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    Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion
    Unavailable
    Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion
    Unavailable
    Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion
    Ebook333 pages4 hours

    Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion

    By Ben Myers

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The Green Day story is very blunt: three school friends grow up together in a cluster of small blue-collar Californian towns, form a band … and sell over 50 million albums. Except it wasn’t that simple. Self-confessed latch-key kids, theirs was far from an easy ride.

    Inspired by both the energy of British punk bands like the Sex Pistols and Buzzcocks and cult American bands such as Dead Kennedys and Husker Du, Green Day formed in 1989. The band gigged relentlessly across the US, quickly selling out every underground club that booked them, and their 1994 major label debut Dookie was a 10-million-selling worldwide hit album that seized the zeitgeist while rock music was still reeling from the death of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. They toured the world, headlined all the big festivals, won countless awards and released multi-million selling albums.

    In 2004 Green Day reached a career pinnacle with the concept album American Idiot, a sophisticated commentary on modern life—not least dissatisfaction with their president and America’s continued cultural and economic imperialism. The No. 1 success of the Grammy-winning album extended Green Day's fan base even further—from pre-teen kids to previously skeptical critics.

    This book is the world’s first full biography on Green Day. An authority on punk and hardcore, author Ben Myers charts the band members’ difficult childhoods, the context of the band within the US and world punk scene and their glittering rise to success. Myers has also interviewed the band for various magazines at different stages of their career. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateApr 1, 2006
    ISBN9781609258986
    Unavailable
    Green Day: American Idiots & The New Punk Explosion
    Author

    Ben Myers

    Ben Myers was born in Durham in 1976. He is the author of several works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His writing has appeared in a number of publications including Melody Maker, NME, Mojo and the Guardian. He lives in rural Yorkshire. His work has been translated into seven languages and his short stories have appeared in dozens of print anthologies and underground publications. His novel Richard was published by Picador in 2010. His novel Pig Iron (Bluemoose, 2012) was runner-up in the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize 2012 and won the inaugural Gordon Burn prize in 2013.

    Read more from Ben Myers

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    Reviews for Green Day

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      The unauthorised story of three chaps who became international superstars and the leaders of the new punk revolution. Sometimes superficial and anecdotic but if you're a fan it's a must. The hungarian translation is shitty....
    • 5/5
      This is an unauthorized, but very favorable, biography of Green Day, one of the world’s biggest punk music bands.The trio that became Green Day grew up in small towns near San Francisco. Each coming from difficult family circumstances, they fell in love with punk music (the Dead Kennedys, the Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks, among many others). They formed a band, and soon became mainstays at a place called 924 Gilman. It was little more than a vacant building, but it quickly became a West Coast punk rock mecca. On any given night, veteran punk bands and bands playing their first gig would share the bill.In the early days, Green Day was constantly on tour. They played basements, squats, anywhere they could plug in their instruments. Some nights, their audience might reach double digits, and other nights they might actually get paid for their efforts. They were living the punk rock lifestyle, fueled by large amounts of alcohol. They were loose and slacker-like about many things, but they were totally serious about their music.Slowly but surely, they were building a fan base. Their first two albums, on a small punk label, did really well, eventually selling in the hundreds of thousands. Their first major label release, Dookie, in 1994, was a blockbuster, eventually selling 10 million copies. Marriage, fatherhood and burnout became a part of their lives, so they cut back on the incessant touring. But they were now filling major arenas. While some punk music can be indistinguishable from very loud, random noise, a big influence for Green Day was 1960s British bands, so there was actual music in their songs. In 2004, they released a concept album called American Idiot, another blockbuster and Grammy winner, giving their view of present-day America.I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, this book is highly recommended for those who own any of the band’s musical output. It is also recommended for anyone, yours truly included, who has seen a video or two of theirs on TV, but who knows little or nothing about punk music in general, or Green Day in particular.