Are Green Day Really That Great?! 

The Darkness are going on tour in UK, Australia & New Zealand - you can get tickets & check out all the dates here: www.thedarknesslive.com/tour-dates/

I think a lot of Green Day's greatness comes from what the bass is doing. It's quite complex and nuanced but clever enough to never really stand out.

A long time ago an interviewer asked Billie Joe why he sings with a British accent and his amazing reply was "I sing like a British kid trying to sing with an American accent."

The energy they bring to a live show is infectious. Dirnts backing vocals are on point, tre's playing style just reeks of someone having an absolute blast. The rest of the touring crew all fit in and bring such depth to the sound too.

Green Day are the odd band that had two mega albums that stretched across two generations. It's weird because those albums, Dookie and American Idiot, are so different. I'm older and a Dookie guy but so many younger fans were brought in by American Idiot. It's like they struck gold twice.

This is like... I dunno, 40 videos in for me with you, about 2 months worth. Dude, your likable. Dunno how else to say it. Great insight, obvious musical education far beyond simply being in a band, and yeah, your positive, always. And critical, when it requires it. Enough said, love your videos.

This whole album is actually amazing. Holds a special place in my heart as I was a teenager just getting decent at guitar and would play this thing over and over again as loud as I could. Great video as always Justin! Cheers

Saw them at Brixton Academy back in the mid 90's, free ticket, wasn't really much of a fan...20 mins in I was jumping around like a loon having the time of my life. They were one hell of a band & still are now, full of energy & tight as f*ck live

Was never a big Green Day fan really. Went to see them live in Dublin 3 weeks ago. My god what a show they put on! And they opened with this belter too!

I saw them on Friday at the London stadium. The last time I saw them was nearly 20 years ago at Milton Keynes bowl and the performance was just as good now as it was back then. They still sound great live and still manage to get the crowd involved even when both gigs were 80,000 plus. Fall Out Boy surprised me and also sounded awesome along with their live show. When a band can get the audience going AND sound great live, it's just perfect

They have been my favourite band for as long as I can remember. I was 18 when this song came out, those early 2000 years were a great period to be a fan of rock music

Okay, the Buddy Holly take on Green Day was great! And the technical breakdown of the punk jump-and-tuck was the analysis we never realized we desperately needed. You, sir, are a genius.

Justin's t-shirt game is strong today.

I once read some interview with Tré Cool where he says that it took him a while to "simplify" his drumming for Green Day, but it clicked for him when he decided to start playing the tune, not just the instrument.

I saw them in NYC right after the 2012 trilogy released and right before BJA went to rehab and y'know what? It still kicked ass despite Billie's clear intoxication. I'm glad he got help and I'm glad they're still going. I thought Revolution Radio was amazing and the Network's second album was pretty killer too. That's another impressive thing, these guys love doing side projects. They're just a fountain of prolific creativity.

The jump and tuck description is just brilliant 🤣🤙🏼

Hey Justin, I love your channel and you're a very talented musician. Just wanted to say that Green Day pulled my daughter on stage to take part in a song and that made her day. A very energetic group of guys!

Green Day is a top 3 band for me. They really defined my teenage years, not only in how my taste in music would develop, but they definitely influenced my outlook on life with their punkish-political vocalness. And they are amazing live, probably the top performance I've seen alongside MCR and perhaps Foo Fighters.

Green Day were truly my “stepping stone” band. I was 12 when American Idiot came out and it was the first album I ever fell in love with. I went on to explore their entire back catalogue, their contemporaries and influences and I’ve been a massive fan of alternative music ever since. The impact this band has had on my life can’t be overstated. I finally got to see them play live a week ago and they did not disappoint. Genuinely one of the best live performances I’ve ever seen. Thank you for covering them ❤️ p.s. your shirt is distracting as hell

Hey Justin. It is a real pleasure to watch you highlight different aspects of a song. I don't recognize all of the incredible nuance within music until it is pointed out to me. So thank you very much for shedding some light on their sound. Cheers. Mike

Great video mate, so glad Green Day are getting the excellent press coverage they deserve! They are a testament to music. I have seen them play on more than one occasion and both times they played for over 3 hours. Both times can honestly be described as some.of the best moments in my life - I don't listen to them much anymore, perhaps the odd song in a playlist, but I still love them! Keep on ridin' Justin! 🤙

Your thoughts on split vs tuck jumps were incredibly insightful, thank you.

