Do you regard Green Day as a real punk band?

They're all Irish?

 

Great post. I'd also add that Buzzcocks and The Undertones produced some perfect pop singles too.

 

A "Green Day" is when you skip school and smoke pot.

 

No! rock/pop fluff

 

You can tell they aren't a real punk band because they've managed to make money and sustain a successful career instead of burning out in 2 years.

 

Green Day may not be up there on the punk list with Dead Kennedys and the Milkmen, but if not for Green Day, I may have never been interested in those bands, that SOUND. You have to remember, in 1994-95, that was the cusp of when all the suburban white kids who never wanted for anything, suddenly became middle-class gangstas, and that's when I was discovering Green Day and Offspring and the like. I wasn't after labels, I was after that sound. Thanks to Green Day becoming popular, I looked into where they came from (which wasn't easy in the pre-Google days). I found similar bands in Screeching Weasel, Avail, Fifteen, Mr. T Experience, and Squirtgun. I waited to hear them on hit radio sandwiched between Salt N Pepa and Lisa Loeb. I don't think signing to Reprise changed them, considering many songs on Dookie were written as early as 1991. They may not be punker-than-thou, but they always had the attitude, and to me, that is what's most important.

 

My god, no.

 

No

He's thirty two now, just asked him, he doesn't know nor do I...must be an American thing...

 

Sure, why not. I saw them on the Kerplunk tour in a tiny club, then two years later at Lollapalooza 94 and they had the same big energy at both shows. Of course the club show was more fun with like 100 or so cramped people diving and jumping around like maniacs. They opened Lolla and Dookie was just becoming a hit, and to see all of these kids streaming past me, screaming like it was the Beatles was pretty insane.

I just think they were lucky that they got signed at the right time. There were lots of good punk bands with pop hooks decades before they showed up, and I think its fine to count Green Day among them. I liked them more than the bands that came later like Good Charlotte or whatever...

I learned after high school that punk didn't mean hardcore, since every punk it seemed was either into that or the SST freaky punk stuff like Butthole Surfers and Meat Puppets. The Sex Pistols were only talked about among the "new wave" crowd, who also liked PiL. I had no idea the Ramones were punk, I only knew what they looked like and figured they were bluesy classic rock because they didn't have mohawks. Green Day were just on the poppy catchy side of it. They seem sincere and not too manufactured imo.

 

For sure.

 

I enjoy most of their work, but GD leans far more pop than punk.

 

Nah, the Ramones weren't punk... THEY JUST FRIKKIN' INVENTED PUNK!!!

 

They're not a bad band, but "punk"? No.

PS: If I remember correctly, they were on "American Idol" about 10(?) years ago... If my memory is right, and they did appear on that show, I think that would throw any "punk" credibility out the window... If you ask me, no "real" punk band would appear on a show that is the direct opposite of what they are supposed to represent...

 

Nope. Not at all.

 

I think (I've mentioned this somewhere before) that Green Day isn't maturing with their fan base like the punk artists of yore did. Fans grew older with The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders, Johnny Rotten, Blondie.... whoever. We saw the hardships they endured. It was reflected in their music as they aged. We saw them struggle with the success and everything that came with it. As large as they were in the scene, we still saw them as real life took over. Some of them got swallowed by the scene itself.

Green Day seems so timelessly corporate it appears that they don't age. So overly political that what they say just sounds like snotty kids ranting. So equally balanced in their lives as wealthy musicians that it's sickening. They are a band who just releases albums without ever having to worry that about who will pay for the recording of it.... or if it will sell.... or if it'll get a good publicity.... or even if it'll get publicity at all.

Sleater Kinney asked in the song Entertain "Where's the black and blue?". With Green Day there has never been any black and blue.

 

Yep, "snotty kids" - that pretty much sums it up.

 

No

 

No way.

 

Very true. They're attracting tons of young kids who feel as out of step (pardon the pun) as I did 30 years ago. They print "No racism. No sexism. No homophobia" on the backs of their T-shirts and put them out for sale to teenage boys--hardly the most open-minded of demographics. They bring these kids onstage to sing along for what must be the greatest moment of their 15-year-old lives, much like the hardcore bands did way back when.

Really, Green Day should be reading their memoirs to geezers like myself in fancy bookstores. That's punk rock. (No offense, Patti.)

If the tide has turned so that pop-punk music a la the Undertones is now popular with kids, shouldn't we be happy about that?

By the way, have you seen the inside of Iggy's Florida villa? The man is not hurting for cash, and he's not apologizing, either.

 

No, I like some of their stuff

 

The question is, "Do you regard Green Day as a real punk band?". So I guess you do?

 

I said at the top of the thread "The music is basically sped-up pop, though. I guess they're punk if you think the Dickies were punk."

 

Green Day is more The Who than The Ramones

 

Punk? Yes and no... doesn't really matter what the category is, but whether or not you like them (or not).
Personally, I like some of their catalogue, with my favorites being Dookie and Insomniac (on amphetamine and decidedly not pop).

What really matters is if that guy ever opened that sealed copy of Led Zeppelin 2... perhaps RL press...
Did he, or didn't he? Or did he X-ray it, maybe?
Now that's an important question...
And we'll likely never find out...
Does anybody know?

 

High school kids, especially in the 80's, are more visual minded and about fashion, etc. The Zines and the fans were more into hardcore and crusty anarcho punk, so they weren't on anyone's radar until college. I never saw them on TV, and I had no one from the hardcore scene ever talk about seventies punk like The Ramones or the Sex Pistols or Television because they were too mellow or too old. You were lucky if some kid into new wave or college radio (alternative) would tell you if you knew someone, but punk cliques didn't care until we got older. In college we also discovered others responsible for inventing and influencing punk pre-Ramones, or even proto-punk like The Stooges, The Sonics, New York Dolls, Nuggets psych rock, etc...