Green Day > Reviews (8)

Without a doubt Green Day are what punk today is all about. Constantly fresh, ever questioning the very building-blocks of society. Sat proudly next to Pearl Jam they have been one of the most influential American alternative bands.

Whilst their music has not been the most inventive, focusing predominantly on power-chord driven riffs with simple bass lines following and emphasising the flow of the song, it is lyrically and through their fusion of 70's punk with the more grunge-like sound which emerged to prominence in the time their major label début Dookie was released in 1994.

The band originally formed in 1988 and their first album was titled “1039/smoothed out slappy hour”. Their first album has been described by many as “not bad by any means” and typically it's mentioned that with slight aural tweaks and the odd change here and their many of the songs from this original album could become those songs which have captured the spirit of one of the largest fan-bases in the alternative rock genre currently.

Onward from their humble beginnings they have released some truly fantastic albums, the most notable of which has been the aforementioned Dookie. This album truly rocked the charts in a way which has often been compared to the greatness even of Nervermind by Nirvana and which sadly is not mimicked by many bands around in the present day. This awesome album rocked the charts during the mid-nineties and spawned wave after wave of imitation bands.

To sum up Green Day is a pretty tall task but imagine if you will a band whose songs anyone can play, whose often bizarre lyrics are still oddly memorable and sung by all and whose mark has squarely been left as a keenly sharp point in history when music was what it was meant to be, about the music. Not technical ability or the aesthetic qualities of the members but about getting a message across and most importantly enjoyable listening in nearly any situation.