Green Day, a polarizing band. Love them or hate them, there is no middle ground. To be honest, they abandoned the true ethos of punk when they went mainstream. The past couple of records are nothing close to punk, they're contrived concept albums that didn't register with me. That said, I loved their early work, but there are hundreds of bands that you could say that about. The truth is that there haven't really been any punk bands this decade.
Hmm. No I don't agree. I for instance
like them, don't love em, don't hate em, just
like them, and I think lots of people around feel similarly. I also think that people hatred of them doesn't really stem from their music, its their image.
People hate their image so much they don't listen to the their music which is decent, not the best I've ever heard, but certainly not absolute shit either. Then they try to be all cool by saying that they're like the Jonas brothers, which they are not because they Billy Joe Armstrong is a talented songwriter with a unique voice and style, and the Jonas brothers are entirely corporate creation, to the point that its hard to even call them a band. They are just a marketing tool really.
Now I don't like how their recent albums have been produced and edited; its that same annoying plastic compression bullshit you hear everywhere these days, but their songs are fucking catchy and structurally dynamic, so it can be forgiven.
And i also don't get this "sell out" stuff to be honest. I thought sell out means you sacrifice artistic integrity for money. Green Day is as far as I can see doing the sort of stuff that I would do if I reached that level of popularity: making concept albums, musicals, double LPs, just fucking around really. Its certainly not brilliant, but it does seem like they're having fun with it. In the end that's what matters really.
