Why did Green Day stick on you?

[RhayaOnTheHill]

I think it's because they were the first band with songs where I thought, their talking about ME!! haha I really don't remember how I started listening to them though it was a long time ago could have been a couple times haha.

[toaster_poodle]

One day (probably 1999 or so) my dad gave me his Insomniac and Nimrod CD's because he never listened to them, and I remember The Grouch sucked me right in and I got really into those two albums. I just loved the energy and the angst and thought the "fuck you, I don't give a shit" type vibe was the coolest thing ever. Some time later I found a copy of Dookie for $2 at a used book store (it's the one with the brown case and Ernie on the back too ) and that pretty much cemented them as one of my favorite bands.

I was a little turned off when Warning came out (I love it now, but not what I was looking for at the time), but I was 14 when American Idiot came out and for me that really separated them from all the other pop-punk bands I was listening to. I was in a band by then and immersed in everything that went into making music, and I just really admired the ambition and everything that went into that record. I looked at a whole new level after that (as I suppose everyone did..)...I still saw the things that made me fall in love with them 5 years earlier, but now it was like instead of them feeling like a friend or something like they did they now were like a huge wise presence showing me the way.

After a year or so I kind of got burnt out on American Idiot though and got back in to the Led Zeppelin/Guns n Roses/Black Sabbath/ACDC, etc. When the 21st Century Breakdown news started though I picked up AI and fell in love with it all over again. Then 21CB came out and they continued in the AI direction and further transcended into just being a great overall rock band, and as of right now that has put them over any other band out there for me. Honestly, although they've always had a spot in my top ten or so, I think this is the first time since I was 13 years old that I can truly call them "my favorite band".

[Harriet]

I was 10 when i heard American Idiot (the song) and it was just amazing, something totally new and different to anything I'd ever heard before. I'd never really gotten into music much before then. Also the fact they were talking about America as being stupid made me appreciate them more...

Because i discovered them so late the fact that they had a huge back catalogue made me want to hear more of their older stuff I can relate to songs I never would have understood before when i was younger. I guess a huge part of why i love them so much is because whatever my problem is I feel like I'm not alone, because it seems like they've already been there before and written a song about it, which makes it so much easier to get through.

I really love Green Day.

[RhayaOnTheHill]

I was 10 when i heard American Idiot (the song) and it was just amazing, something totally new and different to anything I'd ever heard before. I'd never really gotten into music much before then. Also the fact they were talking about America as being stupid made me appreciate them more...

Because i discovered them so late the fact that they had a huge back catalogue made me want to hear more of their older stuff I can relate to songs I never would have understood before when i was younger. I guess a huge part of why i love them so much is because whatever my problem is I feel like I'm not alone, because it seems like they've already been there before and written a song about it, which makes it so much easier to get through.

I really love Green Day.

aww that's lovely and so true

[Waiting901]

Back in 1993 I was driving home from the hospital in NYC. My dad was really ill and was on his death bed. I remember just having such a weight on my shoulders. I was listening to the radio and Welcome to Paradise came on. It was like I had the weight lifted off my shoulders for a brief moment. I made sure to pay attention at the end of the song to make sure I heard who the band was. I've loved them ever since. Green Day has an amazing ability to transport you to a better place.

[lobob92345]

I had seen American Idiot on tv a lot when I was 12/13... and I decided I liked it well enough, so I had my mom buy it for me... Then I got looking around for information online about them, and was shocked when I had discovered their age and how long the band had been around. At that point I was hooked, I stole my sister's copy of nimrod and ISH, then went out and bought the whole catalogue... and I've been addicted ever since.

It's something about their ambition to grow within their music and continue to push boundaries that really makes me admire them. They also helped me realize that I could be whoever I wanted and not really put up with what other people wanted me to be.

