Happy 10th Anniversary 21st Century Breakdown!

[Little Boy Named Booze]

Tomorrow we celebrate 21stCB 10 years old 😍

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

Oh fuck, I can't believe it's been 10 years. I remember it like yesterday when we had a thread for its 5th anniversary and I was like "no way!".

[jengd]

Woah, had totally forgotten,  I remember dashing out of work to catch the record store before they closed and blasting it on my car stereo!  Still love it and listen often.

[maryjanewhatsername]

I don't want to think about it being 10 years old, still feels like yesterday that I heard "21 Guns" for the first time 

[Hermione]

I remember the anticipation was so crazy. It was a long time to wait and I'd got into them after AI came out so I'd never experienced a new GD album coming out before, it's was so exciting especially being on here. And then the album blew me away! Beautiful and epic songs.

Edit: Decided to split this into its own thread

[chrism17]

Ive been listening to 21cb a lot lately, and I feel it's themes are more relevant then ever right now. As an old school Green Day fan it feels weird to say, but 21cb has become my favorite album. It just feels so expertly crafted, like they were truly at the top of their game. I didn't appreciate it enough when it came out but now I finally see it for what it is.

[solongfromthestars]

Wow, 10 years. It was my first wait for a new album too and I still remember it so clearly. I always associate these photos with the first real news of the era:

Then the guitar intro played on repeat on greenday.com. It gave so little away, even though it became so recognisable later! The lyrics were posted on Green Day's site a while later and I expected the songs to be like, heavy metal or something because they were so dark But Billie is an expert at making misery catchy so of course they weren't. When Know Your Enemy came out, my mum and I listened to it on repeat for so long we could still hear it after we switched it off. Unpopular opinion, but I still like it.

I was so excited when the album arrived a few days early from HMV. I had no idea it would become such an important part of my life, but it did. It's still my favourite album of all time and I don't think Green Day will ever outdo it for me. Whilst I had equally great times on the 99 Revolutions and RevRad tours, the 21st Century Breakdown Tour was objectively the best and many of my most treasured memories are from then. I'll never forget my first show and how blown away I was from high up in seats, or the contrast of seeing the tour close with Whatsername in Costa Rica. 10/10 high quality era.

[RedundantIdiot]

21st CB is in my top 5 GD albums, but hopefully in the next tour they'll do songs other than KYE and 21 Guns. 

Kerrang have done a 'feature' on 21st CB: https://www.kerrang.com/features/green-day-the-inside-story-of-21st-century-breakdown/

[pacejunkie punk]

26 minutes ago, RedundantIdiot said:

21st CB is in my top 5 GD albums, but hopefully in the next tour they'll do songs other than KYE and 21 Guns. 

Kerrang have done a 'feature' on 21st CB: https://www.kerrang.com/features/green-day-the-inside-story-of-21st-century-breakdown/

I actually want them to bring back the full band version of 21 Guns. They didn’t do that this tour and haven’t in a good while. It was great during the 21CB period. KYE I can see go but it is a crowd pleaser with some good fan interaction, they hate to part with those. I’d like to see EJN come back as another good interactive one and a great live song it could replace Letterbomb. They need more balance between 21CB and AI in their sets. Put LNOE back as an acoustic encore instead of 21Guns.

[Little Boy Named Booze]

8 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

I’d like to see EJN come back as another good interactive one and a great live song it could replace Letterbomb.

Don't ever replace Letterbomb ! I need this song.
I need a lot of song to be honest. 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

We need 4 hour shows 

[Sarcasm]

I'M SO FUCKING OOOOOOOLD

[The Blayr]

22 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

We need 4 hour shows 

We do! GD didn't even play 21 Guns when I saw them for Rev Rad. 

Breakdown is tied with Rev Rad for my fav GD album. I can't believe it's 10 already! I just heard the full album a few months ago lol. But I feel like I've known 21 Guns my whole life. To be fair, I was only 8 when that album came out.

[Lenny]

18 hours ago, maryjanewhatsername said:

I don't want to think about it being 10 years old, still feels like yesterday that I heard "21 Guns" for the first time 

I remember when I first heard the song. I believe it was a leak a week or two before the actual release date. I knew right then and there that song was going to be one of their biggest hits outside of alternative and rock radio. It's actually their second last song to ever chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Oh Love was the last for the band. 

21cb was the most anticipated album of 2009. I remember giant boards outside of record stores of the band and I literally had music channels playing from May-July in my room because they were on the music channels every week. They even played late night shows I specifically remember watching them on Colbert. 

