Green Day have had a long career spanning over 27 years. They started as a punk band with anti-establishment ideals but have since aligned more with mainstream music culture. Their 2004 album "American Idiot" was both a critical and commercial success, topping the charts in 19 countries, despite critiquing mainstream politics. Green Day have successfully reinvented themselves over their career while maintaining a balance between their punk roots and mainstream popularity.

1. •American
•Indie
•Critical &
Commercial Success
•‘indie’ describes the
guitar based music genre,
aspirations and ideology
•Loyal Fan Base

2. Scrutiny
■ Green Day claim, and have claimed to be a punk band, much to the chagrin of punk
performers like John Lydon (ex Sex Pistols). In the same way that Joe Strummer from The
Clash was described as the ‘radical chic’ of punk, Green Day have been under the same
scrutiny throughout their whole career. A ‘love them or hate them’ approach defines
audience with both homage and humour used to parody their reputation at the beginning
of The Simpsons Movie with the band being sunk on a barge at the start of the Springfield
Music Festival.

3. Ideological Punk Stereotype to
Mainstream
■ Formed in 1987, Green Day were initially anti establishment, reflecting ideological punk
stereotypes but over the years aligned themselves more with mainstream music culture.
■ The band have sold 75 million albums worldwide and have a reputation for hybridizing indie
with mainstream rock.
■ Grammy Awards have followed them throughout their career with the band
citing intertextual references as The Ramones, The Buzzocks and Sex Pistols with an
expression of punk ideals at the heart of the band.
■ From an institutional perspective, their embracing of punk ideals is at odds with the fact
that they are signed to the major record company, Warners. The fiercest criticism has come
from the suggestion that they have sold out the ideals of punk in favour of commercial
success.

4. Uses & Gratifications
■ The official fan site, offers the ability to interact with other fans of the band applying the
personal relationships model of the Uses and Gratifications audience theory.
■ Notions of exclusivity are suggested by the ability to pre order from iTunes with other
features promoting again a mythical communication with the band who are seen to be
interested in every ‘individual’ fan, a common convention of the indie genre.
■ www.greenday.com offers a record company maintained representation of the band that
suggests higher production values and also foregrounds their iconic 2004 album,
‘American Idiot’. Again, the irony with this album was that it was critical of mainstream
political culture but topped the album charts globally in 19 countries.

5. American Idiot
■ The album cover of American Idiot
has rebellious connotations with a
bloodied hand holding a grenade – in
this respect anti establishment
imagery is manifest. The hand grenade
is being squeezed almost like a heart
bleeding which could also suggest the
song is about love and losing it however,
it seems more obvious that it is indeed
making a stand against society and
America’s traditional values.
■ Dark colours are commonly used by the
band to represent their genre but also to
anchor key themes.

6. Politically Independent Representation
■ Green Day remain keen to reinforce this politically independent
representation with press releases informing fans of what the band
are doing like Billie Joe Armstrong appearing in the independent
film Like Sunday, Like Rain.
■ Their perceived involvement in humanitarian aid and charity work
anchors this carefully constructed image – Stokes Me September for
example is a fundraising effort for the SIMA Humanitarian Fund
dedicated to improving life, health and welfare. Key beneficiaries
include Breast Cancer and Cystic Fibrosis.
■ However, Green Day now have the status as one of the most
successful bands of all time – in summer 2013 at the Emirates
Stadium in the UK the band sold 60,000 tickets while also
headlining the Glastonbury Festival. The band and Warners has
successfully of late marketed ‘American Idiot’ 10 years down the
line as one of the most influential albums of all time but the ability
to reinvent themselves over a 27 year career so far remains one of
the hallmarks of their success.
■ Vocalist and guitarist Armstrong has publicly acknowledged their
success and their status as a ‘big band’ but still has engineered
events that perhaps remind audiences they have retained their
individualism – in 2012 at the iHeartRadio music festival in Las
Vegas, Armstrong and bassist Dirnt smashed their guitars on stage
because they felt their time was being cut short.

7. Synergy
■ Green Day have benefitted over the years
with an association
with Kerrang! magazine as a form
of synergy but also linking with younger
audiences who are the main target
audience of the publication and website.
■ They are consistently represented as
artists that teenagers can relate to
because their music is about experiences
that this demographic can understand –
Green Day have been compared to Blink-
182, The Offspring, Good Charlotte and
Simple Plan but retain an individualism
that both attracts a pre existing target
audience but one that also allows them to
market to a new audience.

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