[Krist Cool]

I got into them after my dad's death. I lost him in May of '04 and when I heard "American Idiot" I didn't really care for it, or at least not until my brother got the CD for Christmas. But in all American Idiot just got my attention, then I remember only watching the 2005 MTV VMA's caus Green Day was there. And I remember freaking out, so then I had to look up everything so I went to Yahoo! Music, AOL and of course GDA. I also remember thinking Billie was 18 and then going when I learned he was 32. I was 10 or 11 so yeah. I still remember going to Target and getting Bullet In a Bible for my brother then taking my first Green Day Cd, which was International Superhits.

Green Day stuck on me cause of the lyrics they wrote and the melody's to go with them I guess, I started becoming a major Green Day fan around late '06. My Dad's death was what made me realize their a great band, and I'm sad thats how it happened. But I can give any regrets for what they've done to help me.

Green Day's in my heart, no matter what. They'll always be my all time favorite band, sure the spark may fall in size but it'll never die.

[Mar]

Growing up, I wasn't someone who listened to rock music, I listened to the pop music that I heard on Top 40 radio, so my Green Day song knowledge was limited to "Good Riddance" and "When I Come Around"! Hell, I still listen to awful music, I can't get away from crappy pop music! I knew they had other songs, but also that they didn't sound much like those two songs, and I remember when Warning came out when I was in 5th grade, but I didn't care too much.

Then when American Idiot came out, I was particularly drawn to their Bush masks they'd worn on Letterman/that message from the song. In March, I finally decided to buy AI, and I was absolutely blown away with how good it was. I expected to like it, but not that much! Then I started to get into their older music, and I also loved it.

On an impulse buy, I decided to buy a ticket to this tour, and again, I expected to have fun at the show, but I was so impressed with how amazing they were live. So, seeing them live has really got me interested in the fandom, in addition to the music.

[amrith888]

I was JUST wondering if there was a thread like this,and here it is,LOL!!

I first heard/saw Green Day when I worked 3rd shift as a nurse--Basket Case came on Mtv and I was hooked.After that--I was sitting with my friend at his house and Longview came on and we were laughing at it and we noted that we had the exact same couch and coffee table as the ones in the video.I was in my mid-late 20's when Dookie came out.I never actually owned any of their music,but heard them on the radio and Mtv and occasionally at someone elses house or car.I remember that the only pre-Dookie song I'd ever heard was "Christie Road" and I loved it.I was aware that Kerplunk existed,but never heard anything else off it but that.So that's how it went until AI--and I heard AI single and Holiday on the radio,and I liked them,but I was going through a very bad break-up and it wasn't until the NEXT year that AI made its impact on me.My second cousin owned it,and I heard it all the time at the factory I worked at since folks could listen to their own CD's,plus I watched all the vids they made for it, and that time of my life through '07,and even part of '08,AI and it's songs and lyrics echoed things in my life,especially symbolically/allegorically.I then bought Dookie and Insomniac and listened to them every day on my cassette player,then later,ipod--and it's only then that I truly BEGAN to realize how catchy the songs were and the lyrics and how they made me feel emotionally and mentally.I later aquired Nimrod and Warning,but didn't really start listening to them in their entirety until the past year I've lived in Colorado.Those also grew on me and spoke to me.About 4 or 5 months ago,I finally obtained Kerplunk and I listened to it on repeat one night when I couldn't sleep for hours and I fell in love with it!! I then obtained 1039/SOSH and I love that,too.Not too long ago I also obtained mostly everything else they've put out,including B-sides and covers.I have been waiting and wondering when they'd put out their next album and if it'd be as good as everything else and my wait ended with the release of 21st CB!! I love that CD and even though I don't like ALL the songs--I still love MOST of it.I got my partner into them now,and even though she already knew alot of their popular stuff,it's been mostly all new to her and we are finally going to see them next month live!! \m/(>.<)\m/ Maybe some folks would think it lame to be on this forum and only just NOW experiencing Green Day to their fullest,but I feel lucky since it's all like opening a treasure chest and being able to experience and enjoy it NOW.......