Do that episode on how music companies are structured, please! Learn bunches from you each time you post, man. Thanks!

Saw Green Day last saturday. They were as tight as ever and put on one hell of a show! Also Permission to Land and American Idiot came out during the times I was finding my way with music I liked. So they both have a special place in my heart (Thanks, Justin for helping form my rock tastes!)

I’ve only seen them once, in 2004(?) They were incredible. They do an amazing job of involving the audience and make you happier than you could believe just by being there. A world class band for sure.

I always love the videos on this channel and what a great song to feature. One of the best songs ever

Just found this totally randomly. What a great clip! Authenticity, positivity, good stuff.

Seen them live in Huddersfield a few weeks back stunning performance, live they sound amazing and the atmosphere is ecstatic truly beautiful experience the audience participate with every single moment and the band has their sound nailed.

Yes these fellas are real. They are talented and tight as hell. Crisp deliverance and honest. Probably one of the best punk bands that have ever existed... lots of folk hate them because of this.

a redux episode where you cover how dastardly similar the Johnny Test theme is to American Idiot is needed! also would love to see a deep analysis of 21st Century Breakdown! keep up the good work

So HAPPY I found this site!!! Brilliant! Thank you!

I caught them live in London on Friday (can highly recommend seeing this band live, even if you're not particularly a fan). They opened with this song, and it just hits different. Fall Out Boy and Weezer had played two really great sets beforehand, but when Green Day walked onstage and let this one fly, the whole stadium erupted. It's like there was a tension that had been there that got released all at once as soon as those drums kicked in.

Been watching your channel for the last few weeks - now subbed!! I didn't learn to play the guitar till I was 42 (now 54), this was one of the early songs I learned to play, I'm in a pop punk/rock covers band, always goes down well. It's in E standard tuning, as are most of their songs nowadays but Dookie was done in E Flat (The Offspring also tune to E Flat for some of their stuff). I used to play along to that album every Friday night, to the chagrin of my neighbours. Big kid? Definitely - maybe even a Basketcase!!

Hi Justin, its Jesse from Finland. Havent think or listen the darknes much after it broke on 06 or something.. 🤔 But just want to thank you in general, for doing easily the best podcast anywhere ever! ✌️ Found this channel like a week ago, and been listening atleast few episodes every day, and still theres loads of episodes to check! I appreciate how often you do these, and how widely and especially professionaly u share your thougts about any kind of music or artist or whatever. And from artist perpective. And we seem to have really similar taste about music. But anyway, you're just so natural, and defenetly know what u are talking about. But anyway, big THANKS mate! ❤️ Ps. Would be nice to see The darkness in Finland soon :)

I saw them when I was 15 and then a second time when I was... substantially older. They definitely aren't "Punk" (with a capital P) but they are a fantastic, straight ahead rock band that capture the energy of punk (with a small p) and who still take the time to properly engage with their fans. Both times I saw them they got a kid up from the audience to play an Operation Ivy song with them and then the lucky little S.O.B got to keep Billie Joe's guitar. Call it a stunt if you like but they are a class act with 40 years of playing behind them. When I saw them for the second time there were people in the audience who were literally bringing their grandkids along which, on the one hand, was cool, on the other made myself and my wife feel Very Old Indeed... Definitely would recommend seeing them live if you get a chance, many pyrotechnics, much moshing and a lot of joy will be had.

