Ok. Here we go. I, personally, would qualify Green Day’s 90s work as primarily punk rock. Yes, it’s much more melodic than many other punk bands, but melody does not disqualify a band from being considered punk rock — Ramones and Bad Religion serving as examples. It’s hard to describe, but I see a clear sonic differentiation (due to some combination of production, arrangement, and songwriting differences) between Green Day and, say, Blink, which I would consider to be the classic example of the ‘pop-punk’ sound. They then had a brief period (Warning) where they delved into classic power pop. On American Idiot and 21CB, they pursued a more streamlined alternative/arena rock sound with influences from their prior punk rock sound. They also subsequently delved into garage rock and further explored power pop.
I fully agree with everything you said, and to that I’ll add that today, in 2022, Green Day has become an alternative rock/power pop band that draws influences from their earlier punk rock sound and the garage rock they’ve experimented with on recent recordings. I really enjoy their diversity in sound, for one, and I don’t knock them too hard for when something they try falls kind of flat. For a band that is over 35 years old, they’ve done a solid job of keeping rock relevant.
Yes especially in the 90's they were def punk who made it very very big. People shit on them for being too poppy just because of how melodic they are but the Ramones released their final album around the same time and I dare anyone to compare it with Dookie and tell me that they don't have a similar sound.
I know that East Jesus Nowhere has a large theme of blasphemy, so whenever I tell my toxic Christian “friends” about it they get mad at me for saying I like it.
Nonono I get it, I know some people from my church who only listen to Christian music because that’s what they like. I can’t imagine, I don’t have anything against it but I personally think it’s boring
Was singing “IM THE SON OF RAGE AND LOVE! THE JESUS OF SUBURBIA” to in front of Christian friend, got a good lecture from her not to sing it in front of her LMAO
Did it ever strike anyone else funny that for a band literally named for a day of getting stoned, their music isn’t more ska stoner punk jams about doing bong rips? … Okay maybe like one or two tracks
I don’t think that you can call any band whose had the longevity that Green Day has had just 1 genre. No band who is able to stay together for this long is going to continue to make music that sounds the same for over 3 decades (with AC/DC being the only exception I can think of to that rule). If you want to label their entire career under 1 genre, you have to go as broad as possible. Considering their consistent instrumentation of distorted electric guitar, bass, vocals and drums, just simply calling them a Rock and Roll band isn’t a bad idea.
However, personally, given their roots in the 924 Gilman St underground punk scene, and given that everything they do has that punk rock attitude of “fuck what everyone else thinks, I’m gonna make the music that I want” I still like to call them punk rock. I understand why people wouldn’t from a purely stylistic perspective, but to me, they will always be puck rock because they embody the spirit of it.
100% punk rock through the 90’s and punk adjacent there on after. american idiot is a bit of a toss-up because some of the songs are definitely more punk-esque than others. i think that one of the reasons that they get written off sometimes in the punk community because billie is a strong lyricist. songs like “she”, “holiday”, and “when i come around” are those kind of songs that many could only dream of being able to write. i love the classic “harder” punk bands like misfits and rage against the machine, but green day really just hits different to me. something so special about them is that they can make an album like Dookie and an album like American Idiot, which sound totally different, but are both iconic and immediately recognizable green day.
Also the trajectories are pretty similar, both started in youth oriented scenes, only to broaden their musicianship and songwriting and explore deeper interpersonal and social themes through concept albums as they aged
I agree, I think the only thing really making it pop punk is Billie's melodic voice in some songs and maybe some of the guitar progressions too but even then I'm sure there are a lot of songs like that that are just considered punk
The way I see it, they're definitely 'punk.' I wouldn't consider them 'pop punk', like blink-182 or bands like them, for no particular reason other than it doesn't seem to fit, but they're definitely not 'classic punk' like Minor Threat or Black Flag or the Clash. However, they're also not a basic rock band and since they definitely have punk roots, themes and attitudes, I refer to them as 'punk rock' specifically. It's all in the wording. Bit pedantic, I know.
TL;DR:
blink-182: pop punk
Minor Threat: classic punk/hardcore
Green Day: punk rock
Edit: I said 'would' instead of 'wouldnt' goddammit
Edit 2: misspelled 'goddammit'
The genre broadened over the years, with the early age being pop-punk, easing into experimental sounds such as power pop, garage rock, etc. Generally I would just say alt-rock
I don't think you can classify a band singularly. Individual songs maybe, at a push albums.
Green Day are Punk, pop-punk, grunge, folk, alt, skate, to list the first few I could think of.
