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Is Green Day receiving more criticism now for their views on Trump than when they released American Idiot?


JardyOfSuburbia

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I had this thought occur to me last night on my drive home as I was listening to American Idiot. Do you think Green Day received more negative attention/criticism when they released American Idiot, or are they receiving more now for their views on Donald Trump?

For example: Fox News and other publications have run a couple stories on Green Day (most recently about the Troubled Times lyric video) and the comments on those stories are rather hilarious to me and should be taken with a grain of salt.

I know that times are different in terms of social media today than they were back in 2004, but I'm just curious as to what everyone thought.

Personally, I think the criticism is worse now, but again, more people can voice their opinion thanks to Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also, I was just getting into Green Day back when American Idiot was released, so I wasn't as in-tune to the national coverage back then.

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16 minutes ago, JardyOfSuburbia said:

I had this thought occur to me last night on my drive home as I was listening to American Idiot. Do you think Green Day received more negative attention/criticism when they released American Idiot, or are they receiving more now for their views on Donald Trump?

For example: Fox News and other publications have run a couple stories on Green Day (most recently about the Troubled Times lyric video) and the comments on those stories are rather hilarious to me and should be taken with a grain of salt.

I know that times are different in terms of social media today than they were back in 2004, but I'm just curious as to what everyone thought.

Personally, I think the criticism is worse now, but again, more people can voice their opinion thanks to Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also, I was just getting into Green Day back when American Idiot was released, so I wasn't as in-tune to the national coverage back then.

Well I wasn't around to hear criticism of American Idiot. The thing is, I hear that Warning got a lot of hate but I hear little hate for that album now. I would imagine that AI got some hate for political views too. I guess after time, we just stop hearing the criticism. I think the social media is definetely part of the reason we hear so much hate. Like, we still hear so much hate on the trilogy 4 years later but if it weren't for Facebook, YouTube etc, we wouldn't hear as much hate

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I think they are getting more negative attention, as you put it, now only because the media networks are A LOT more biased now than they were 12 years ago.  Mainstream media is just ludicrous.  Also, American Idiot caught the world by surprise with how, for lack of a better term, majestic it is.  American Idiot woke up a lot of people and made them think whereas  I think RevRad is more critical, in negative way, of certain people that happen to live in the bible belt and the media if feeding off that with their UUUUUUGE biased mouths. 

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I agree with @tresexy101. I think the reason it looks like there's more is because the media is so biased now. Regular media doesn't need to put artists on blast for saying controversial things. They only reported when other people started talking about it. Nowadays though, everyone is outraged by everything and there's a large group of people ready to agree. So it builds up.

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I've thought about this recently and I came to the conclusion that humanity loves and glorifies celebrity shooting stars.

Back in 2004 people celebrated them for it (there might have been criticism too but all you really hear about now is praise) and then it died down with and after 21st Century Breakdown. They more or less vanished from the mainstream and whenever something negative happened politically, people were like "Oh we need Green Day to save us again lol" or "Green Day should write another American Idiot", but they have never really been this vocal about anything (or they have but it was on such "tiny" matters that nobody heard them), so that left people standing with that big "What if...?"

Oh, what if we had Green Day... It's like they had died. People remembered them as young, angry punk rockers who bravely told Bush to fuck off and then they disappeared. Kurt Cobain was a shooting star. Do you think anybody would still care about him today if he hadn't killed himself? I don't. The world is interested in martyrs. Literally, up until Green Day actually made their position on Trump clear people stopped saying things like "we need Green Day" and started with "so look at this band trying to be relevant again", a lot of people are annoyed that they didn't go as martyrs.

HOWEVER, I have seen overwhelmingly positive responses to their AMA chant, so there's that. :) 

3 hours ago, tresexy101 said:

I think they are getting more negative attention, as you put it, now only because the media networks are A LOT more biased now than they were 12 years ago.  Mainstream media is just ludicrous.  Also, American Idiot caught the world by surprise with how, for lack of a better term, majestic it is.  American Idiot woke up a lot of people and made them think whereas  I think RevRad is more critical, in negative way, of certain people that happen to live in the bible belt and the media if feeding off that with their UUUUUUGE biased mouths. 