I think this band is so stuck on me now that they are always going to be a part of my life. I have this weird empathy with them - like turning on the radio to a GD song at random times EVERY time, or the fact that one of their tracks ALWAYS finishes as I pull up on my drive (my house is called Longview - maybe that's why?).

I found the precise moment that I fell for them the other day - a note scribbled in a 1994 kitchen diary - look at the date - it's spooky.

Without this band, I wouldn't have made around fifty new friends in the past four years; I wouldn't have gone to Paris by myself (at the age of fifty, I'd never been abroad alone before).

I wouldn't have started collecting vinyl and cds with as much enthusiasm - so arguably I'd be better off!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8526...mp;l=df177cff45

I also wouldn't be spending my time making things like this ...

and this

And I'm damn sure I wouldn't be half as happy as I am today.

We're stuck like glue and I couldn't be more delighted.

That is SOOOOOOOOOOOO COOL!!!!

[Billiejoerules_1996]

Well for me, it started off at the beginning of last year.

I got the American Idiot album for my birthday, but I had never heard of Green Day. And then when I listened to it, to me it was amazing!

And then I kept listening to them and decided to buy another album, and then I got the International superhits! album. Then Dookie, Insomniac and Bullet In A Bible. I liked them ever since and when I'm bored I listen to them and then I'm not bored. I'm glad I had to only wait another year for the album to come out. Then I was a minority, being myself and not being scared about it.

Then I found out about this site and now I keep coming often to meet people

[Reality Is Due]

Green Day was just one of the few bands I grew up listening to because my brother was a teenager in the 90s. I remember the first time I got a CD Player when I was 8 and my brother gave me Dookie, my first ever album. Then he gave me a few more albums which included Nimrod and Insomniac. I used to listen to Dookie all the time in the car because I thought it was the coolest sounding album ever.

A few years later I went through this weird Top 40 hits phase but never failed to forget them and even looked them up once online during the Shenanigans Era and thought they had broken up or something. In 6th grade I saw a commercial promoting the American Idiot album and found it fascinating, haha. So, I wanted the album and mentioned it to my brother who happened to have it. So he gave it to me, I listened to it and fell in love with them all over again. That's when I decided to learn more about them, stumbled onto GDA, and became a massive fan. I got a hold of all of the albums.

I'm not too sure why they stuck on me. I guess the way the music sounded stood out to me more than any other band I heard when I was growing up. After reading the lyrics, I realized just how much I could relate to some of the things Billie wrote about despite how old I was. There's just something about them that makes me love them so much and can not compare to any other band, especially after changing my life in a way. I'm glad they stuck on me the most out of any other band.

[Basket Case 963]

their performance at the grammys in '05

[punkrockerlori]

My Green Day obsessino started when Blvd of Broken Dream went to #1 on the Canadian charts. It was Janurary 15th 2005. I was 12 years old. I heard Blvd Of Broken Dreams on the radio and I was heading into Zellers and they have a huge CD section. I immediatley marched over to the CD section and I asked the sales person where I could find American Idiot- Green Day. She took me to where it was and it was $13.99. I picked it up and I bought it right away. As soon as I heard that song I was like...wow....this is something special. I wrote this entire day down in my old diaries and I saw this thread and I had to tell why Green Day stuck with me .

[Rbka]

Something about their music just sort of... energizes me. I dunno, Its like I can feel my body absorbing the sound waves, whereas with a lot of other types of music, it feels abrasive - like my body is rejecting it. (you may think I sound like a nutter, but whatever). Green Day isn't the only band that does this, but it's the most notable. No matter what song it is of theirs, its pretty much guaranteed to uplift me.

I also find Billie's voice really calming sometimes, when I'm upset or angry whatever.