American Idiot and 21cb eras were very unique and exciting for Green Day fans. 

[chrism17]

Did any behind the scenes footage ever come out from this era? Like anything showing the making of the album?

[Lenny]

10 minutes ago, chrism17 said:

Did any behind the scenes footage ever come out from this era? Like anything showing the making of the album?

There were some short youtube videos released months before the album dropped. The most notable one I remember is Billie recording the solo to Viva La Gloria (Little Girl). 

From my knowledge there wasn't extensive coverage of the process the way there was with AI or the trilogy

[Shtrudel]

This doesn't make sense. After all, 10 years ago were still the 90's, right?

RIGHT?!

[The Blayr]

3 minutes ago, Shtrudel said:

This doesn't make sense. After all, 10 years ago were still the 90's, right?

RIGHT?!

YOU MEAN ITS NOT STILL THE 90S?!

[bass boy]

Total head trip. I remember joining this community around the time of the hype, it was a hell of a time. Scary how time flies. While this isnt my favorite GD album, ill never forget the excitement I felt  when we got  the leaked 21st Century Breakdown demo. Resparked my love for the boys and let me to countless friendships, so definitely holds a special place in my heart.  

[Rob]

Man,  I can’t believe it’s been ten years. I remember the wait was excruciating. It came out a lot later than I ever thought it would. In the fall of 06 they had a “big news coming Friday, you’ll wanna be here!” message posted on the official site and I thought for sure it was about the new album. Turned out it was about the saints are coming collab and it would be damn near another three years before we’d get a new record. 

 

Tidbits were very scarce during that time compared to today. Billie joe gave “2008” as a “fair estimation” for the album at the end of 2006. We didn’t get much until the very next year where they said they had “x amount of songs written”. We got the inside info that they entered the studio in January 08 that the band’s management made us take down. We had the working class hero and Simpson’s theme cover in 07, and of course the foxboro hot tubs in late 07, early 08, but very little in regards to the actual new Green Day Record.

and then I remember the quick YouTube videos coming out in the fall of 2008 and absolutely losing my shit. The 2009 Grammy reveal. I remember it all. All so fucking vividly. Like it happened just months ago. Can’t even comprehend how it’s been ten years.

 

i remember the album leaked about a week early, I couldn’t bear the wait anymore, and downloaded it to my iPod Nano, listening to it like “holy shit, I can’t believe it’s finally here”.

 

But sadly, tbh, in retrospect I don’t think much of the album, and haven’t really been into Green Day since about 2011. Personal musical taste have changed and I just grew out of the band and onto other things. I just haven’t been impressed with post AI albums in general and none of them really have a lot of replay value to me. But the nostalgia I have anticipating this album, and how I felt the first time hearing it will always have a special place in my heart. I’ll try to give it a listen tonight even if just for that.

[The Great Saiyaman]

Last Night On Earth is one of the real standout songs to me. Just so laid back and reminds me that even if it's not the usual Green Day I expect it can still be fucking awesome. It's always reminded me of the Fallout games for some reason.  See the Light is one of my favorites too. This album has grown on me a lot over the years and I absolutely love it. I also really love Last of the American Girls but from some posts I've seen that might be an unpopular opinion? Don't really care but the title track has always been my favorite. That song was actually one of my first favorite Green Day songs that really helped me get into them. Glad it's grown on me so much. Also I love Social Distortion so them covering Another State of Mind was pretty awesome too. 

[TheNimrodsPodcast]

Seriously crazy that it's been ten years since this record came out... I still remember "Before The Lobotomy" completely blowing my mind the first time I heard it, such a huge sounding song!

[jengd]

A little late but I thought this was a great article, possibly because I agree with it 😂😂 https://www.rocksound.tv/features/read/how-green-day-perfectly-captured-the-feeling-of-surviving-modern-life-on-21

 

[Christian's Inferno!]

I'm glad when I see people appreciating 21CB. I feel like everyone's like "Woo! American Idiot" or "Woo! Dookie" and I'm just in the corner like "Yeah... but 21st Century Breakdown"

[Slave To The Network]

This is the album that got me into Green Day and I still love it to death! I can't comprehend how it's been 10 years already. Everyone is 10 years older and it's crazy. How did this happen? I really miss all the 21CB songs being played live. Especially Before the Lobotomy, 21 Guns, and Last Night on Earth. Then there's the tragedy that Peacemaker was never played live (that I'm aware of), and Christian's Inferno was possibly a one off. It would have been great if they'd played those.