This is the first time I see a post of yours that makes sense :D 

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Billie Hoe, I dunno if I should be offended by that statement or flattered.  But thank you and love you.  =)

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1 minute ago, tresexy101 said:

Billie Hoe, I dunno if I should be offended by that statement or flattered.  But thank you and love you.  =)

flattered :D your posts are incredibly hilarious and always make me laugh. you're a chaotic good troll. love ya too :* 

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9 minutes ago, tresexy101 said:

Billie Hoe, I dunno if I should be offended by that statement or flattered.  But thank you and love you.  =)

You're a better troll than @Steven Seagull

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Thank you all for calling me a troll.  I feel good about myself now.  Especially, since I happen to be considered a 'better troll' (thank you MysicManiac) than @Steven Seagull.   Thank you, I have an extra jump to my step now as I walk, I mean troll, down the hallway to grab another beer.  We should stay on topic though because this is the first time @Andres ever agreed with me and I felt soo good!  Then I got called a troll.  Geesh.  Peace and Love.  

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I don't remember there being a lot of criticism during the American Idiot era, but like it's been said, there wasn't the same social media presence there is now.  Comment sections are downright scary.  I think also, with AI, we were several years into Bush's presidency whereas now, the commentary started before Trump took office.  You do have the "give him a chance" people, although most of the people criticizing GD or other celebrities who are anti-Trump would be criticizing them no matter when they make their statements.

The thing I don't get is, I totally disagree with statements that right wing celebrities like Ted Nugent, Toby Keith, etc make, but I would never actively go to their pages and complain about it.  They have every right to voice their opinion.  I just choose to stay away from it and focus on the positive.  That's why I can't wrap my mind around people who clearly don't like Green Day or their message coming onto their pages and ranting about them. And it's always clear that they're not truly fans when they complain about them being political.  Hello?  They've been political for the past 17 years.  Did you just notice?

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Just now, Montclare said:

They've been political for the past 17 years.  Did you just notice?

Longer. "Road To Acceptance" is about racism, that was released in 1990

Quote

There have always been bits and pieces of political elements in our songs. I was telling someone the other day that, on the first LP, there’s a song called Road to Acceptance which is about racism. That was a big deal in the punk scene- combating racism and fascism. That was where our heads were at then, so we wrote about it.

— Mike Dirnt

 

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58 minutes ago, Billie Hoe said:

Longer. "Road To Acceptance" is about racism, that was released in 1990

 

True.  You you could say something similar about Coming Clean and LGBT issues.  I was thinking more of consistently political, which seemed to start more with Warning, and definitely with AI, where they started to get a political band label.

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I think that we have a lot more information to deal than 2004. Is not that they are getting more criticism, we are more socially connected, at least virtually, and that coincides with those kind of opinions.

Just today, when I saw the picture of Bille, Mike and other people about the million woman march, some comments were the likes of: "oh, they support misandry". And you know, is sad such sheer stream of ignorance there and there. In this age, people like to express their points of view, but a lot also show - with quite the pride sometimes - their ignorance. 

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17 years since the release of warning? Feels strange i feel old now...

Anyway AI=Criticism through art...happened during bush's presidency and not before.Got criticized too...they were called antiamericans,ambiguous men with makeup...but at the time with less social medias and internet usually if you didnt like something you wouldnt talk trash about it or its creator.

RevRad aint about trump...it happened before he was elected,and as billie said he was never inspired by that. (and never will but he cannot know). Critics trough words and instagram posts. They used social medias,they got an answer through it...everyone can use it and leaving a comment isnt too hard...

The problem is that people shifted the attention from the music (RR) to words. I read many stupid comments on facebook,and basically none was about the music.

We already saw that basically americans were split 50% 50%...and that many had voted for what they considered the lesser of two evils. Its pretty normal that when you talk so loud about something half of USA didnt agree with...you get negative responses...but honestly that negative response wasnt normal and civilized at all.

Will they give a f**k? As usual no...but considering what those posts said...i wouldnt be surprised if billie didnt feel at least a bit hurt.

Afterall basically he kept saying we need love and peace yet people responded with i hate you and your band you are trash...you should d*e...you have no right to have an opinion and shit like that.

Have an opinion that is different you get censored even if not the conventional censorship...its censoships through hate...but wasnt minority about this? (And btw censoship works both way whatever ur opinion is on US political matters it will happen no matter what)

Oh yeah those hate posts never seem to mention other bandmembers, yet they are posted on their fb page...strange isnt it?

