Fuck Green Day And Their Little "genre"

[Kurama the Florist]

Silly teenyboppers. Worhipping the latest trend to come on the radio, wearing their Aburkromby and Fitsh (yeah, I purposely misspelled that) and doing what they're told. What happened to real music? Where did that go? Now, I'd like to state that I have nothing against Green Day, but I don't respect them either. They've had a few good tunes, but nothing too special. I'm sitting around wondering why the hell 'American Idiot' sold so well. It's not that great. Hell, they're even talking about making a movie out of the album. This ain't no 'Tommy', so what's up? I think because I can't think of anything else to say, I'll leave you with my essay entitled 'What is America?'.

My brain raised a question today. What is America? Ask a modern day teenager and it's sure to tell you it's the place that it lives in. I refer to the teenager as an it because in this day in age, they are almost all robots. Programmed by the advertisers to follow the latests fashion trends, listen to the most often played music, and act like the most popular television characters. It's the age of Influence, and young people today are a piece of it.

The portrait of a typical teenager in 2005 thus far would be the following: Green Day listening, O.C. watching, Abercrombie wearing robots. Not that I have anything against the above context (save Abercrombie), but I think they are being used to do what they are accomplishing. We'll start with Green Day. Was it their choice to make such a poppy record? You can decide that one. I admit, the songs are catchy, but when it comes down to it you won't realize you only like it because everyone else does. There's even hype that a movie studio is looking to make a film adaption of the album 'American Idiot'. Have you ever seen that before? A movie based on an album. Only in America. But you have to ask yourself why. Why? Because movie studios and television alike are learning that if something is popular, it will bring in a major cash flow. They know that all the fans who know nothing about the band will flock to the theater because they like that one song that was on the radio. On to the subject of television, which was aforementioned. Sitcoms are also now capitalizing on this idea. Preaching the principles that being popular is the greatest thing in the world, that the worst tragedy that can occur in the suburbs is losing your prom dress. This brings me to the show on the FOX network, the O.C.

The O.C. is about rich kids going to public school near the most beautiful beaches in the world. The Dynasty of our generation. People think this is what California is like. Everyone tunes into the show because they know it's the only thing that anyone will talk about the next day. It's just another part of the monster. If you can get the "cool" kids to talk about something, it will attract their friends and eventually the sub-popular groups and those who long to be of the two aforementioned groups. The show focuses on relationship problems between rich teens and their parents. Lately, the show has been recruiting popular music acts into it's context. Do you know quite what this means? It means the music industry know's that the show is a beast and it will use it to it's advantage. Even clothes are getting in on the act, which brings us to Abercrombie.

Abercrombie is sold in stores in malls that look like they came straight off the shore of Perfect Beach. Their ads feature naked, fully shaved men and women. That's right, fully shaved men. That's what America is coming to. Of course, the clothing line is booming due to it's appearance everywhere in television and movies. I asked someone in Washington recently where they think Abercrombie came from. The answer was "The O.C.". That's it. That's what America is coming to.

So, the essential question. What is America? America is a system of robots programmed by popular music and television who do nothing but follow what everyone does. At least, that's young America is. And it sickens me.

[S. S. 3 Gotenks]

Two things:

1.) Green Day isn't a new wave pseudo-punk band. They've been producing albums for quite some time. I believe that it was Dookie that went Diamond.

2.) I'm a teenager in America. I wear clothes that are either football related, come from Old Navy, or it's my AC/DC shirt. I watch hardly anything on TV anymore, and when I do, it's either South Park or something else on Comedy Central, unless it's some older sitcom. I listen to Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, and AC/DC. After saying this, I'll end with saying that you need to acknowledge that not all teenagers are like those that you describe, which would be passing a stereotype. Stereotypes = Ineffective argument.

[Kurama the Florist]

I was simply suggesting that that's the average teenager. Thank god there are others.
Also, I do know that Green Day has been around for over a decade. I was regarding 'American Idiot' as the bad part of it.