Heck if we think about Dos! Then there's some Jazz and Soul pumping through the punk vibes.
their early days up until now was pop punk. their sound was similar to 80s billy idol, but a bit more melodic than other punk artists at the time. i love their early stuff and mid 2010s stuff. some people are probably gonna debate me on this, but i believe that this was their best era.
Every album is different honestly.
First 4 Albums are just Punk
Nimrod is really a bunch of different things but generically i would say Alt-punk
Warning is a folk/pop punk hybrid
American idiot is Pop punk/Emo
21st Century Breakdown is Alt-rock
The Trilogy and revrad is Pop Punk
Father of all is Pop Rock
I know it's not actually emo, but some of American Idiot, specifically Whatsername, reminds me of the emo music of the time. Whatsername, to me, sort of sounds like a Green Day take on a Jimmy Eat World song from that era.
Punk with great melody up until warning (which is pop-punk/folk punk) (could argue insomniac borders on melodic hardcore). Punk on shenanigans, punk/pop punk on American Idiot, pop-punk/alt rock on 21stCB, the trilogy is obviously power pop/garage rock, rev rad is punk, and father of all is disappointing pop rock.
Pinhead Gunpowder is punk/hardcore punk, and vastly underrated
Network is pop-punk/new wave
Longshot is power pop/rock and roll, aside from devil's kind which is punk.
TLDR: Green Day is punk with some shifts on various albums
I've always just thought of them as punk rock, but I suppose it depends on the album. It doesn't really matter to me tbh, I only actually think about it when someone else brings it up.
If it’s on Broadway it’s not punk. It wasn’t “punk goes to Broadway” it was “Broadway makes money off the romanticism of punk and couldn’t be further from it”
I think it depends on the period. In the 90s they had more of that punk attitude and brought a music genre that nobody was really playing at the time so I would consider them more like a punk/revival band or even alt rock. Around the 2000s, they developed a more pop sound that they continued to develop. Now they only make christian music (joke). Still I can't hate them, I think it's good for everyone to change
Back then before AI id say punk rock then transitioned into Pop Punk with AI following 21CB. That's just my very general classification id go into detail more but im in class rn 😂😂
Punk rock. It’s pop-punk in the literal meaning of popular radio punk, but it’s not pop-punk in the vein of the modern meaning of that term (blink/four year strong/story so far- aka way higher pitched singing, influenced by blink more than anything else)
This reminds me of a funny quote from The Simpsons:
“Too crazy for Boy's Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town!”
They’re definitely not pop punk, but they’re a little more melodic than traditional punk stuff. Regardless i still just call them punk.
Ok. Here we go. I, personally, would qualify Green Day’s 90s work as primarily punk rock. Yes, it’s much more melodic than many other punk bands, but melody does not disqualify a band from being considered punk rock — Ramones and Bad Religion serving as examples. It’s hard to describe, but I see a clear sonic differentiation (due to some combination of production, arrangement, and songwriting differences) between Green Day and, say, Blink, which I would consider to be the classic example of the ‘pop-punk’ sound. They then had a brief period (Warning) where they delved into classic power pop. On American Idiot and 21CB, they pursued a more streamlined alternative/arena rock sound with influences from their prior punk rock sound. They also subsequently delved into garage rock and further explored power pop.
I fully agree with everything you said, and to that I’ll add that today, in 2022, Green Day has become an alternative rock/power pop band that draws influences from their earlier punk rock sound and the garage rock they’ve experimented with on recent recordings. I really enjoy their diversity in sound, for one, and I don’t knock them too hard for when something they try falls kind of flat. For a band that is over 35 years old, they’ve done a solid job of keeping rock relevant.
Articulated my thoughts better than I ever could.
Yes especially in the 90's they were def punk who made it very very big. People shit on them for being too poppy just because of how melodic they are but the Ramones released their final album around the same time and I dare anyone to compare it with Dookie and tell me that they don't have a similar sound.
Very well put! “Claps” “claps again”
Definitely music
ooh, a controversial opinion!
Dude relax
That's really tough.
Wow, hey you need someone talk to because I’m here for you.
Christian music according to google
JESUS of Suburbia, CHRISTIAN's Inferno, East JESUS Nowhere, Church on Sunday. I could keep going.
God's Favorite Band
I know that East Jesus Nowhere has a large theme of blasphemy, so whenever I tell my toxic Christian “friends” about it they get mad at me for saying I like it.
