Do you regard Green Day as a real punk band?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by BeatleJay, Mar 18, 2017.

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  1. BeatleJay

    BeatleJay Active Member Thread Starter

    Having just seen Green Day on their current tour, I'm not the biggest into them but my girlfriend is. I must admit they put on a good show. I've read articles which said Dookie was the spiritual successor to Nirvana (AV Club, for example). I'm curious about your perspectives here. Green Day a real punk band or not? Were they the next evolution of the musical movement started by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, etc?
     
    Instant Dharma likes this.
  2. egebamyasi

    egebamyasi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Worcester, MA
    Saw them last night (very entertaining) and if they were they are not now. Pop punk. Power punk? I think the music comes from punk but they don't sound similar to any of the "grunge" acts mentioned. I don't think of Soundgarden or Pearl Jam as having a punk sound at all.
     
    dee, Frosst, ccbarr and 2 others like this.
  3. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    No, too commercial
     
  4. "Power Pop"*
    [was born in Berkeley/so can say that/ha, ha!!]

    * nothing wrong w/that!
     
    izgoblin, danielbravo, FJFP and 2 others like this.
  5. Dr. Robert

    Dr. Robert Forum Reconstructor

    Location:
    Curitiba, Brazil
    most certainly NO
     
  6. They used to be, but any continued claim to being punk disappeared after Dookie. They were always on the pop side of things though, and took at lot of stick for it on the SF scene.
     
  7. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    They are definitely a punk rock band and as far as I know, they have little or nothing to do with the Seattle scene that gave us Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Green Day were the first (or the first to break big) of a huge number of bands from California in the 90's that combined punk rock with "pop" melodies and harmonies (they owed a lot more to the Ramones than they did the Sex Pistols). Very popular with the mainstream and hugely influential - Green Day, the Offspring, Bad Religion, Rancid, Blink-182 were the main ones, I think. Amazingly, I think most of those bands are still together. They are very popular in Tokyo, which has an annual "Punkspring" festival (The Offspring are headlining this year). Obviously Green Day went on to be huge with younger kids as well with American Idiot and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". I have tickets to see Green Day and Rancid at Hyde Park on July 1. Should be fun.
     
  8. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I wouldn't have even looked at this thread before last Monday night, when I took my daughter to the show, but it made a fan. Loud sloppy guitars! No background dancers! Spiky-haired guys railing against the president! I was in a happy time warp.

    The music is basically sped-up pop, though. I guess they're punk if you think the Dickies were punk.
     
  9. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    I'd say they're on the pop side of punk. There's a lot of different styles within punk. They actually represent the pinnacle of commercialized punk in the Bay Area and in a way they stand on the shoulders of a lot of bands that never made it out of the Gilman Street scene.

    They were not the next evolution of anything that came out of Seattle. They're not a "downer" sort of band thematically. They have different roots and a different perspective entirely, I think. They did benefit from the major label indie band signing frenzy that started upon Nirvana's success.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2017
  10. What's real? What's punk?

    It is interesting that it took roughly 15 years for California punk to go from hardcore to pop, but then their U.K. 77 counterparts were all catchy and commercially viable from the getgo. But there is a certain indentifiable 90s cartoonish voice California pop punk sound that while successful became homogeneous
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2017
  11. applebonkerz

    applebonkerz Senior Member

    I don't really care what label is put on them, but American Idiot is still one of the very best albums put out by anyone in the past 15 years IMO.
     
  12. BryanA-HTX

    BryanA-HTX Crazy Doctor

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    They WERE up until 1994 or so. Afterward, probably power pop/alt. rock with a few punk rock elements. No hate from me, I like a few songs on American Idiot but I definitely prefer the early '90s stuff.
     
  13. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    This isn't really true. Try something like "Nuclear Family" on Uno. That's about as punk as anything the Buzzcocks ever did. But like the Buzzcocks, and as you mention, more on the pop side of the genre.
     
    budwhite likes this.
  14. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    Not really. A more poppy Nirvana. Post-grunge. Because of "Dookie".
     
    DTK likes this.
  15. Chris from Chicago

    Chris from Chicago Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes

    I think the ones saying no have a narrow, or even pinpoint definition of what punk is. Is it punk? Sure. Pop punk? Okay. To me punk was more about attitude than a music style. Not everything they do is great. But when they're "on" they CAN be.

    I haven't heard the new album yet. But I think American Idiot was brilliant. And 21st Century Breakdown was almost as good. Unfortunately I don't have much good to say about the 3 album abomination that followed.

    And nothing at all to do with Nirvana or Pearl Jam. About as similar as an omelet and an oil change.
     
  16. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    Bubblegum rock on plastic transistors
     
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  17. True, they still do some material that falls withing the bounds of punk, but overall I wouldn't call them a punk band anymore. Admittedly part of this has to do with extra-musical issues, as the term "punk" doesn't sit so well on established multimillionaire rock stars with slick stage productions and musical adaptations of their concept albums.
     
    Last edited: Mar 18, 2017
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  18. katieinthecoconut

    katieinthecoconut Forum Resident

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Green Day are exactly what the genre of pop-punk exists for. Punk elements and aesthetics to an extent, but in a poppier package. I guess pop-punk found its zenith in the early 2000s (at the same time as the metal equivalent, nu-metal) and also had offshoots such as ska-punk.

    At the point of their breakthrough, though, I'm not sure how people referred to them. I don't really think pop-punk was a genre people talked about until later. They ended up on the first Shine compilation in 1995 with a list of bands they've got nothing in common with today:

    Their reinvention with American Idiot feels like straight forward alternative rock to me.
     
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  19. jimod99

    jimod99 Daddy or chips?

    Location:
    Ottawa, ON
    A not very good Buzzcocks tribute band who are never punk in a million years.

    Their best album wasn't even released under their own name.
     
  20. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Or Rocket to Russia.
     
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  21. anothertribe

    anothertribe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Central California
    Not just no but hell no....
     
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  22. wavethatflag

    wavethatflag God is love, but get it in writing.

    Location:
    SF Bay Area
    Yeah, I almost wrote earlier that at the point major commercial success hits, the punk days are sort of over. But I just threw on Uno due to this thread, and stylistically I have a hard time calling this music anything other than punk. But again the term punk casts a wide net, and this is all poppy punk.

    And I'm fairly sure "Loss of Control" steals a riff from the Pretenders' "Pack It Up." :)
     
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  23. Pizza

    Pizza With extra pepperoni

    Location:
    USA
    Not
     
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  24. Dennis Metz

    Dennis Metz Born In A Motor City south of Detroit

    Location:
    Fonthill, Ontario
    No:cheers::cheers:
     
    nosliw likes this.
  25. ArpMoog

    ArpMoog Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit
    I thought they were fake rebellion but like what do I know.
    I grew up on Kennedy's, Flag, Discharge , NA and the like.
    That was punk to me.
     
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