How did you discover Green Day?

[RevaRad]

I couldn't find this post anywhere, but sorry if it already exists. I think this topic will have interesting stories.

So here's mine:

I only started listening to Green Day this June, and I can't believe how much I've been missing out on. When I was young my older brother and his friend started their rock phase. I call it a phase because, well, it was. It stopped. But my only way of hanging out with them was listening to Muse, MCR and Green Day. The only song I knew from Green Day back then was 21 Guns.

Fast forward a few years to June 2016, I'm on youtube and what appears on my recommended videos? 21 Guns. I clicked. I listened. Soon after came American Idiot, Basket Case etc. I was hooked. The rest is history

[Lenie.]

I remember watching a video for American Idiot on TV. I was almost 10 years old. And I was trying to remember the name of the band and the song. Time went on and Holiday and Boulevard came out and WMUWSE and then suddenly on my 11th birthday in 2005 my parents gave me the best gift ever  The American Idiot album. I was really surprised. And since then I'm an admirer of this band and music of theirs.

[Steven Seagull]

I think I was like 9 and my parents had Dookie cassette. I remember that at first I heard Basket Case and of course I had no idea what the guys were singing back then, I just liked the melodies and guitars. When I think about it now, I was dancing to a song about masturbation That was also the time when I got my first real computer and internet and I got into programs like emule so I downloaded Warning and all their albums and loved them.

[Denice]

When I was 11 my dad downloaded American Idiot to his iTunes and for some reason he wanted me to listen to it. So I did, and since then I've been a huge fan. I think my dad was very happy that I finally enjoyed similar music to what he listens to, so he bought me a few of their cd's and it was the only music I listened too for about 2 years before I discovered some other bands.

[Thatsername]

At the age of 13, I started to listen to many punk/pop-punk bands, I loved Blink 182, Goldfinger, Simple Plan, Yellowcard... I also discovered GD at that time, but back then, they were only one band I liked amongst lots of others. When International Superhits was released, it was the first GD album I bought, and I was like: Wow. That is fucking great. But I was still not the biggest fan.

It was American Idiot that changed everything. It hit me hard. I was 17 when it was released and had a boyfriend who was very much into GD. He sang in a band that covered GD songs, I will never forget how he once sang "Good Riddance" for me The relationship with this guy didn't last, but my love for this band grew and grows stronger ever since.

[UNICORN VOMIT]

I heard WICA - that is all.

[gmcloughlin]

It was around January 2005. I had just started guitar lessons, and one night my guitar teacher said he was gonna teach me my first song. When he started playing I recognised the song from hearing it on the radio - it was Boulevard of Broken Dreams  My guitar teacher said it was by a band named Green Day and that the album it was on was the best he had bought in over ten years. He went upstairs and copied AI for me and I was hooked. I went looking for more of their music after that, only to find that I recognised some of their older stuff e.g. Basket Case, Good Riddance, etc. I got my own proper copy of AI shortly afterwards and then went in search of the rest of their discography. I haven't looked back since 

[chrism17]

In 2003 I got International Superhits for free from the old BMG music club. I remember being shocked when American Idiot came out because I thought they were retired and were just going to release greatest hits and B sides compilations from then on.

[Sarcasm]

My sister bought AI in 2004, so I spent most of that autumn siting outside her door with my ear pressed against is as she listened to in on repeat 24/7. 

[Rai93mp]

When American Idiot released, I was around 10 or 11 years old. I saw the videos for AI and BOBD on TV, and somehow I managed to get my parents to buy me the whole album. Man, that's the album that's been played the most in my family car, I think my mom came to kinda like (or at least tolerate) Green Day because of it, and that my dad sort of despises it because of so much repetition. My little sister also had her Green Day phase because of me, but those days are gone, she's into weird stuff nowadays.

The only thing I regret from back then, while listening to it in the car, is that I made my mom skip Jesus of Suburbia and Homecoming because they were too long... Damn you, my 10yo self hahah! So after blasting that record forever, I got into their older records (in no particular order, I made no research and I actually thought International Superhits was an ordinary album, so I picked that one first to then realize it was a compilation), and then 21stCB came out, so now I'm on the Green Day train forever.

[BUBBA7012]

Around when I was in 4th grade Green Day was promoting American Idiot and my family was on a road trip to Coney Island. We were listening to the radio and the station in NYC was playing American Idiot and Jesus of Suburbia to celebrate it's release. After that I was obsessed, a few weeks later I ended up buying International Superhits and American Idiot. I slowly bought all their CDs as time went on. I have a distinct memory of buying dookie and then eating some spaghetti as I listened to it on my CD player. 