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More than anything, I think it comes down to the two politicians' supporters. The people who elected the Comment Section in Human Form will obviously be combative on the internet against regular folks and celebrities who disagree with them. Trump's hateful rhetoric sets him apart from Bush—Bush was stupid, but Trump is scary. 

And of course, the internet is vastly different than it was in 2004—we see a lot more criticism of everything because we have access to it 24/7. 

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Based on live performances/speeches, I feel like AI Green Day just came at the issue in a different way. All of their concert speeches were more about empowering the people (you have the power) and never really attacked the person that the problem stepped from. The album did the same thing, talking about these issues from a more personal POV through the story of some dude. It felt natural and genuine. 

Now idk. Just listening to the speech Billie made during AI in Krakow, he's literally just saying "fuck Trump, fuck fuck fuck" over and over again while screaming. It comes off as whiny to me. I just feel like people their age would be less...well whiny and reactionary. I've never been a fan of opinions that consist of "you're wrong and there's no wiggle room," and Billie is sort of behaving that way. Maybe I'm just older now and far less rebellious, but it just seems so forced this time around. The chants and "fuck this fuck that" seems more appropriate coming from early 90's Green Day, but not this Green Day. This recent album was just so passive and reflationary, their behavior doesn't seem to match.

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I think if we just all read what I typed a while ago that @Andres agreed with me, the man, Andres, agreed with me, wow, I am a little erect, but THE MAN on this site agreed with me...  we should probably have everyone in this Green Day community copy my post and save it and memorize it.  In fact, I declare ALL new members have to memorize what I typed to be accepted in such a wonderful community.  Peace and Love. 

P.S.  It's weird, but I'm drunk and I'll type it, but I just wanna spread the feeling of love around the world and have positive feelings about ourselves so we give off good vibrations to each other... good vibes.  It's fucked up, like me, but I have been reading a lot and if ya just send out positive thoughts out there, the universe, they, the thoughts,  get heard or felt or something along those lines.  The most successful people, in terms of wealth, health, or whatever they are happy in, meditate every morning.  Transcendental meditation, or TM, being the most popular.  But since I'm a fucking troll though, I'm just gonna drink and drool.  Peace and Love.  

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6 hours ago, JardyOfSuburbia said:

I had this thought occur to me last night on my drive home as I was listening to American Idiot. Do you think Green Day received more negative attention/criticism when they released American Idiot, or are they receiving more now for their views on Donald Trump?

For example: Fox News and other publications have run a couple stories on Green Day (most recently about the Troubled Times lyric video) and the comments on those stories are rather hilarious to me and should be taken with a grain of salt.

I know that times are different in terms of social media today than they were back in 2004, but I'm just curious as to what everyone thought.

Personally, I think the criticism is worse now, but again, more people can voice their opinion thanks to Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also, I was just getting into Green Day back when American Idiot was released, so I wasn't as in-tune to the national coverage back then.

I think they have about the same amount of fucks to give about it, tbh. :lol:

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43 minutes ago, DookieLukie said:

Based on live performances/speeches, I feel like AI Green Day just came at the issue in a different way. All of their concert speeches were more about empowering the people (you have the power) and never really attacked the person that the problem stepped from. The album did the same thing, talking about these issues from a more personal POV through the story of some dude. It felt natural and genuine. 

Now idk. Just listening to the speech Billie made during AI in Krakow, he's literally just saying "fuck Trump, fuck fuck fuck" over and over again while screaming. It comes off as whiny to me. I just feel like people their age would be less...well whiny and reactionary. I've never been a fan of opinions that consist of "you're wrong and there's no wiggle room," and Billie is sort of behaving that way. Maybe I'm just older now and far less rebellious, but it just seems so forced this time around. The chants and "fuck this fuck that" seems more appropriate coming from early 90's Green Day, but not this Green Day. This recent album was just so passive and reflationary, their behavior doesn't seem to match.

Again, though, I believe Bush and Trump draw different responses. People didn't agree with a lot of Bush's choices. But if you're liberal, you often don't agree with conservative views. However, you can still try to understand those views, because plenty have merit to them, from a certain perspective. People often cited his lack of intelligence as a primary concern.

