California punk trio Green Day made a huge (and muddy) splash at Woodstock '94, gaining the attention of millions. Their famous mudfight was only part of what propelled Green Day and their major label debut Dookie to the mainstream - the album itself was pretty damn good.
In the mid 1990s, with grunge fading, kids were looking for a new soundtrack to angst and rebellion, and they found it in punk rock. Green Day took the helm of the punk popularity ride thanks to their edgy, snotty, and above all catchy music. Green Day's fame came at a price, as they were shunned by old fans who labeled the band sellouts. But the band persisted because reaching the largest audience possible was a goal they had set, and they weren't letting anything take that away.
Green Day is often labeled a "pop punk" band. While that is warranted due to their catchiness, people need to remember that pop punk can still have attitude. If punk's not supposed to be catchy, then the Ramones must be the worst punk band ever. I hate to sound like the Onion's '90s punk who decries punks of today, but Green Day did not whine about break-ups and other tortures of being thirteen. Dookie's themes include weed, hookers, paranoia, masturbation, and dynamite. Punks? I'd say so.
Dookie opens with a song called Burnout and the line "I declare I don't care no more." More than just a lyric, this was a declaration that the slacker attitude was alive and well, just in a new form. Green Day appeals to youths frustrated by social limitations on songs such as She, probably the least noticed single yet still a very good one: "She screams in silence/ A sullen riot penetrating through her mind/...Are you locked up in a world that's been planned out for you?" Sassafras Roots calls for those disaffected youths to band together in their isolation: "I'm a waste like you/ With nothing else to do/ May I waste your time too?"
The song that most prominently reaches out to those suffering from a lack of motivation is Longview. It's recognizable, low-key bassline provides a nice background to boredom as Billie Joe Armstrong describes loathing his own laziness but not being able to overcome it. The soft verses lead to a rocking chorus about pounding the flounder: "I bite my lip and close my eyes/ Take me away to paradise/ I'm so damn bored I'm going blind."
While Longview turned out to be a huge hit, Dookie produced several other smashes. The two biggest being Basketcase and When I Come Around. The first is a fast, power-chord-driven tale of a guy who thinks he's going insane. The second is medium-paced, more power pop than punk. It's very catchy and thoughtful with great instrumentation. Despite being less of a punk tune than most of the others, When I Come Around is one of the album's strongest. Welcome to Paradise, however, should not be discounted. Also one of their best singles, they use intense guitar and drum work and clever lyrics to describe getting used to living on your own for the first time.
These singles are surrounded by lots of fast, punchy numbers. Chump, Emenius Sleepus, Coming Clean, and In the End combine the catchiness of the rest of the album with the to-the-pointedness of its follow-up Insomniac to express messages of both introspection and contempt. They are short enough to be considered filler, but they are all done so well that they enhance the album rather than fill it up.
Green Day often uses dark humor to express anger in a fun way. Probably the most fun is Pulling Teeth, the album's catchiest tune in which they tell of an abusive relationship in which a guy constantly gets beat by his girlfriend: "I'm all busted up/ Broken bones and nasty cuts/ Accidents will happen but this time I can't get up." Having a Blast is about a dynamite-packing nutjob: "I'm Taking all you down with me/ Explosives duct taped to my spine/ Nothing's gonna change my mind."
Closing track F.O.D. is one of the album's biggest standouts. It starts with soft, acoustic verses in which Billie Joe proclaims "Let's nuke the bridge we torched 2,000 times before/ This time we'll blast it all to hell." It then explodes into the hardest piece of rock on the album. The instruments blast forth with maximum aggression as the band re-sings the chorus but with added lines telling the recipient of the message to "F*ck Off and Die."
Dookie not only helped bring punk rock to the masses, but it also proved to be an album that would come to define one part of '90s rock. Several classic tunes came off this album, but the entire thing is worth owning. You might say Green Day is not genuine punk. To that I say "F.O.D."
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