Why did Green Day stick on you?

[rinu]

i firstly heard BOBD the more popular song of GD on the radio and absolutely love it then i write lyrics on google (which ones i get) cause they didnt say artist or song name on the radio and then find GD

[Alessia]

Ehm... If I say you, you'll kill me XD

I heard Basket Case the first time covered by Avril Lavigne XD

I think it was 2005.

Then I bought AI and I started to love them *_*

[21Guns]

I visited my cousin a long time ago and he was listening to International Superhits! and I really liked the songs

[Laura!]

I remember hearing BOBD in my old friends car all the time and at that time I was listening to classic rock (Led Zeppelin, The Who, Pink Floyd etc.) and at first I didn't like it. But then it grew on me so much so I looked them up on the internet and listened to Holiday and American Idiot. And then I got the CD. That was the era (summer 05) when I would repeatedly would listen to American Idiot (the CD not the song). And then I got International Superhits, Warning, Dookie, Nimrod, Insommniac and Shennanigans. And a couple years later I finally got Kerplunk and 1039. And ever since then I've been hooked. I've gone through stages where I didn't listen to them as much because they disappeared for awhile. But now I love them again!

[xVanessa86x]

Green Day stuck me because of MTV Hits over my friends house. I heard American Idiot and Holiday and fell in love with them even though i used to think they sucked I listened to them more and more and started to fall in love with them. So I would say I'm one of those teeny bopper fans but I listen to the old stuff just as much as the old stuff... I love Insomniac

[Kryssi.]

They were wearing the opposing half to my velcro. That's why

[4whatsername8]

Sad to say it was MTV. The first music video I ever saw was Boulevard of Broken Dreams back in February 2005. I was sort of young and I still didn't exactly know what kind of person I was / music I liked. Then, my there was this one time my best friend played the whole American Idiot CD while I was just hanging out and I loved it. I bought it a bit later, started listening to older Green Day music - yeah, you get the picture.

[shoegazeloser]

I am 12 years old right now, and I started to listen to Green Day at age- you won't believe it- EIGHT. I'll admit: I was a teenybopper who only knew Holiday and BOBD. Eventually, I learned of Green Day's older music when I was bored out of my mind. I had recently bought a copy of Dookie, just for shits and giggles. I was laying down on the sofa listening to it, when Longivew started to play. In simple terms...I liked it. I sat up, got off the couch and replayed the song. You can't imagine what I did next...

[chaoschloeshesarebel]

ahh

the first time i thought i heard green day, was on my first day at my secondary school in september 2004 (high school), and i was 11 years old.

i was in the car with my dad, and radio 1 was on, and suddenly, i heard this music coming from it that i really liked, so i turned it up, and thought to myself, oh my god, this song is amazing!

after a couple of seconds, i realised i'd heard it somewhere before, perhaps like, in a shop with my mum or something, but i didnt know any words. i began to sing to it, and i felt like the song lyrics were really easy to connect to. at the end of the song, the guy on the radio said it was BOBD by Green Day, that name stuck with me all day, and when i got home from my (terrible) first day, i managed to find this website!

that's basically how they managed to stick to me, and i've been able to relate to their lyrics ever since!

man, in one month, i obtained about 6 discs of green day! (birthday and christmas)

and my love has grown ever since.

[Peace and Rainbows]

I had heard their music for the first time on the radio. I liked it and then i listened to more stuff and I liked it more and it ended up to the obbssion i am at now. I also thought that Billie Joe was the cutest man alive at the time. Now i think he is the Sexiest man alive!

[Fulano]

cuz they made songs to me.

Cuz they're like me

cuz they r0ckz

[Heather!]

I suppose it was because they were one of the first bands I really got into, ever. I was in elementary school so I didn't have much of a musical taste, and I discovered this thing called "punk" and really liked it. I saw the Welcome to Paradise video on TV one day and went out and bought International Superhits... and I fell in love with Billie's voice. It was the first music where I could listen to the lyrics and go, "fuck, that's exactly how I feel!"

[Erica.]

I suppose I could either blame my family for playing the radio while Good Riddance was on when I was four, or I could blame my family for playing the radio while Boulevard of Broken Dreams was on when I was ten. But I'll just go with the more recent one. After I had heard it a couple times I was like "What is this? I want it now." So my step-dad gave it to me, along with the rest of American Idiot. I pretty openly loved it, so he also gave me Dookie, Nimrod, etc.

[plasticpictureframe]

When I was in 7th grade, a dear friend of mine told me to go out and get American Idiot. He said that it would change my life, and that I reminded him of the girl in She's A Rebel. He was right on both statements. Whenever I put my iPod on shuffle, and that song is the first one played, I think of him and that day in 7th grade.

When I listen to Green Day, I sometimes feel as if my current emotions are being sung back to me. I use some of the songs to help me figure out what I should do it certain situations. I blast Why Do You Want Him when I'm trying to decide if I should stay with the person I'm curently with. Jesus of Suburbia is what I play when I'm all "Fuck everything and everyone." Brat...well, that's obvious...

