In a Saturday New York Times review, Jon Pareles writes about the parody Green Day has become. I totally agree with the headline, “Now a Band That It Once Parodied.” Green Day has gone mainstream, along with punk culture.
When I was a teenager, disco choked culture and music to near the point of death. Then along came New Wave and Punk—real Punk—bands pushing a harder sound and lifestyle. Spiked, died hair, black leather, tattoos, and piercings were as much statements as attire, as teens sought to throw of the yolk of their older, self-obsessive Baby Boomer siblings.
From the disco inferno’s ashes rose great punk bands, like the Clash, the Ramones, and the Sex Pistols. These bands filled small clubs with big sound, and their rebellion roared across the North American and European continents.
But the punk fire faded in the 1980s, as conservatism swept across the United States. Revival sparked with grunge in the early 1990s. Yet the flame had never really gone out. Punk found new kindling, but not in grunge; bands like Green Day sparked punk’s revival in the mid 1990s.
But a decade later, what is punk? I enjoy punk, punk pop, and emo music, in part, because I came of age listening to similar sounds. But the music is mainstream, it’s no longer rebellious. And for all Green Day’s so-called rebellion, the band’s punk sound (in some ways lost on “American Idiot”) is really about marketing.
Take the band’s carefully clad MTV Video Music Awards attire. Punk fashion. Likewise have tattoos, spiked hair, and piercings became nothing more than fashion. Sorry kids, you’re not rebelling. You’re nothing more than marketing billboards.
What’s with all the mascara Billie Joe Armstrong wears? C`mon, Billie Joe, the mascara-wearing punker isn’t rebellion, it’s fashion.
Just who is the American idiot, the typical Green Day fan? I’m starting to think the green in Green Day is now really about making money. That a band whose music I still enjoy has sold out, and, yes, is a parody of its former self.
These boys might as well get their lips injected and dress up like Bratz. Because I don’t see much difference in the marketing, just the packaging. And it is all marketing now—carefully crafted songs feigning rebellion.
Time is now for punk to return to its roots before bands like Green Day snuff its fire out.
Photo Credit: Jackie “Sister72”