People often site hatred as a primary concern for the new president. Trump is divisive on a different level. I'm not speaking as a liberal when I say fuck him and his rhetoric, I say that as a human being who is deeply angered and afraid by what he could do to the future of this nation. He has offended nearly every minority he possibly could at this point, and is now taking core issues like LGBTQ rights and civil rights off the White House website. That is extremely troubling to me. Personally, he evokes a different set of emotions than I have ever felt toward a politician before, and I think many feel the same. Hence, the response is angrier. It really has nothing to do with age or maturity level.

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If they are, it's probably because Hillary is basically the female bush and people finding them so hypocritical for flocking to her without second thought. I'm not saying they should have voted Trump, but both candidates are basically anti Green Day as they get 

 

Trump: Bigotry 

Hillary: War criminal 

 

I'm starting to think they just think Republicans are inherently evil and Democrats are inherently good. 

3 hours ago, DookieLukie said:

Based on live performances/speeches, I feel like AI Green Day just came at the issue in a different way. All of their concert speeches were more about empowering the people (you have the power) and never really attacked the person that the problem stepped from. The album did the same thing, talking about these issues from a more personal POV through the story of some dude. It felt natural and genuine. 

Now idk. Just listening to the speech Billie made during AI in Krakow, he's literally just saying "fuck Trump, fuck fuck fuck" over and over again while screaming. It comes off as whiny to me. I just feel like people their age would be less...well whiny and reactionary. I've never been a fan of opinions that consist of "you're wrong and there's no wiggle room," and Billie is sort of behaving that way. Maybe I'm just older now and far less rebellious, but it just seems so forced this time around. The chants and "fuck this fuck that" seems more appropriate coming from early 90's Green Day, but not this Green Day. This recent album was just so passive and reflationary, their behavior doesn't seem to match.

Agreed. I would be lying if I said I hadn't lost a bit of respect for Billie over this period. He can't surely think that all his fan base is liberal (especially during this election). 

 

So many fans on social media have dropped the band and sold their merchandise (as posted on social media) due to feeling personally attacked by BJ's comments. Not all Trump voters are 'white supremacists' or racists like some ignorants claim. Economic anxiety and simply being anti-Hillary were probably the two biggest reasons. 

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3 hours ago, DookieLukie said:

Based on live performances/speeches, I feel like AI Green Day just came at the issue in a different way. All of their concert speeches were more about empowering the people (you have the power) and never really attacked the person that the problem stepped from. The album did the same thing, talking about these issues from a more personal POV through the story of some dude. It felt natural and genuine. 

Now idk. Just listening to the speech Billie made during AI in Krakow, he's literally just saying "fuck Trump, fuck fuck fuck" over and over again while screaming. It comes off as whiny to me. I just feel like people their age would be less...well whiny and reactionary. I've never been a fan of opinions that consist of "you're wrong and there's no wiggle room," and Billie is sort of behaving that way. Maybe I'm just older now and far less rebellious, but it just seems so forced this time around. The chants and "fuck this fuck that" seems more appropriate coming from early 90's Green Day, but not this Green Day. This recent album was just so passive and reflationary, their behavior doesn't seem to match.

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Completely agree!

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I'd say it was probably worse when American Idiot came out than now. You have a lot more people this past election get involved and/or pay attention to it. Television media for the most part is a bunch a Liberal media as it has been for years. Aside from the fools at fox most of your conservative media comes from either radio or social media. I, being a conservative, only saw one conservative outlet say anything about the Troubled Times video. Only one and I follow tons of them. I'm sure that all of the trump supporter pages and such had a fantastic time with the troubled times video, but honestly it didn't really make an impact. It's a weak ass song. If it had the same energy as American idiot it would have probably gotten more attention. The reason why Green Day slammed trump in the video is just for hopes of attention and to be honest this song has had slow traction compared to bang bang. So the whole attention thing didn't work exactly. So back to the point. Green Day was getting slammed from every angle when American idiot came out. Now? Its completely different. Nobody cares that Green Day doesn't like Donald Trump except for the elite Trump Supporters. 

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Few reasons.

 

-The internet is much bigger now than it was during the Bush administration, and people of pretty much every age are on it now. Obviously more people are going to have voices

-Trump supporters are huge babies like their candidate is, and anytime anyone slightly speaks out against them they like to whine in the comments (usually saying to "stay out of politics" because they think that makes them look better than actually admitting they voted for the idiot). Basically they have incredibly thin skin, which is ironic since their favorite insult seems to be making fun of people who are "triggered" when they are triggered more easily than anyone I've ever seen

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