When I heard that Green Day was going to be on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, my thought was "They're finished. They've completed the cycle." It's been twenty years since their American Idiot LP came out and ever since I've been convinced that after dashing the thrift store threads of old and dressing a little more fancy, as if they had a stylist on their payroll, that they would get softer and eventually up just another rock band. I decided to tune in to the broadcast. American Idiot was their anti-Bush record. I had to check them to see if they still had the old school gumption. With trepidation I sat through a few bands that were anything but "rockin'". I have no particular allegiance with Green Day but I was hoping that they would at least play "American Idiot" if for no other reason than to remind American non-idiots that there's still work to be done. Then they came on. Not only did they open with "American Idiot", but to make it clear why they were playing it, they changed the line "I'm not a part of a redneck agenda" to "I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda.". Not exactly a diatribe, but it restored a little faith. What I didn't expect is for the online reaction. A sample headline from Rolling Stone, "Trump Supporters Have a Meltdown After Green Day Slam 'MAGA Agenda' During New Year's Show". What were they expecting? When I read some of the online comments I was reminded why Trump supporters seem so clueless. Some were saying that punk rock was no place for politics. (Talk about a generation gap!!) Others, including Elon fucking Musk were calling them sell-outs.
It's telling that the only place I was able to find a video of the whole performance is on Green Day's Instagram page. YouTube is full of clips but most have the click-whore story-repeaters' comments dubbed over it and the longest is just over a minute. It seems like we've already been through this: Fuck Donald Trump.
Green Day - American Idiot mp3 at Internet Archive
Green Day - Holiday mp3 at Internet Archive
Watch:
Green Day - New Year's Rockin' Eve '24 at Green Day's Instagram
2 comments:
Good for Green Day, using the big stage to say something important, rather than promoting whatever their latest record or musical might be. I bet Johnny Lydon is mad at them too, since he is now an Anglo-American Idiot.
Politics has no place in punk, ha ha. Enjoy your Offspring records, maggats.
Jonder,
I couldn't have said it better myself. And I refer to them as maggats as well. Thanks!
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