[platypus136]

I was about 13 years old when my best friend started listening to rock music, before that I was more like, well I was in posession of one single CD: the Pirates of the Caribean soundtrack. X)

I already knew the song Wake me up when september ends, because we sang it in our Music lesson at school
The first album of Green Day i got to know was American Idiot,maybe because it is probably the best known. Then I recieved Kerplunk as a gift, bought some CDs at times and so on.

I am still astonished how many awesome songs Green Day has already written!

[river otter]

I remember it pretty much perfectly. I was 7 and Nimrod was about to come out. I wasn't allowed to watch MTV - under no circumstances whatsoever - so whenever my parents weren't around I would flip it on, even if were just for a second (obviously i was a very punk 7 year old ). One of those times they were airing the video for Brain Stew/Jaded and I was so amazed and immediately hooked. I did as much research as a kid that age could and made sure I was in line at Sam Goody to get my nimrod CD when it came out a few months later. The rest is history 

[xightmnt]

My friend showed me the King for a Day/Shout video on youtube one day and told me I should listen to their songs. So every day before school started she would pull up a music video, and one kind of video 'sparked' my appreciation for rock and punk: Jesus of Suburbia. I listened to American Idiot, JoS, Holiday and Boulevard non-stop, but I didn't want to waste my data listening to it on Youtube over and over, so I looked to iTunes for the album. The problem was, Holiday was my favourite song at the time, but to get that song, I had to buy the full American Idiot album. So I did, and still didn't listen to the other tracks. Then one day, I got curious, and listened to Are We the Waiting. Then I listened to Letterbomb, the She's a Rebel. I loved it. I told my friend, and she gave me some more song recommendations. 

I remember when the radio played Know Your Enemy. The radio station I listened to only play two songs of Green Day (Boulevard and Good Riddance), even then it's very, very rare. I had a memory of my mum driving me to school when I was in 3rd grade (when the album came out) and I loved that song, it's just that I never had the chance to look it up. I regret it deeply, but I'm happy I found out about them late last year before the album and news dropped. It's great, because they're the first band to make their songs relatable to me, and I had never felt that with other band's songs. 

[Chris Durso]

My first expirence with Green Day was in 2005 playing madden NFL football. American idiot was on the soundtrack and I loved it at 6 years old, I had liked 21 guns too. But never realy got into Green Day. Wasn't until i listens to American idiot in full, that I fell in love. From there I just started listening to all of there albums. Glad  I found Green Day, they defiantly teach you to be yourself and not give a fuck. 

[solongfromthestars]

I was 12 and living under a huge rock in terms of music. I mainly listened to video game music, a few pop artists I'd heard of from friends and didn't really know anything else. My mum and I had just got a computer and I was totally obsessed with Piczo. Was looking at someone's site when I saw a Green Day "blend" with BOBD lyrics on it. I'd never seen/heard lyrics that grabbed me like that before and thought the band looked cool, so I typed in "Green Day I walk alone" on radio.blog.club (I didn't know how to search for music anywhere else haha) and somehow it actually came up with that title. It was the first time I'd heard anything like that - I mean, I'd likely heard a few rock or pop punk bands elsewhere, but nothing quite like Green Day. It did take me a while to realise that BOBD wasn't called "I Walk Alone" But I was hooked and that was it.

It's crazy to think that the person who made the blend has no idea how much her badly made graphic changed my life. I considered telling her once but that would be weird  

[TracksAtChristieRoad]

In grade 9(2004) one of the gals i was friends with introduced me to them.. an when they ended up coming to play the john labbatt centre (now Budwiser gardens)

she was able to get tickets (may 4 2005) and now after 12 years there returning to london Ontario.

 

[stories and songs]

My dad bought American Idiot and played it all the time. I think at first I was a little resistant to liking them—I was in 6th grade listening to much heavier rock music, and Green Day was a bit upbeat for me. But I was really drawn to how important American Idiot seemed—that the band was speaking out about something that really mattered. My mom bought me ISH for Valentine's Day that year (don't ask me why she bought me a Valentine's Day gift lol) and by April, I was crazy in love with them.

Things apparently spun completely out of control from there. 