I guess one of the main reason why I stuck with them, and I love the band so much, is that I never get tired of the songs. (Except for last weekend when I blasted East Jesus Nowhere for 7 hours straight....It took me a few days to be able to listen to it again.) I love all of them, and it's sooo hard to pick a favorite.

And also, Billie Joe is really hot.

[GreenDayGummyBear]

well, as far back as i remember, i've been listening to green day. i never truely cared bout em till AI, when they really connected with me. (cause seriosly, how can songs bout masturbation and boredom connect with a 4,5,6,7,8, year old little girl?) When it first came out, i didnt undertand it still, (hello 9), but i liked it. then when i was 11, i started understanding what it all meant. and it started to stick. I started looking around the web bout info on them and such (i found GDA then), but my older brother liked them too, and he complained he liked them first an that i couldnt like them at the same time. So, i never became obsessed. Somehow, 2 years later (during which time i listened to basically no music whatsoever) when i was 13, i get a handme down (or actually up) mp3 from my little sister, and i turn it on, and green day was on it. I hadnt listened to them in FOREVER, so i decided to play them again. 2 days later, all i would do was lay in bed, listening to green day. It stuck.

[davegrohllover]

Great topic! For some reason when i was a kid i thought the Dookie album cover was really funny. And i'd always grab it off the Selves, LOL

[arzosah30]

I had bought AI album with a birthday gift card after seeing Holiday video clip on Video Hits. That night I put on CD for first listen .. I only got halfway through JOS and having grown up in the arse-end of our town myself, it was amazing to find a song relating to the need to get out... And subsequent Homecoming.. From that moment, I knew I had to hear EVERYTHING that this songwriter had ever written.. My epiphany..

I think it is how BJ writes from personal experiences/feelings and is not afraid to show his flaws that makes his songs so easy to relate to..(particularly his "I'm an idiot but love me anyway" lovesongs)..

And that they want to be musicians, before rock stars..

Thus began my journey of discovery of the albums, live audios & videos I could find.... only to find that I remembered/liked their previous stuff (but in days before ipods, had little chance to listen).

[Boston]

Before I received American Idiot for Easter in March 2005, music was not a significant part of my life. I listened to whatever was on pop radio*.

I wish I could remember the specific feelings I had after listening to American Idiot for the first time, but I don't. I do know, however, that the album and the punk-rock lifestyle which it embodied had 14-year-old me enthralled. American Idiot did not leave my five-disc changer for months, even after I had hunted down each and every Green Day album. I listened to it daily, whether in full or in fragments, for what seemed like a decade. For the first time that I can remember, I would sit in school longing to get home, put on some Green Day, and jam out with my clam out.

Green Day also introduced me to a slew of other bands - most of which I admittedly checked out to appear more "punk", but that I actually appreciate now. The album's concepts also interested me - I pick that album apart every time I listen to it, and each time I find a new layer to delve into.

Most importantly, Green Day gave me a community that I belong to. Without them, I would never be here, where I can express myself fully and unabashedly. I may never have felt comfortable with my sexuality, or with being different in general. I cannot even begin to think what my life would be like had Green Day not edged its way in during my early teen years. I am who I am due, in some part, to them and the brilliance of American Idiot.**

-------------------------------------------------------

*See Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 14-16.

** Wow. I never realized to what extent I love Green Day until those words flowed from my fingertips.

PS: That being said, I have no idea why Green Day stuck. But they sure as hell did.

[Green Day 13]

well when i was young i didnt really have an intrest in music or a favorite band. if i liked a song i would buy it on my itunes. my dad would playe American Idiot in the car when i was like 8 or 9 but i didnt know the name of the song so i asked him what it was called and he told me so everytime we went in the car i would ask him to play it on his ipod. then when i got an ipod i downloaded it and then on the VH1 top 20 countdown i saw the music video for Holiday and i realized that Green Day played that too so i bought that on itunes then i listened to more of their songs and i downloaded them and they stuck as my favorite band! with out green day i probably wouldnt be here typing this or even have a favorite band. and my dad has been a GD fan since Dookie but i still have was more GD songs then him!

[meghann]

the 1st time i can recall hearing green day is on the seinfeld finale thing. i was prolly like 9 or so then (six years ago.) then AI came out and i believe my aunt got me it and i fell in love with it. so i started listening to more and more of their music and bought more and more merch. now im a huge fan. and they are by far my fav band will always stay that way.

[GDM]

Back in the 90s, I was going to grad school and moving between NYC, Detroit, Philadelphia and back to NYC, and I didn't have a lot of time for music. I remember seeing the Jaded in Chicago MTV concert on teevee, and thinking that they were fucking crazy, but it always stuck in my mind. From that time until American Idiot, I remember a lot of their songs coming out, but I was busy with work and other things, and I hate listening to the radio (here in NYC it particularly sucks balls), so a lot of the music I accumulated during those years was a big willy nilly; I was also too broke to buy a lot of music.

