02 - Bang Bang

[redline punk]

Great song

[Liam]

The high pitched "Ahh" before the little drum solo reminds me of a studio video from the Trilogy

 

[James11693]

Don't get me wrong, I love the song. However, I can't help but wonder why Billie decided to put himself in the mind of the shooter. It's just not relatable or anything you know. It's an interesting take on the situation and I love the song, but I'm not seeing the point in making a song like this. It's just not relatable. What is the viewer supposed to get out of this? 

[gerardsangel4977]

2 hours ago, Westside Highway said:

Bang is a great lead single. On a surface level, it works the same way American idiot and know your enemy did which signals good things for the commerical viability of this record vs the trilogy. I think I actually prefer oh love as a song but oh love was a terrible lead single. Mid tempo nonballad songs aren't exactly what casual music consumers look for in green day. The most successful singles that people love are fast punky vaguely political songs (idiot, holiday, enemy, bang bang) or cathartic ballads (boulevard, 21 guns). Certainly putting the smartest foot forward. 

I agree. I love "Oh Love" but it would've been better off as an album cut....or maybe a second or third single after people had alreayd gotten used to the albums. Then again, it did reach #1 on the rock singles charts and people went bananas for it during the arena tour, so what do I know?

 

34 minutes ago, James11693 said:

Don't get me wrong, I love the song. However, I can't help but wonder why Billie decided to put himself in the mind of the shooter. It's just not relatable or anything you know. It's an interesting take on the situation and I love the song, but I'm not seeing the point in making a song like this. It's just not relatable. What is the viewer supposed to get out of this? 

Lol perhaps he was practicing his acting skills  

[DookieLukie]

Some new thoughts after some time to process:

- I think what makes this song so much more exciting than anything from the Trilogy is that it is unpredictable. In the Trilogy, you knew what you were going to get in terms of structure and sound. The songs didn't really change pace throughout or throw cool instrumental pieces within, and the bridges were pretty basic. Once you heard the verse and chorus, that was it. Bang Bang is really diverse in that respect. The opening is a cool bassline and radio stream, the intro is fast, then slows down with drums and verse riff for a few measures. There's not ever a true chorus honestly, which I think is cool. Then the bridge is different too, drums solo, etc. All these changes keep you interested throughout the whole song for what will be next, and they give the chorus more punch when it's repeated twice in the end.

- I still don't like Billie's vocal filters. Maybe it's just for this song (because it does fit the song), but the filters seem to have a lot of feedback. They feel "tin canny" like 21CB; a little muffled and holding back the power. I guess we'll see. Maybe Billie's voice is just different now and we won't get that Dookie/Nimrod/Warning/AI snarl again.

- I've seen a lot of criticism of the lyrics online. For the most part I like them. Some of the lyrics do seem a bit forced and disjointed (similar to how I thought some lyrics on 21CB seemed this way), but it sort of fits the song bc it's from the mind of a shooter. Again, we will see.

[Steven Seagull]

I would give the instrumental to Deryck Whibley and watch him do his magic with the angry vocals. 

[Alan86]

3 hours ago, James11693 said:

Don't get me wrong, I love the song. However, I can't help but wonder why Billie decided to put himself in the mind of the shooter. It's just not relatable or anything you know. It's an interesting take on the situation and I love the song, but I'm not seeing the point in making a song like this. It's just not relatable. What is the viewer supposed to get out of this? 

I think that's the point of the song. It should not be something you relate to, it should shock you. I also think the lyrics can be seen as sarcastic and a dig at the media. The media are making celebrities out of mass shooters.

All it takes to gain celebrity status now is a mass shooting. The media will swarm all over it and the picture of the mass shooter will be everywhere, tv, Twitter, Facebook Instagram etc. The mass shooter is the man of the moment, "the hero of the hour". Without the mass shooter these 24hr news stations have nothing to report. He/she is the hero for the media. There is little to no difference these days between being famous or being infamous.

[Harry Potter.]

56 minutes ago, Steven Seagull said:

I would give the instrumental to Deryck Whibley and watch him do his magic with the angry vocals. 

lol his vocals are weak these days

[Ruskaeth]

On 11.8.2016 at 7:06 PM, CrimsonArk said:

The lyrics are probably the worst offender on the song for me. I mean, if you're gonna take on a topic as potentially inflammatory as mass shootings as the premise of a song, you tend to want do it with some nuance or subtly. It almost reads like Billie just watched an episode of Bill Maher the night of the aftermath of a shooting and just copied a lot of their talking points.

There's no new perspective or unique interpretation to it, he's literally just saying what pretty much everyone already knows. And while the lyrics on AI were anything but subtle at times, at least they had a nice cryptic-ness to them at points that gave them a nice little flourish, here it's just sounds like a bunch of taglines for teens to write on the back of their backpacks or put on a t-shirt strung together into a single song.

I don't know what happened to Billie lyrically, he doesn't seem as witty or clever as he used to be.

Didn't Billie once say he likes to write stuff like in "bumper stickers"... 😊 

[DeJennsitized]

2 hours ago, Steven Seagull said:

I would give the instrumental to Deryck Whibley and watch him do his magic with the angry vocals. 

