Hard to believe, but it has been fully two decades now since Green Day released their now iconic "American Idiot" album.
At the time, it felt like exactly the kind of tonic that the nation needed. A popular band producing possibly (I would argue probably) their best album musically. And low and behold, it happens to be a punk band showing not just edge, but real teeth with lyrics which were potent and meaningful and critical of what was going on in the country at the time.
Remember, that was when George W. Bush was the spoiled rich prick who was sitting in the White House, and his entire administration was effectively a lying machine of alarming propaganda, particularly in regards to their aggressive pursuit of the war in Iraq. People seem to largely have forgotten about all of that now, and Americans really have never acknowledged the idiocy involved with that decision. Remember how Saddam Hussein was supposed to be the next Hitler or Stalin? Remember how the administration, while being careful never to directly point their finger at Saddam and Iraq for the September 11th attacks, nevertheless kept using language that clearly implied that there was some involvement? This proved so effective that even after the Bush administration admitted that there was nothing actually linking Saddam Hussein or Iraq to the September 11th attacks, about half of Americans still believed after this admission that, somehow, they were involved?
Bush and his administration - with the de facto support of popular American media which also aggressively justified the unjustifiable war in Iraq, and echoed the chamber of lies which the Bush White House had become. That was the era when FOX News emerged to become the misinformation machine that has since become it's obvious identity. There were conservative pundits outside of FOX that were aggressively pining for war, as well, including (but not limited to) Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller, Michael Savage, Ann Coulter, and an army of others, who tried to silence dissent by identifying any criticism with "the extreme left" and suggesting that opposition to the war in Iraq (while we were simultaneously fighting the war in Afghanistan) was nothing short of sympathizing with the terrorists.
Meanwhile, we were asked to swallow whole notions that were vague and not based on facts. Things like Saddam Hussein's Iraq having a "mass arsenal" of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" or WMD's. That they were working in concert with terrorist organizations. That they had been obtaining yellow cake, an essential ingredient necessary in the development of nuclear weapons. And everywhere and always, there were alarm bells ringing that another terrorist attack was imminent, with the imagery (used by the Bush administration in particular) of the "mushroom cloud" over American skies, and how Saddam Hussein's capabilities included a 45-minute response time. That, of course, would have made his Iraq a virtual superpower. Yet somehow, Bush administration officials used this rationale for months while pressing for a prompt invasion of Iraq, then boldly (and I would argue paradoxically) predicted a quick, easy, and painless American victory, despite warnings that the administration actually had no exit strategy (a criticism which clearly proved true, since we were in Iraq for nearly two decades, and the war was still dragging on long after the Bush administration passed into history). Certainly, we all should remember how Bush also clearly wanted to proclaim a quick and decisive victory, and thus went to the aircraft carried (which was conveniently docked just off the coast of San Diego) and de facto declared victory, under a huge and patriotic banner declaring "Mission Accomplished!"
Ridiculous.
Yet, that is what dominated our popular "news" media at the time. If anything, it has only gotten worse since. But that was when the propaganda machine being well-oiled and running endlessly day and night became obvious for many of us. We woke up to see that the United States suddenly looked like something many of us could no longer recognize.
Yeah, we as a nation collectively needed and deserved for Green Day to release an album, with a very popular title track, called "American Idiot." It spoke of the "alien nation," a thinly veiled reference to both the controversy regarding "illegal aliens" (now more often referred to simply as "illegals") as well as just how much the country had changed, so that it indeed felt like it was an alien nation.
The lyrics also spoke of the "new media" producing "the sound of hysteria" resulting in the "subliminal mindfuck of America." They sang of a country "where everything isn't meant to be okay."
Ultimately, of course, Green Day loudly and proudly declared themselves not a part of this "nation controlled by the media" and pursuing a "redneck agenda," which encouraged everyone to "do the propaganda" and to mindlessly "sing along to the age of paranoia."
Prior to the loud and proud protest side to the band best illustrated with "American Idiot," I liked Green Day. However, it was qualified, because the band hardly seemed to really be "punk" in any meaningful way. I mean, "Dookie" was a good album, but it felt like softball compared to some of the hard-hitting punk that my brother and I had listened to while growing up. We both listened to bands with a sense of urgency and protest, who took strong and unmistakable stances on the issues of the day. Bands like the Dead Kennedys (who at least used to be my favorite band overall, for a time), DOA, the Clash, and the Sex Pistols (although I will not get into whatever in the hell happened to John Lydon, formerly known as Johnny Rotten.
So while I liked Green Day's music, I was waiting for them to make a statement of some sort. And boy, did they ever deliver! To be sure, there were other bands and artists who protested what was going on. I was reading a lot of Kurt Vonnegut back then, and he was very vocal in his opposition to what was going on in the country, and the war in Iraq. Michael Moore was releasing some very famous movies, which shattered records for documentaries at the time. And in music, while Pearl Jam had always been a band identified with political protest, this really vamped up at around that era, as it did for some other bands. Incubus comes to mind. They also had not shown anything resembling political consciousness prior to the release of the "A Crow Left of the Murder" in 2003. There was also Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief," and some others which I apparently am not remembering at the moment.
Yet, it was Green Day who came out with the masterpiece, if you will. It took some time for the band to really show their credentials in protest in the loudest and proudest tradition of raucous punk music. But once they did, they did it in a big way! I have heard some people refer to Green Day as the CCR of the new era. That's an impressive comparison, and frankly, that idea does not sound entirely wrong or laughable.
What a song! What a wakeup call for the entire country, and even the entire world!
And what an album in general "American Idiot" was. And that album was released on this day 20 years ago!
We sure could use another album like that one again. It might just be more relevant in certain ways now than it was even on the day that it was released!
No comments:
Post a Comment