[Chelsea Hotel]

I was eleven when I got into Green Day--that was 2004, right after AI was released. That was also during the election, Bush vs. Kerry. I grew up in a two-party household; my dad's a Republican and my mom's a Democrat. So every night we'd watch the news and I'd hear them debating. (This was also the same time I told my father that I thought Bush was a homophobic, xenophobic, trigger happy jackass. My exact words, swear to God.)

So for me, hearing songs like "American Idiot" and "Holiday" on TV and the radio, that was a major discovery. Nobody at school cared about politics. My parents could never agree on it. I hated the president. I'd found people who shared my growing opinions of politics.

Now I'm sixteen, a liberal Democrat to beat all liberal Democrats, and I still love Green Day and credit them for my interest in politics. They were there--when I was outraged at the way Bush handled Katrina, they had "The Saints Are Coming." ("As Not Seen On TV," remember?)

[mad hatter.]

I remember I had stayed home "sick" from school one day and I was watching MTV. They had played a 30 second snippet of the Holiday video as a preview for the upcoming release of the video. I fell in love with it cause I thought it was so catchy. It took me forever to find out who sung it and what song it was because I hadn't caught the artists name or the song title, but once I did I ended up asking for the album. I downloaded Boulevard of Broken Dreams and American Idiot from iTunes and then got it on Valentines Day. (:

I listened to the album a few times, then it kinda collected dust in my stereo. After a while, like a few months or so, I'm not sure why, but I dug it back out and decided to play it again. I guess the songs were catchy to me back then, because I knew shit for music. I was like 10 or 11.

I can't get rid of Green Day, tbh. Around 2007 and 2008 I stopped listening to them completely, but this year I came crawling back. They just mean too much to me to NOT stick to me. x]

[ScreamsInSilence815]

I think it was mostly because they don't give a shit what anyone thinks or says about them.

=]

[AndrewW91]

Here's my story about how my Green Day obsession started.

Some odd years ago when I was about 13-14 I believe, my mom bought me a Green Day shirt, and I didn't really like Green Day, because I didn't really listen to that type of music. Back then I was into classic rock like Queen and other stuff.

I decided that I'd give Green Day a chance because I did kind of like some songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams and When I Come Around. So I stole American Idiot from my sister and listened to it all the way through and completely fell in love with it.

I made my dad take me to the record store to buy me a Green Day album, and all they had was warning, so that was my first actual Green Day album that was meant for me, which I think is the reason its my favorite Green Day album.

Ever since then I've been pretty much obsessed with them. I eventually bought all their albums, and tons of merchandise. I believe I have atleast 11-12 Green Day shirts.

I might only have been a fan for a few years now, but I absolutely love Green Day.

And just because I haven't been a fan for 15+ years, does not mean I do not love Green Day any less than those of you who have been fans that long.

[The Muffin]

I might only have been a fan for a few years now, but I absolutely love Green Day.

And just because I haven't been a fan for 15+ years, does not mean I do not love Green Day any less than those of you who have been fans that long.

True.

I was into more pop stuff before Green Day

It was a year after American Idiot came out. One day I was at my friend's house. And she said "Look, this Green Day band sounds good!" and I was like "Nuh-uh, it's too hard-rockish for me, I don't like it". I remember she played some songs from Dookie, like Coming Clean or Welcome to Paradise for me. And AI and BOBD. And the songs were really catchy, so at the end of the day she asked if I want her to burn a copy of the songs, and I kind of said yes. And she made a cd. But then I ended up REALLY liking them. Which never happened to me before.

And so I was totally hyped, downloaded as many GD songs as I could, I found the Geek Stink Breath webpage and GDA... and I really got into rock music.

I had a kind of pause a year ago when I found MCR and The Rasmus

And then 21CB came out, I got the tickets for the Vienna show, figured I could make an account here...

so here I am

And I still have that cd

[sharon mitchell]

In ten days I fly to Las Vegas to see the Mandalay Green Day show. I know that doesn't sound remarkable in this day and age, but I haven't flown in 25 years, and I can't count how many of my friends had taken out bets among themselves that it would be these guys that got me on a plane.