I love Deryck and Sum 41 but he learnt that from Billie Joe tbh. I've seen both live and Billie is a heck of a lot more powerful and angry  

 

I listened to Bang Bang ALL DAY yesterday and I still can't sing along except for the chorus (celebrity martyr bit)  but I haven't watched the lyric video that many times. 

[UNICORN VOMIT]

1 minute ago, Jenn123 said:

 

 

I listened to Bang Bang ALL DAY yesterday and I still can't sing along except for the chorus (celebrity martyr bit)  but I haven't watched the lyric video that many times. 

Well I know all the words😝😎

[DeJennsitized]

2 minutes ago, BillyjoelxkidXx said:

Well I know all the words😝😎

In theory I know the words, but it's too fast for me to remember them and sing them at the same time  I'll get there though 

[SmoothedOut]

2 hours ago, Alan86 said:

I think that's the point of the song. It should not be something you relate to, it should shock you. I also think the lyrics can be seen as sarcastic and a dig at the media. The media are making celebrities out of mass shooters.

All it takes to gain celebrity status now is a mass shooting. The media will swarm all over it and the picture of the mass shooter will be everywhere, tv, Twitter, Facebook Instagram etc. The mass shooter is the man of the moment, "the hero of the hour". Without the mass shooter these 24hr news stations have nothing to report. He/she is the hero for the media. There is little to no difference these days between being famous or being infamous.

Could it also pertain to the animalistic culture of social media users esp. young people? There is a certain violence in Facebooking. I'd like to hear people's take on this. Cus then it would be totally relatable. I mean, the song doesnt give any solutions.. but it really makes you reflect. I killed my FB app months ago cus the hostile environment started to affect me.

[HAPPY ZOMBIE UNICORN]

I woke up with Bang Bang stucked in my head, I think it's a very good sign  

[FavoriteSonX]

24 minutes ago, J a c said:

I woke up with Bang Bang stucked in my head, I think it's a very good sign  

Same here, and I'm absolutely not mad about it

I also heard it on the radio for the first time today. Didn't expect to hear it here.

Edited August 13, 2016 by FavoriteSonX

[mrduckygoosy]

7 hours ago, PurpleIron1039 said:

Yeah, as I've said before on this forum, I get a faint Offspring vibe off parts of "Bang Bang", mainly the opening riffs and the Middle-Eastern-sounding bridge.

I couldn't agree more, also the chords played in the verses (right after the riff) are identical to those of "Rise and Fall", which already was an American Idiot rip off  

[Private Ale.]

4 hours ago, Steven Seagull said:

I would give the instrumental to Deryck Whibley and watch him do his magic with the angry vocals. 

Deryck got the angry vocals  by Billie.

[Dakke]

I personally love it, but I don't think it will be the album's best song. We got the faster, angrier Insomniac sound, being bass and drum heavy and St. Jimmy-esque lyrics.

[Second favourite son]

I'm struggling to think of a Green Day song with better sounding drums.  A good drum tone was something I was really hoping for from this song, but I wasn't expecting it because, in my opinion, it's been the thing most lacking on their past albums.  I've been very pleasantly surprised.

[_•Whatsername•_]

2 minutes ago, Second favourite son said:

I'm struggling to think of a Green Day song with better sounding drums.  A good drum tone was something I was really hoping for from this song, but I wasn't expecting it because, in my opinion, it's been the thing most lacking on their past albums.  I've been very pleasantly surprised.

I think the rest of the album will have good sounding drums too, just like Bang Bang.

[RedundantIdiot]

I just noticed that in the lyric video there is the American Idiot heart like a hand grenade symbol on the front of Tres drums. Why? 

[_•Whatsername•_]

2 minutes ago, Whatsername_123 said:

I just noticed that in the lyric video there is the American Idiot heart like a hand grenade symbol on the front of Tres drums. Why? 

I noticed that too. I don't think there's a particular reason for this, but it's weird

[Dakke]

4 minutes ago, Whatsername_123 said:

I just noticed that in the lyric video there is the American Idiot heart like a hand grenade symbol on the front of Tres drums. Why? 

I assume it's a reference to AI and the political themes of that album which are just as relevant in 2016 (see Billie's comments about people feeling like they're obsolete and discarded in RS). I think it also pertains to the theme of Revolution Radio.

[gmcloughlin]

#23 on the Irish iTunes charts at the moment. I haven't heard it on the radio here since the premiere so I've no idea what kind of airtime it's getting. 

I've no idea how many times I've listened to it at this stage but it's definitely my favourite single since the AI era. Can't wait to see how they follow it up 

[Semi-automatic lonely boy]

4 hours ago, SmoothedOut said:

Could it also pertain to the animalistic culture of social media users esp. young people? There is a certain violence in Facebooking. I'd like to hear people's take on this. Cus then it would be totally relatable. I mean, the song doesnt give any solutions.. but it really makes you reflect. I killed my FB app months ago cus the hostile environment started to affect me.

yup, i wrote about that here  http://www.greendaycommunity.org/topic/99588-bang-bang-is-here/?page=30#comment-5983355