American Idiot

American Idiot is Green Day's seventh album (not counting the previous release Shenanigans), which was released on September 21, 2004 by Warner Bros. Records.

After the release of International Superhits, Green Day's greatest hits album, the band was scared and inspired into writing American Idiot. Their writing process had become mechanical and they felt they needed to release something more relevant. This inspired them to write their most critically acclaimed album to date, American Idiot. It is a rock opera, similar to other thematic albums such as The Who's Quadrophenia and Pink Floyd's The Wall. There is talk of one day adapting it into a full-length motion picture or musical.

The theme of the album largely deals with the nature of rebellion. Some real political issues are mentioned, the inevitable result of Green Day's passionate negative feelings toward George W. Bush, but the story is really about the life of a rebellious youth. The main character, Jesus of Suburbia, must choose an outlet for his rebellion: finding what he truly believes and fighting for it, or self destruction. See below for details.

American Idiot was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, and won the Best Rock Album of 2005. The album appeared in EA Sports' Madden NFL 2005.

Ironically, in light of its success, the album was not originally planned to come out. Green Day was working on a followup to Warning:, but its master tapes were stolen. Instead of trying to rewrite the stolen album, they began the long and arduous process of writing another album.

The album ranked at #7 for the Top 100 Albums of 2004 and #833 for overall by Rate Your Music.

It was certified double platinum by Billboard in January 2005, and 6x platinum in March 2005.

Tracks

1. "American Idiot" (2:54)
2. "Jesus Of Suburbia" (9:08 medley)
3. "Holiday" (3:53)
4. "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" (4:20)
5. "Are We The Waiting" (2:43)
6. "St. Jimmy" (2:56)
7. "Give Me Novacaine" (3:25)
8. "She's A Rebel" (2:01)
9. "Extraordinary Girl" (3:34)
10. "Letterbomb" (4:06)
11. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" (4:45)
12. "Homecoming" (9:19 medley)
13. "Whatsername" (4:12)

Plot

American Idiot (1.American Idiot) tells about how you see the war in Iraq going on on television and then inbetween the news broadcast all the different commercials and just trying to find your individuality.

The album tells the story of Jesus of Suburbia, who lives with his negligent divorcee mother in a suburb called "Jingletown, USA ". His younger years were spent on a "steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin", watching television, experimenting with drugs (2-I. Jesus of Suburbia), and loitering in front of convenience stores. He doesn't seem to like his parents very much and apparently, they drink, smoke, do drugs etc.

Disillusioned with life in Jingletown (2-II. City of the Damned) and its effect on his psyche (2-IV. Dearly Beloved), Jesus decides to leave Jingletown for "The City" (2-V. Tales of Another Broken Home).

At first his vacation seems exciting and he is happy to go out on his own (3. Holiday), but Jesus later finds himself alone in spite of The City's crowd (4. Boulevard of Broken Dreams), so he eventually decides to radically change his personality. In doing so, he adopts a new moniker, "St. Jimmy", and lifestyle, that of an unpredictable, tough, and rebellious criminal (6. St. Jimmy).

Jesus meets Whatsername , a girl who fascinates him - she is a real rebel, not someone pretending to be one like he is (8. She's a Rebel), and they begin dating. As he slowly metamorphosizes into St. Jimmy, he falls thoroughly in love with her, but he is unable to give her what she deserves due to his personal insecurities (9. Extraordinary Girl). In a letter to Jesus/Jimmy, Whatsername expresses her frustration towards him, and tells him she's leaving both him and The City (10. Letterbomb).

Track 11, Wake Me Up When September Ends, is about Billie Joe Armstrong's father, who died when he was 10. On the VH1 show Storytellers, Billie Joe mentions that this song is the only song that veers from the overall plot of the album. Seeing as it has a date in the liner notes along with the other songs, and has lines such as 'let's ring the bells again, like we did when spring began' which was a happier time in the story, the track probably has duel meanings.

Eventually Jesus decides to abandon his St. Jimmy identity, which he had been using as a crutch. In order to abandon his title, Jesus feigns suicide as St. Jimmy (12-I. The Death of St. Jimmy).

Following his supposed suicide, Jesus gets a desk job on East 12th St. that he finds oppressively boring (12-II. East 12th St.) (Note: East 12th Street is the real location of the police station in East Bay, California where Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had to fill out paperwork for his DUI in 2002) much like his personal life (12-III. Nobody Likes You). He decides to return to Jingletown to escape this trap (12-V. We're Coming Home Again) and is left with his memories of what could have been had he stayed with Whatsername (13. Whatsername).

Movie Adaptation

Shortly after the album was released there was speculation that American Idiot might be made into a movie. VH1 quoted Armstrong as saying "We've definitely been talking about someone writing a script for it, and there's been a few different names that have been thrown at us. It sounds really exciting, but for right now it's just talk." link

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Singles - Billboard (North America)