[Nymrawd]

I don't even know why I got stuck to Green Day and it was so fast after I heard american idiot. i was about i think 11 when i heard it. LOL, yea, what the hell would an 11 year old understand about the american idiot concept? I had heard their older stuff on the radio when I was younger but obviously i was really little and didnt think anything of it. i just remember hearing 'time of your life' on the radio all the time. i didn't even know it was by green day until i was like 12 (and i was really happy it was their song).

i remember how i got stuck to them. i went on vacation with my family and our friends in alberta. some random radio station was on and it was like 'the new single from green day' or something and then american idiot started playing. at the time i thought it was a really funny and awesome song. i told my friend about it, blah blah blah. when we got home, i heard it more and watched the video and listened to more of their songs and i just ended up being obsessed with them even though i was 12 and didn't grasp what they were all about/the meanings of their songs fully. now here i am 4ish years later and im still stuck (and appreciate them more). i have no idea why i got so into them at that age. weird but im glad i did.

[CrimsonSheep]

Well, when I was a kid I listened to the radio a lot because for one or two summers in a row my parents worked in really obscure places that we had to take like an hour of open highway to get to, and they didn't really have anybody to watch me or my sister so they took us with 'em. So while we were in the car, we had the radio on. This was back in the mid 90's, so there was a lot of good music going around and being popular - The Wallflowers, Third Eye Blind, that one song about the old people that ran away from their lives... That was around the first time I heard Green Day (that I can remember), and it was stuff like Good Riddance and When I Come Around and Basketcase. So I knew some of their songs and who they were.

Flash forward a couple years of Metallica and Manowar later and my parents buy me American Idiot for Christmas - pretty randomly, too, with a Good Charlotte album, haha. I listened to it, didn't love it, let it drift to the bottom of my CD collection. Then my sister borrowed it... Neither of us saw it for another year and a half, haha. I got it back after that and listened to it again and I started liking it more. I still didn't love it, but it was good stuff and I listened to it enough that I'd sing along. I didn't tell anybody about it, though, because I associated it with Good Charlotte and I associate Good Charlotte with "emo music" and that was a huge We Don't Fucking Listen to That Shit for me at the time, for some reason.

Flash even further into the future (or past) and I meet my boyfriend John. His favorite band? Green Day. "Here, let me copy Dookie for ya." As we all know, Basketcase is on Dookie, and I knew the words, dammit! So I listened to the album. Liked it. A lot. Me: "Got any more?" He gives me Insomniac, which I listen to during a particularly shitty family outing, and I'm hooked. The day I listened to it (that album, over and over all day) I was really pissed off at my mom (which seems to be a recurring theme), and I'm sitting there listening to, ya know, 86 and Panic Song and all that and it's like, "This works." And once I started focussing on the music instead of how shitty my mom was treating me, my day got a whole lot better.

John gave me copies of Nimrod and Warning and they both floored me. But still, I wasn't obsessed. I wasn't in band-love. I didn't even feel they were my favorite band - that spot was held by Disturbed for the longest time.

So what changed? Three words: 21st Century Breakdown.

This album raped my mind and I loved every second of it. I quickly figured out the lyrics to (most of) the songs, blared them at top-volume, and played nothing but them for weeks after FYE shipped that blessed box.

Then, luck of all luck came my way. I still didn't have 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, Kerplunk!, or Shenanigans. (I wasn't terribly worried about International Superhits because I knew most of those songs already.) But my friend got a new boyfriend. Who was a Green Day fanatic. And had every single album. And wanted to give them to me, purely and simply because I wanted them. Sometimes I want to hug the entire human race. This was such a time.

The guy turned out to be a scumbag, but the gift he gave me was like a month's supply of crack cocaine; I needed more Green Day.

