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Chart update- Alternative Airplay- 17, down from 16 Mainstream Rock Airplay- 18, up from 19 Rock and Alternative Airplay- 20, up from 22

86 on the soundtrack of Joe's Apartment

It's topics like this makes me want to journey back in my mind and remember the album's era. This article from Wikipedia reminded me of how long it took to complete the album and its development:- Green Day began to write new songs for what would become 21st Century Breakdown in January 2006 after touring extensively in 2005 in support of their seventh studio album American Idiot At the time, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong stated: "We'll start with silence, and that's how we'll be able to find the inspiration to find another record." The band did not release any details of the writing and recording process until October 2007, when Armstrong said in an interview with Rolling Stone that he had written "something like 45 songs". The band members worked on the primitive conceptual stages of the album at their rehearsal studio in Oakland, California. Little was revealed on the themes or musical style of the album, but Armstrong stated: "I want to dig into who I am and what I'm feeling at this moment – which is middle-aged." He added that many of the 45 songs were written on piano instead of guitar. Green Day began the recording process for 21st Century Breakdown in January 2008. Later that year, it was confirmed that the band worked with producer Butch Vig. The album was recorded with Vig throughout 2008 and into early 2009 at four locations in California: Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood, Studio 880 in Oakland, Jel Studios in Newport Beach, and Costa Mesa Studios in Costa Mesa. While recording in Hollywood, the band members bought cheap turntables from Amoeba Music and listened to many vinyl records for inspiration, including albums by The Beat and The Plimsouls. Armstrong cited as inspiration the music of The Kinks' Ray Davies, The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow, The Doors' The Doors and Strange Days, and Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell. Drummer Tré Cool noted the influence of Eddie Cochran and The Creation on Armstrong's writing. David Bowie is credited as a songwriter on the song "21 Guns" to avoid a potential plagiarism lawsuit, as the melody of the chorus is similar to the Bowie-penned "All the Young Dudes". While writing at his home studio, Armstrong worked on a cover of The Who's 1966 mini-opera "A Quick One, While He's Away"; Green Day recorded a full-band version of the song during the album sessions. Vig noted that frustrations would sometimes cause delays in the recording process for 21st Century Breakdown. Armstrong kept his lyrics closely guarded and intentionally mixed his demos so that the vocals were low in the mix and thus unintelligible to the other band members. It was not until late 2008 that he chose to share his words with Cool, Vig, and bassist Mike Dirnt by sitting down with them and reading the entire album's lyrics aloud in order. The band members made the finishing touches on the album in early April 2009 and claimed that its release would lead to a "kind of... post-partum depression" The writing and recording process spanned three years and four California recording studios, and it was finished in April 2009. On February 9, 2009, Green Day announced the album title and that the record would be split into three acts: "Heroes and Cons", "Charlatans and Saints", and "Horseshoes and Handgrenades". On March 17, a teaser trailer for 21st Century Breakdown was posted on the band's website. The international release date of May 15 was announced on March 25. In early April 2009, Green Day premiered "Know Your Enemy" on television; a portion of the song was used as introductory music to the 2009 NCAA men's basketball tournament championship game. The band first performed 21st Century Breakdown in full during a string of California club shows in April 2009. At each show, concertgoers were given programs containing all of the album's lyrics. The first single, "Know Your Enemy", was released on April 16, 2009, and soon after the world premiere of the song's music video occurred on April 24 on the MTV UK website. 21st Century Breakdown was released internationally on May 15, 2009, through Reprise Records. The special edition vinyl version was limited to 3,000 copies and consisted of three 10" records, one for each of the album's "acts", a CD copy of the album, a 60-page art booklet, and a code for the digital download of the full album. The album artwork process was led by Chris Bilheimer and is based on a work from artist Sixten, who confirmed that the couple on the cover were "just friends of a friend at a party in Eskilstuna, Sweden" and explained that a mutual friend snapped a picture of the pair kissing. He added: "I love their passion, and just had to make a stencil out of it to spread the love." The cover art was noted for a marked similarity with that of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank, itself a stencil by artist Banksy, except that one had the couple wearing diving helmets. Green Day showcased a collection of similarly themed art, called "The Art of Rock", at an art exhibition in London between October 23 and November 1, 2009. The "kissing couple" on the cover later was re-created in the music video for "21 Guns".

That would be pretty sweet!! I'm sooooo excited for "Fuck Off" F.O.D. Part 2?

I’d say if we don’t get a teaser by tomorrow that it’s pretty unlikely, which is fine. Deluxe albums don’t usually get too much of a music video treatment anyway

As much as I loathe “Here Comes The Shock”, the music video that came with it is one of my highlights! I used to work out to it by dancing along with the girl in the video a few times over

I loved NFM because it always gave me something to look forward to. But for me the Network takes the cake. Never had it on my bingo card that The Network would return! It's such a fun album and they clearly had a blast with promoting it. Never forget the late night performance they did during this time!

When you're grumpy because you're stuck on a slow bus filled with cubs fans but then you see someone wearing a rev rad green Day cubs jersey and it makes the ride a little less shitty.

oh the amount of times i've seen this video are probably in the quadruple digits, its basically a right of passage for me now honestly a classic

listen to the prague performance, it'll change your life awesome lmao i might do that

I'm so looking forward to the acoustic rendition of "Suzie Chapstick" 😍

I‘ve just got the BJA funko pop, AI style. He‘s now living on our dinner table looking cute. My husband doesn’t seem convinced…😅

Got VIP tickets cause grandma is too old for festivals. 👵🏻

A great song from a great album!

Dookie 30

Saviors

I am a “New Green Day fan” at heart considering I became a big fan in 2009. American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown are their greatest opuses. They set out to beat American Idiot with 21st, and I’ll say that there’s a good chunk of songs on it that do beat certain songs on American Idiot. I’ll usually lean towards American Idiot as being their best album, but if you ask me some days, I’ll say 21st Century Breakdown is better than American Idiot. Although it is too long, the first half of the album is untouchable. But that’s the Green Day conundrum. An album can be too long, but when you break it down song by song, you wouldn’t want to sacrifice any of it. That carried on into the trilogy era.

Insomniac

Suzie all the way

Very hard to choose, but I went with Dilemma. I love it when Green Day has heavier, darker guitars, I love how cleverly the song is written, I love how devastatingly honest its message is, and I love Billie’s delivery of “dead man walkING.” My heart dropped the first time I heard him sing like that, it’s incredibly emotional. Honorable mentions are Goodnight Adeline, Suzie Chapstick, and Living in the 20s.

Nimrod is my fav rn it'll be different tomorrow probs

They closed some of the shows with 86 back on the Insomniac tour. I know they closed the show in Melbourne in 1996 with it, they played with such intensity back then and it was an awesome way to finish. And to answer your question, I love the song. Dookie/Insomniac/Nimrod will always be my favourite GD era.

Like all of Insomniac, it shreds.

More underrated than any song that sounds like it thats for sure (minus Strange Days obviously)

Strange days . My dumbass thought it was a checkbox vote, where you can vote more than one item, so I was clicking multiple songs and I noticed It kept changing, and then I was like "I have to choose ONE."