In my opinion, American Idiot is a great album. While one can never be sure that interpretation matches intent, I have formed a pretty intense picture of the album that deals with the problems of American post-adolescence, pre-adulthood. In my listening, the album draws an analogy between going away to college and going off to war. The kind of re-evaluation of Suburbia characterizes my own experience, and the album speaks honestly of the social trappings that somehow become centralized in Suburbia.
While I rarely catch music videos, I actually have seen this one. It seemed corny and silly. The girl at one point is like "I'm just never gonna leave you" and it's supposed to tragic or whatever. But whats cool about the album is: a girl is sort of mysteriously referred to throughout the first 12 tracks, but the album pretty much climaxes without her popping in. The end of track 12 is like the end of an album (with huge drawn out V-I oscillations, complete with timpani), and then there's a 13th song called "Whatsername." The girl is gone. The romantic concept belabored in the September video, and other tracks on the album, leaves. Home changes.
To me, the record speaks to the problem of Home, to one who has been away from it, simultaneously feeling awkward and comforting. At the end of track 12, "Home, we're coming home again" is juxtaposed with "Nobody likes you, everyone left you, they're all out without you having fun." These same themes are in the next song "Nobody Likes You." How this might correspond to a soldier going off to war is still unclear, but I think the kind of displacement that our generation has experience by heading off to Iraq is being compared to your average displacement felt by the adolescent in his return to Suburbia.
For those of you who may say I take this album too seriously, I can't disagree. Whether or not Green Day intended all this, the album has a well-executed rock opera feel to it, and, like all Green Day albums (and like so many popular albums today are not), it is a cohesive whole.
I never claimed to make any proclamations on the album, since as I've stated I've never listened to the whole thing. I merely wanted to comment on that specific video, which is at best flippant and at worst (and I always believe the worst) vile and insulting. You've essentially agreed with me there, and we have no argument.
On the other hand, I can say I've listened to three of the new songs, the three singles: American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and September. I think that, individually, they all suck. You may not agree with me there, but if you acquiesce to my opinion for the sake of argument, I have to ask you: does the album work so well as a cohesive whole that I could possibly appreciate it holistically while still hating the individual parts? Somehow I doubt it, which is why I doubt that American Idiot is a good album - in my future-possible-likely opinion.
I didn't mean to argue in the first place. But I guess my main point, which I didn't really make explicit, is that the corny romantic bullshit so pronounced in the September video actually comes to naught at the conclusion of the album. That may be no solace to you, as I can't really justify the way they portray the war.
Also, I'd imagine you dislike the three singles off American Idiot more or less because of their intense pop sensibility. [In my mind I can hear you saying: "No, they just suck." But seriously, I think this is the case.] Now, I am not nearly as big a fan of P.S. as, say, Alex Claxton is, but it's important to keep in mind that this album is an intentionally poppy Broadway-styled rock opera, taking the ever-so-exhausted teenage paradigm (a pretty cheesy thing to begin with, and I'm talking about a teenage paradigm before Emo), and giving it modern context. So I think it's safe to say that you can't even get a sense for the subtlety without at least taking into account the larger aim, if not listening to the rest of the album. The songs are on the radio because they are cheesy, simplistic, catchy, etc., all the trappings of pop sensibility. But they are crafted that way on the album not for-the-sake-of getting on the radio, like so much other shitty music is. So, if you hate it because of pop sensibility, there really is some irony there. If you like it because of pop sensibility, there too is some irony -- is this person the American Idiot?
I'm no stranger to intense pop sensibility. I dig, for instance, Toxic. But not, like, any other Britney Spears song. And only because of the production; the singing is terrible. BUT, even the production maintains that sensibility, and I still think it's a great club groove.
Or, for instance, Green Day's own Dookie, which also had pretty intense pop sensibilities. I love that album. In fact, it's probably one of the best rock albums of the 90's.
It bothers me that I can't come up with a simple explanation as to why the three new GD singles suck. Perhaps it is the character of the poppiness, the specific way in which it induces those catchy, hook-centric pop vibes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For me, the new singles don't work.
While I rarely catch music videos, I actually have seen this one. It seemed corny and silly. The girl at one point is like "I'm just never gonna leave you" and it's supposed to tragic or whatever. But whats cool about the album is: a girl is sort of mysteriously referred to throughout the first 12 tracks, but the album pretty much climaxes without her popping in. The end of track 12 is like the end of an album (with huge drawn out V-I oscillations, complete with timpani), and then there's a 13th song called "Whatsername." The girl is gone. The romantic concept belabored in the September video, and other tracks on the album, leaves. Home changes.
To me, the record speaks to the problem of Home, to one who has been away from it, simultaneously feeling awkward and comforting. At the end of track 12, "Home, we're coming home again" is juxtaposed with "Nobody likes you, everyone left you, they're all out without you having fun." These same themes are in the next song "Nobody Likes You." How this might correspond to a soldier going off to war is still unclear, but I think the kind of displacement that our generation has experience by heading off to Iraq is being compared to your average displacement felt by the adolescent in his return to Suburbia.
For those of you who may say I take this album too seriously, I can't disagree. Whether or not Green Day intended all this, the album has a well-executed rock opera feel to it, and, like all Green Day albums (and like so many popular albums today are not), it is a cohesive whole.
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On the other hand, I can say I've listened to three of the new songs, the three singles: American Idiot, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and September. I think that, individually, they all suck. You may not agree with me there, but if you acquiesce to my opinion for the sake of argument, I have to ask you: does the album work so well as a cohesive whole that I could possibly appreciate it holistically while still hating the individual parts? Somehow I doubt it, which is why I doubt that American Idiot is a good album - in my future-possible-likely opinion.
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Also, I'd imagine you dislike the three singles off American Idiot more or less because of their intense pop sensibility. [In my mind I can hear you saying: "No, they just suck." But seriously, I think this is the case.] Now, I am not nearly as big a fan of P.S. as, say, Alex Claxton is, but it's important to keep in mind that this album is an intentionally poppy Broadway-styled rock opera, taking the ever-so-exhausted teenage paradigm (a pretty cheesy thing to begin with, and I'm talking about a teenage paradigm before Emo), and giving it modern context. So I think it's safe to say that you can't even get a sense for the subtlety without at least taking into account the larger aim, if not listening to the rest of the album. The songs are on the radio because they are cheesy, simplistic, catchy, etc., all the trappings of pop sensibility. But they are crafted that way on the album not for-the-sake-of getting on the radio, like so much other shitty music is. So, if you hate it because of pop sensibility, there really is some irony there. If you like it because of pop sensibility, there too is some irony -- is this person the American Idiot?
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Or, for instance, Green Day's own Dookie, which also had pretty intense pop sensibilities. I love that album. In fact, it's probably one of the best rock albums of the 90's.
It bothers me that I can't come up with a simple explanation as to why the three new GD singles suck. Perhaps it is the character of the poppiness, the specific way in which it induces those catchy, hook-centric pop vibes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. For me, the new singles don't work.
Reply
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