After that, the story is pretty much, here I am. I read a bunch of their earlier interviews, Youtube'd lots of their interviews, you know the routine. Read through almost every page (I think) on the GDA site. Bought merch, that was a new one for me. The band merch I have before Green Day was not purchased by me, and most of it not purchased for me either. (I have an uncle who likes to give me his old band shirts. So I have a lot of band shirts that don't fit me at all unless I tailor them.) So that was different.

Getting my hands on their older stuff, plus a lot of the other information that's out there on their early days, also really inspired me to go forward with my own band, so they're kind of fuzed forever with this point in my life, in my mind.

So I'm stuck with 'em, not yet sick of 'em. (Probably won't ever be, but ya know.)

[dolce]

I feel like I've told this story a million times, and I never get tired of telling it.

I really got into Green Day five years ago when my father bought AI, and I completely fell in love with the band, both the music and the guys, on April 5, 2005. I had always liked their music (Good Riddance was the first song to ever actually make me emotional, the first one I ever felt a real connection with, so that has a special significance to me to this day), but I never knew what band it was that I was hearing. I just knew I loved the voice of whoever it was that was singing (I found it to be very different and recognizable), and I loved the songs.

I can actually remember the first time I saw the music video for Good Riddance. I was on vacation in Disney World at age 7, and my parents took me to a Planet Hollywood. I swear to God it was fate, because for some unknown reason, Planet Hollywood was playing music videos. Ordinarily they show movie trailers and scenes, behind the scene of TV shows, stuff like that, but the night we went was different. I remember my mom saying something about how weird it was for them to be playing music videos, since that was Hard Rock Cafe's forte. Then, Good Riddance came on, and I just couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Mind you, I WAS only 7, so after I heard the song, I didn't do any investigating on who the band was. I just knew it was a beautiful song.

Then, when I was 8 or 9, I guess, I heard the song Long View on the radio, and, again, loved that. Still wasn't into the whole computer thing, so I didn't look up the lyrics or anything to find out who it was. Again though, I thought whoever it was was a great band.

Fast forward to 2004...

I'll be the first to admit, it was not love at first listen with AI. I saw the music video for Blvd. of Broken Dreams and I believe I called it "really slow and boring", lol. But, my dad, after reading some great reviews, decided to buy the CD, and I started listening to them more. I distinctly remember my dad telling me that they were up for a bunch of Grammies, and I was so excited for them (which took me by surprise, since I was being difficult in not liking them). This was the first CD that really I felt had meaning. I really had no clue that music could have such depth and, being the Poli-Sci freak that I am, loved the message they were sending out. I listened to older song's on my friend's ipod (Coming Clean is one I can remember listening to), and I just fell in love (and then continued on to steal Dookie and AI from my father's CD collection). I asked for the rest of their CDs for the next holiday (I believe it was Xmas), and... the rest is history! Today, I'm as big a fan as ever. The day I fell in love with this band is the day my life changed.

I have the utmost respect for these guys, and my feelings of respect for them have only grown and evolved as I grew and had a better understanding of music. People say that music can change a person, and maybe it sounds corny, but they really have made a big, positive impact on my life. They are a HUGE part of my life, and have gotten me so far through my teenage years when times were tough. If you have nothing else, you always have music, and that is a great feeling. Because of them I learned to just LOVE music, and appreciate what goes into making great music. When I was younger, I was mostly into movies and stuff, but once getting into Green Day, music just became a piece of me. I can safely say I have NEVER felt such a connection to a band as I have Green Day. LOL, I've invested more time watching videos, talking on GD message boards, reading their articles and listening to their music than I think anything else, and I love every second. As a writer, Green Billie has had a bigger influence and inspiration for the things I enjoy writing about then anyone or anything else. I'm a very, very proud, loyal fan. My dedication to these guys is unwavering. I think back on parts of my life and can't even imagine it without them in it. I don't even WANT to imagine it. They're so important to me.

[amy_runs]

I have to admit it, I was crazy about Billie. He drew me in to love the band

[dolce]

^ Me too. I adore him for more reasons than I can even count...