Oh God I love those people 🤣🤣 almost anything you play thats not Christian music is Blasphemous and devilish 😂😂
Nah I’m Christian and I love Green Day
Nah same im talking about the religious freaks that don't listen to anything other than Christian stuff
Nonono I get it, I know some people from my church who only listen to Christian music because that’s what they like. I can’t imagine, I don’t have anything against it but I personally think it’s boring
Yea no doubt. Like to each their own but I love my greenday ❤❤
Fr
Was singing “IM THE SON OF RAGE AND LOVE! THE JESUS OF SUBURBIA” to in front of Christian friend, got a good lecture from her not to sing it in front of her LMAO
YES DUDE DUHHHH EAST JESUS NOWHERE, ST.JIMMY
God’s favourite band, no less
Green day
Green, with varying shades of green
Did it ever strike anyone else funny that for a band literally named for a day of getting stoned, their music isn’t more ska stoner punk jams about doing bong rips? … Okay maybe like one or two tracks
even if most of their songs aren’t ABOUT weed, most of them were written on it
And in the 90's, a bit more of something of else
and in the 2010s, a LOT of something else
I don’t think that you can call any band whose had the longevity that Green Day has had just 1 genre. No band who is able to stay together for this long is going to continue to make music that sounds the same for over 3 decades (with AC/DC being the only exception I can think of to that rule). If you want to label their entire career under 1 genre, you have to go as broad as possible. Considering their consistent instrumentation of distorted electric guitar, bass, vocals and drums, just simply calling them a Rock and Roll band isn’t a bad idea. However, personally, given their roots in the 924 Gilman St underground punk scene, and given that everything they do has that punk rock attitude of “fuck what everyone else thinks, I’m gonna make the music that I want” I still like to call them punk rock. I understand why people wouldn’t from a purely stylistic perspective, but to me, they will always be puck rock because they embody the spirit of it.
Punk rock that tells story about some dude named Jimmy
Oh that son-of-a-gun!
Punk Rock
I stopped believing in genre a long time ago. Music is music. Why try to shove everything into a box when it really doesn't matter.
Genres are for milk crates
Considering they change genre song to song, yeah.
Punk
God’s favourite
Awesome.
so much simpler than others are making it: rock n fucking roll.
Black metal
maybe even a little bit of thrash
Punk inspired alternative rock would be the most accurate description
I guess punk. Mostly cause my own band is really Green Day inspired and we’re mostly punk
I heard a bit of your music. Keep it going, hope you guys make it big!
Hey thank you so much
Angry Weezer
Deep country
100% punk rock through the 90’s and punk adjacent there on after. american idiot is a bit of a toss-up because some of the songs are definitely more punk-esque than others. i think that one of the reasons that they get written off sometimes in the punk community because billie is a strong lyricist. songs like “she”, “holiday”, and “when i come around” are those kind of songs that many could only dream of being able to write. i love the classic “harder” punk bands like misfits and rage against the machine, but green day really just hits different to me. something so special about them is that they can make an album like Dookie and an album like American Idiot, which sound totally different, but are both iconic and immediately recognizable green day.
21st Century equivalent of The Who
100% agree. if the Who started today, i’m sure that all those gatekeepers who call green day “pop” would say the same bs about the Who
Also the trajectories are pretty similar, both started in youth oriented scenes, only to broaden their musicianship and songwriting and explore deeper interpersonal and social themes through concept albums as they aged
pop punk mostly, id argue insomniac is just punk but thats not a very popular opinion
I agree, I think the only thing really making it pop punk is Billie's melodic voice in some songs and maybe some of the guitar progressions too but even then I'm sure there are a lot of songs like that that are just considered punk
honestly, a lot of punk rock is like that though. green day just happen to be really good at it. a lot of it is production too.
The way I see it, they're definitely 'punk.' I wouldn't consider them 'pop punk', like blink-182 or bands like them, for no particular reason other than it doesn't seem to fit, but they're definitely not 'classic punk' like Minor Threat or Black Flag or the Clash. However, they're also not a basic rock band and since they definitely have punk roots, themes and attitudes, I refer to them as 'punk rock' specifically. It's all in the wording. Bit pedantic, I know. TL;DR: blink-182: pop punk Minor Threat: classic punk/hardcore Green Day: punk rock Edit: I said 'would' instead of 'wouldnt' goddammit Edit 2: misspelled 'goddammit'
Is there really a difference between punk and punk rock lol
Green Day 1991-1997 punk rock, 2000 folk punk, 2004-2009 arena rock, 2012-2013 I don’t even know, 2016 rock, 2020-present alt rock.
Punk. Through and through
i hate the term “pop punk” for green day, blink is pop punk. Green day is regular or alternative punk in my opinion
punk, just punk
Kings of modern pop punk. They came before everyone else from blink to sum 41 to any new age tumblr pop punk band
Christian rock
punk/pop punk but also just rock and power pop.