I've always been very much into history and politics as well as experimental theater performance (I studied theater as an undergrad) and in 2003 I was having a mind meltdown with the Bush administration. I joined a group of political satirists called Billionaires For Bush. We were not billionaires or for Bush, but we dressed in pearls and fake fur and rallied for the "corporations" and played off political protesters around the country. I was in turmoil over what was happening and just felt like we Americans were idiots... and then... American Idiot came out and everything I was feeling was finally being said in a very powerful way.

AI was my first GD album and I played the hell out of it, but I am still really not into buying music because I don't have a lot of money to do so; I'm always a little behind with what's going on. Lady Gaga? Who's that? EEK. But I was so excited when I heard that GD was releasing a new album. I saw them for the first time at the Good Morning America gig and the night before that I had seen a great production of The Who's Tommy in Brooklyn. I didn't get home from that until around 1:00 in the morning after stopping off with the cast (I had a friend in it) for some beers. I was so sad that they were in NYC and I couldn't see them at the secret shows. I hadn't joined the Idiot Club before then because I felt guilty trying to get tickets to secret shows, feeling like I was lame for denying other people who were longer fans the chance to see their favorite band. Anyway, I was a bit drunk and decided that I would get three hours of sleep and head to Central Park at 5:30 in the morning. I managed it, and I was completely hooked at that truncated performance, lock stock and barrel.

I started looking at a lot of old GD video clips and I was just amazed by their performance energy and the synergy with the audience. I have all of their albums now and the lyrics and the rhythm in a lot of ways just sums up my life philosophy: live free or die cause none of us gets out of it alive.

Anyway, having seen a lot of interviews with them now, I find them so incredibly funny and irreverent and again, it's that synergy with the audience that really gets me. I also enjoy the fact that they've grown up and dare to challenge themselves and they like to do whatever the fuck they want to do.

A lot of my friends think I've gone insane... GD is not one of their favorites and I can't stop talking about them...but lately, with what is happening in the world, GD is one of the few things that actually keep me sane.

I'm way late to the party, but I guess it's better late than never. Sorry this got long, but I there you have it.

[jacknovella]

I think for me it's because there hasn't been a single Green Day song to date that I have'nt found catchy, there is always a Green Day song playing in my head.

The lyrics are also a major selling point, I think Green Day offers some of the most meaningful and true lyrics.

They also offer a variety, from teenage punk rock from the Dookie era, to the more political American Idiot, and I guess kind of a a mixture of both with 21st Century Breakdown.

[Guest jude88]

when i was 13/14 i was punk ass rebellious teenager

[sharon mitchell]

Today was the most wonderful day pf my life. I realise now just how much these guys mean to me after spending time with them - taking pictures, signing autographs, and best of all ..... HUGGING!!!!!!!!!!!! They were tired from flying in on Sunday and recording two tv shows in two days and they still stood in the street and chatted for 15 minutes or so.

Fucking awesome.

Okay, since that post, the album has been released, I was lucky enough to get to see them live in Paris (Gaelle, I love you!) and I turned fifty. Quite a month .....

I was nervous before I played the cd all through - wondering if I would REALLY like the songs or if I would just like them because it was this band. I shouldn't have worried. Every track made me smile (Peacemaker made me do backflips!) and I soon realised that they'd done it again - hooked me in with great melodies, stunning drumlines and thoughtful lyrics to create a record that feels like an old friend already. Seeing the new stuff live made me appreciate how versatile, professional and polished they are on stage, because they sounded like they have been doing it FOREVER. When Mike stepped up to do Modern World, Billie disappeared behind some equipment, giving his friend centre stage, and as usual he introduced everyone except for himself. When I met them in the street, Billie asked my name, then felt that he had to introduce himself to me (Hi, Sharon, good to meet you, I'm Billie)- d'uh!!! It was the day after Mike's birthday and I gave him a card - he was gobsmacked to know that I knew his birthdate. Tre blushed when I said that they were my all-time heroes.

And it isn't just the three of them - people around the band have all been approachable, respond to messages on MySpace or Facebook, take time to reply. Jason Chandler, (the singer with The Frustrators and designer of the artwork for Foxboro) sent me the most fabulous birthday present, and is working on a design project that I asked his opinion about - how sweet is that? The very-naughty-but-very-nice John Roecker made a video message to congratulate me on getting old. They didn't HAVE to bother, but they did. They always bother.

That's why they stick. They do their job so well, and yet they are still generous, humble and grounded. There is not an atom of 'don't you know who I am?' about them - they make a nervous fan (I was shaking like an idiot when they walked towards me) feel like an old friend, make them feel like they matter.

I am so fucking proud to be one of their fans right now.

[Minority_GD]

I think it was in summer '05.

I was on holiday and it rained all day long, so I mostly watched tv all the time.

Then suddenly , I saw this commercial for WMUWSE and I thought "mmmh great song " then there was another commercial for the single " American Idiot" and I was like " GREAAAAAT"

After two weeks of rain and probably 100 times watching these commercials I went home and the first thing I did was that I went to "saturn" and bought the album.

I heard it all day long and was really obsessed with it.

After about 2 months AI wasn't enough anymore, so I bought Warning , Dookie and Nimrod.

I heard it , and didn't really liked it.

But after a half year , I suddenly loved them , so I bought the other albums...