9:28 speaking of joy division, would you ever do a video on joy division? They were an absolutely phenomenal band, that evolved into something just as good, which is new order

Billy Joe is an incredible songwriter, a hell of a singer, and a hammering guitar player. At this point in his career he is already 10 years of performing nonstop and this is his greatest work of his life. When they had Green Day on the MTV awards for the last time they tried to rush Billy off the mic to get more time with the very young, very new Justin Bieber. Billy wouldn't stand for that nonsense knowing how important and great his contributions to modern music was and fought them verbally forcing them to acknowledge him over the new kid Jusin Bieber. This is a cool video. Justin Hawkins your channell is so great that I now watch you daily. Your perspective is unheard of in the industry and your honesty is refreshing and revealing. Tim Peirce and Rick Beato are the two American guys that also have channells and perspectives of your quality. Tim is the most recorded guitarist of modern history, and Rick Beato is a master producer but a master of the mechanics of music and how it all works together.

went to see them in huddersfield on saturday with fall out boy and weezer. it was amazing they was playing in my hometown but i can’t explain the sheer brilliance that the gig was every band played amazingly but green day absolutely smashed it

Your musical analysis are always so flippin’ interesting! Would definitely be interested in learning more about how the music industry works nowadays!!! 🎸

Thanks Justin for these videos. They always make me smile and I always learn loads. Best channel on RU-vid mate.

Like most of Green Day but Nimrod and Warning are my standouts, they're both brilliant albums 👍

Green Day is definetly one of the best livebands on this planet! 🤟 saw them last month in sweden!

Over the moon to see you highly praise Green Day! They're my all time favourite band!

Really enjoy your insights, positive vibe, and enthusiastic attitude. I also really dig the music you choose to highlight and would really appreciate a complete playthrough of the songs at the end so I can really enjoy the song and your insights together, without interruption. Maybe even just half the song in an outro after your sign off. Anyway, thanks for the content. I will definitely keep checking in and keep an eye out for new music.

I saw them live in Huddersfield last week on the hella mega tour and they were absolutely phenomenal. Definitely one of the best bands I’ve ever seen live, if you ever get the chance then you have to take it :))🤘🏽

Tre Cool is one of my favorite drummers. He plays live with what I call a "relaxed frenetic style". Similar to John Entwistle, he looks calm and collected but he's playing a mile a minute. Tre looks more excited that the Ox did, but he still doesn't really look like he's breaking a sweat. Really fun.

Cool man. I saw them on that tour years ago. It was pure energy all night. This was their white album, their Disintegration album, their Bends album, their Violator album, their Toys in the attic, their Back in black you get my point. 🤘🏻

Yet another informative and well presented video, Justin! I was (briefly) bassist in a Green Day tribute band just before the release of 21st Century Breakdown (the band didn’t last as there was direct local competition from another GD trib who got the jump on us by a couple of months unfortunately) When I was learning American Idiot, I also thought it was played on detuned instruments but then if you pay close attention to where BJA and MD’s fingers are in the video, they are in fact playing it in G# not A! Although, I have seen shots of them playing it live in the position of A but on detuned instruments Ps. I still play a handful of GD tunes in the cover bands I’m in as they’re really great fun to perform 😁👍🏻

Green Day are one of the greatest bands I've ever seen live, (another being the Darkness at the Garage a few times) Brixton Academy on the Nimrod Tour. Previous 3 years they cancelled the UK leg due to way too much amphetes through Eastern Europe......... They were fucking awesome. Supported by Degeneration X I believe. Got my nose busted open in the pit, from a hobnail boot crowd surfing, during Welcome to Paradise but just kept moshing like a lunatic for the next hour plus. Amazing gig. Lifelong memories and battle scars to boot. Love Green Day..... Mostly Pre Nimrod, insomniac, Dookie, 1,039 and of course my number 1 Kerplunk! Fucking love these lads.

Dookie came out when I was made n fourth grade changed my life. I was too young in the 80s to really know about any punk. They opened my mind to all the punk bands that came before and the he skate punk of our day bad religion nofx Mxpx anything on epitaph. What’s crazy is a decade later they did it again for the generation under me with American idiot!! Much respect

Also yes videos about the industry and structure of it etc would be super interesting 🥳

The jump is a very interesting topic I never really put thought on it yet playing on stage as a “punk” that was something that just came naturally, I have to say skateboarding might play a big part on this punk jump type of style. Thanks for bringing this up.

