenged Sevenfold. I see it happening to Mudvayne in the next six months.

Anne

 

[Microcell]

They were in the "non sell out" area, and from what I have read and heard, they never intended to be big, and they were doing their thing, and word of mouth just made them huge and they maintain they were just making music, but mainstream got ahold and wouldn't let go. The other bands (very good friends) turned on them and a rivalry of sorts began in the club scene. The lead singer said on some show that that is what "Time of your life" was about, that they miss the comradere of the little bands and a simpler time. They were saying goodbye to that life because they were not wanted there anymore.

 

[crazee4mickey]

I'm 40 and I like their music....liked it way before it became what it is today but still enjoy it

 

[palmtreegirl]

I love Green Day.

 

[Planogirl]

It's funny to me that so often when a band makes it big simply because a lot of people like them, they are accused of selling out. That's what I think happened to Green Day and a lot of other bands but I also think that it's a small minority that fusses about it because someone is making these bands successful. Green Day is a talented group and if nothing else, they're laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[CheshireVal]

Green Day has always been more pop than punk, but they definitely had "punk cred" because of where they played and who they were friends with.

I had no problem with Green Day getting super famous until they started with the awful power ballads. Blech. To me, it was obvious pandering to their new teeny bopper audience and I lost a lot of respect for them after that. Parts of American Idiot are still brilliant, but I'd take the old early 90s Green Day over the new Green Day any time!

 

[auntpolly]

I loooooove Holiday! And Wake me up when september comes. And Boulevard of broken dreams.

But I've never been the Lillith Faire/Dave Mathews/you are boring me to tears singing me your diary type of music fan. I really like a band to rock out a little. I love offspring too! And the Killers! (How pathetic am I? I can never go to hear them live because I don't want to be the creepy old lady in the back.)

 

[AuntieM03]

I really like Green Day, though I could do without some of the profanity. I usually like bands better after they "sell out".

 

[Todd&Copper]

I just read in the paper that they won some Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award. That's enough to make me roll my eyes. I think they just try too hard and have completely sold out. But, I also don't listen to lots of "popular" radio music.

 

[CheshireVal]

I loooooove Holiday! And Wake me up when september comes. And Boulevard of broken dreams.

But I've never been the Lillith Faire/Dave Mathews/you are boring me to tears singing me your diary type of music fan. I really like a band to rock out a little. I love offspring too! And the Killers! (How pathetic am I? I can never go to hear them live because I don't want to be the creepy old lady in the back.)

Ha! I've seen Green Day live about 4 times. The last time I went was probably about 7-8 years ago, after they had gotten big with Dookie and Insomniac. At 24, I still felt like the oldest one in the audience.