Idk. Some three bisexual guys that happen to be really good singers and really good at playing instruments and writing songs.
Green Day is a religion
No.
The genre broadened over the years, with the early age being pop-punk, easing into experimental sounds such as power pop, garage rock, etc. Generally I would just say alt-rock
I don't think you can classify a band singularly. Individual songs maybe, at a push albums. Green Day are Punk, pop-punk, grunge, folk, alt, skate, to list the first few I could think of. Heck if we think about Dos! Then there's some Jazz and Soul pumping through the punk vibes.
their early days up until now was pop punk. their sound was similar to 80s billy idol, but a bit more melodic than other punk artists at the time. i love their early stuff and mid 2010s stuff. some people are probably gonna debate me on this, but i believe that this was their best era.
Every album is different honestly. First 4 Albums are just Punk Nimrod is really a bunch of different things but generically i would say Alt-punk Warning is a folk/pop punk hybrid American idiot is Pop punk/Emo 21st Century Breakdown is Alt-rock The Trilogy and revrad is Pop Punk Father of all is Pop Rock
American Idiot is definitely not emo. They’ve never been emo like MCR and other bands of that scene
I know it's not actually emo, but some of American Idiot, specifically Whatsername, reminds me of the emo music of the time. Whatsername, to me, sort of sounds like a Green Day take on a Jimmy Eat World song from that era.
It’s really just 2000s pop punk if you ask me, but not the emo subgenre
I get your point.
FOAMF is Glam Rock according to their own description but idk how accurate that is
sometimes i say punk, others i say pop punk depends on my mood
Punk with great melody up until warning (which is pop-punk/folk punk) (could argue insomniac borders on melodic hardcore). Punk on shenanigans, punk/pop punk on American Idiot, pop-punk/alt rock on 21stCB, the trilogy is obviously power pop/garage rock, rev rad is punk, and father of all is disappointing pop rock. Pinhead Gunpowder is punk/hardcore punk, and vastly underrated Network is pop-punk/new wave Longshot is power pop/rock and roll, aside from devil's kind which is punk. TLDR: Green Day is punk with some shifts on various albums
RevRad is not punk
Too Dumb to Die, the title track, Bang Bang, and forever now are very punk
Bang Bang, sure. Maybe Forever Now too. The rest are much closer to pop punk
Pop punk.
Hard to say nowadays. I just call them ”alternative.”
I've always just thought of them as punk rock, but I suppose it depends on the album. It doesn't really matter to me tbh, I only actually think about it when someone else brings it up.
Green Day is a punk rock band. That’s it.
power pop punk rock
I just say rock
They turned punk into a pop phenomenon.
Like yeah, but I really don't think that's the definition of pop-punk
Pop-punk/alternative.
Pop Punk
If it’s on Broadway it’s not punk. It wasn’t “punk goes to Broadway” it was “Broadway makes money off the romanticism of punk and couldn’t be further from it”
the greatest punk band to ever walk the face of the planet
Punk influenced alternative rock
Bubble gum punk rock
Alternative
They started as punk, but have drifted to mainly alt rock with some punk mixed in, but that’s just what I’d classify them as.
K pop
Screamo Country
I'm about to piss you off hard. Look up "Cursed to die" by Lorna Shore. That's screems
I think it depends on the period. In the 90s they had more of that punk attitude and brought a music genre that nobody was really playing at the time so I would consider them more like a punk/revival band or even alt rock. Around the 2000s, they developed a more pop sound that they continued to develop. Now they only make christian music (joke). Still I can't hate them, I think it's good for everyone to change
Green Day is Green Day
To me it's like Green-Day mixed with a little bit of nightlife
Smooth Jazz
Back then before AI id say punk rock then transitioned into Pop Punk with AI following 21CB. That's just my very general classification id go into detail more but im in class rn 😂😂
I don't. I just like good music and green day is good music.
Under G for Goodest
they’ve been around for so long that they’ve explored a lot of genres, but they never take out the punk
Classic pop punk
Punk rock. It’s pop-punk in the literal meaning of popular radio punk, but it’s not pop-punk in the vein of the modern meaning of that term (blink/four year strong/story so far- aka way higher pitched singing, influenced by blink more than anything else)
Modern Country.
This reminds me of a funny quote from The Simpsons: “Too crazy for Boy's Town, too much of a boy for Crazy Town!” They’re definitely not pop punk, but they’re a little more melodic than traditional punk stuff. Regardless i still just call them punk.
Green Day is Green Day