[DeJennsitized]

I used to skip through the music channels before school, and in late 2005 I came across the Holiday video and fell in love, thought it was amazing. But that video had only just been released so it didn't come round often. BOBD had heavy airplay and I liked it too, but HOLIDAY. Not long after my mum got me a new phone that had iTunes and i had the song bought and was listening to it on repeat for weeks. I heard some other songs on Yahoo music and in January 2006 bought American Idiot and BIAB at the same time. Then bought ISH. Then Dookie, then Kerplunk. Then Nimrod and Warning together. Then Insomniac, 1039 and Shenanigans because it was 3 for £10 at HMV  

[HAPPY ZOMBIE UNICORN]

Well, my parents had the Dookie and Insomniac CDs, so I basically heard their songs since I was 2-3 years old, but they were just one of the others "family bands". Then, on September 2004, MTV broadcasted a certain music video about a new kind of tension or whatever and, well... I was 12 years old, punk became my favourite music genere and this picture the wallpaper of my first cellphone, a Nokia N-Gage:

When we were forever young, when we were outlaws 

[Kaddi.]

I heard American Idiot (the song) on the radio in 2004 and immediately loved it although I hadn't really been into punk/rock before. I got AI (the album) for Christmas that year and loved every single song on it which had never happened to me before. That was also when I started to discover other bands of the same genre like Blink 182, Nirvana and some German bands. I also became very active in a German Green Day Chat. During the following year or so, I bought one GD album after another and was amazed to find out I liked all of them. I don't listen to punk/rock that much anymore, but Green Day will always remain my favorite band.

[21guns&novacaine]

I got into them twice, actually. Once out of curiosity, and the second time, a year later, because I needed them. I've always had this unhealthy habit of persuing things associated with memories to keep them alive.  I remember it being one of the hardest days of my life, and I won't go into detail, but like most days, I was pissed at my sister. I had just gotten home from a 4-H event and was in my room later on flipping through the channels for something to watch while I drew, and that's when I saw the Green Day concert at the Fox theatre from the 21st Century Breakdown tour was playing. I didn't get hooked straight away, I just played it as background music while I worked until I heard this song, and it made me flip out because of how familiar and beautiful it sounded, but I didn't know what it was called. All I gathered from the info was it was from their 2010 tour, so I made a mental note to look through their discography next time I was home alone. (Back when I did not have my own computer and it was much harder to find out things. )  I kept listening to different songs, and while I liked a lot of what I heard, they weren't the song. Kinda felt like Prince Charming, trying the glass slipper on every girl in town. 

 

And I kept seeing results for this damned song called 21 Guns, and I kept thinking, 'no way. That song? I don't think it'd be named that.' So I kept searching. And after failure again, I decided to look up a video for the entire CD, listen to samples from each song and trace it down that way. I somehow landed right on the chorus, the part I remember most, and I freaked the fuck out. I was addicted to it, but the problem was, I couldn't listen to it freely, and I had no way of purchasing it. Which was why 21CB was one of the last albums I bought. But yeah, that's it haha

[Maddie86]

it was 1996. I was in 4th grade and a friend of mine had a cassette of Dookie that he brought to school. I heard of Green Day because Weird Al sampled them in the alternative polka, so I asked if I could borrow the tape to check them out. He did and I loved it. my friend eventually made me a tape with dookie on side 1 and insomniac on side 2 and then soon after that I went out and bought the 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours tape

[heart on a noose]

I was 13 years old when I first got into them. I remember,there was a huge article in some teen magazine about Billie Joe and the headline was 'Billie Joe Armstrong - playful child of punk' and word punk was written with different color each letter and I guess it got my attention to the read the article.  Then I searched all over internet and fell in love with their music.

I still have that article.

[SamJam98]

In 2012, a week or two before Uno came out, my drum teacher named a few bands he thought I might like to listen to, and attempt to play along to their music. The only name that stood out to me was Green Day, but at the time I just wasn't into music at all, other than a few pop songs, and I didn't really care. Not that long after, I think maybe the same night, someone who I'd not known for long mentioned Green Day during a conversation we were having. My curiosity got the better of me, and I searched the name on YouTube. I clicked on the first result that caught my eye, which turned out to be Nuclear Family, and I loved it instantly. One of the recommended songs was WMUWSE, I listened to it, and realised it was the first song I ever remember hearing, back in 2005. 7 years later, I remembered exactly how it went. So, I spent the rest of that night listening to every Green Day song I could find on YouTube.

The next morning, I bought American Idiot on iTunes, became obsessed with Whatsername, and it became the first actual song I learnt on the drums that night