Not many bands have made their best album that far into their careers... especially after a ton of mainstream success. But, American Idiot is by far their best album. And I'm someone who thinks Dookie is a perfect album, front to back. American Idiot really showed they could write longer, complex songs, even if Jesus of Suburbia was 5 short songs strung together. I think they took a massive step forward in their songwriting ability, it's an incredible album.

Bloody hell not the Human Centipede tshirt 😂😂😂😂

Hey Justin! Nice video as always Just wanted to let u know that there's certain ground sound in the background and is only really noticeable when you are talking with out music I can recommend you to use a noise gate plug-in in the post production, you can configure it to eliminate that exact frequency when you stop talking and that would improve it a lot

Back in the early -1990’s, they opened for Bad Religion. We had never heard of them and had low expectations… but I walked into the venue as they started to play and was mesmerized. They were electrifying, powerful and tight. Not too long after, they blew up the scene and saturated the market but because of that initial impression, I didn’t see them as sell-outs. They were legit that one night they nearly outshined Bad Religion.

Sure, Green Day is power pop, and I'm not sure why that is used as a slight. A catchy vocal melody, crunchy power chords, youthful lyrics, a varied song structure, a tight melodic solo and never overstaying its welcome. I Believe in a Thing Called Love is also (fantastic) power pop IMO.

Saw them in Dublin in 2009 (or therabouts). Such a fantastic experience. Although I wasnt a die hard fan or anything, the energy was like nothing I had felt before or have since. Wonderfuk group.

Saw them live in Huddersfield on Saturday. Absolutely blown away. Think very few people and very few bands can match the live energy they have

4:52, Justin that's how I came about my playing and writing style, sussed out that capo on the 4th meant I could play "downtuned" songs on an acoustic, with open chords, changed everything for me!

Green Day was a DIY band for years before they got on a major for Dookie and just became massively popular. I like to piss off "tru punx" by saying they're more punk than the Sex Pistols but I also kind of think that's true since they still actively support DIY scenes, pay independent artists' and venues' fines and never defected to support the right wing like Johnny Rotten has done in recent years.

American Idiot (the song) is up there with Seven Nation Army, Vertigo, BYOB, Float On, Here it Goes Again and I Believe in a Thing Called Love as one of the last popular guitar riffs that a lot of everyday people would recognize. Sadly, all those songs are from over 15 years ago.

I saw them for the first time in Berlin back in 93, and for the eleventh time two weeks ago in Stockholm. One of my absolute favorite bands. 🤘🏼

Just found your channel. Happy to see you're doing this! Love the callbacks to 80's music. Cheers!

Love Green Day. They give me nostalgia for punk, but I always thought of them as hard power pop. They aren't scabrous enough, dammit. But American Idiot made me admire them a lot anyway.

Are they Punk in the purest sense of the genre? Hell no, of course not. However they have punk roots and sensibilities and brought it into the mainstream. Nothing wrong with that.

Green Day was my first gig as a 14 year old kid. 21st September 1997, Astoria. Changed my entire existence

I’ve always liked this song. But listening to your love review of this has opened up the whole song for me. I’m going to put it through my good headphones and listen to it again. But this time I have the added listening pleasure/knowledgeable and joy your video is given me.

I remember listening to the American Idiot album when it was released and always skipped American Idiot itself. It always seemed like an attempt to hit the top of the Kerrang style lists rather than make a good song. The rest of the album flows so well together into the intended "rock opera" and American Idiot just stands out like a sore thumb.

I’m a huge fan of American Power Pop that has its roots in punk but the chord progressions are more Beatles influenced. Guided By Voices are one of the most underrated bands in this country. They have thousands of songs and a lot of them are not great but when they hit one out if the ballpark it’s a real banger. Teenage FBI is one.

As always great to watch. Always funny and either make me laugh or smile. Please keep these vlogs up no matter how much of a pain it could be. Have you done Primal Scream yet Justin?

Greenday are and always will be (in my books anyways) the god tier band of Punk Rock music. I remember the very moment at 9 years old when I knew I wanted to be a guitarist / singer. It was through watching Greenday playing at National Bowl in Milton Keynes on the Bullet in a bible DVD and just the raw energy and chaos through that show sparked something inside of me. I will always love this band

I love that Justin mentioned tre cools hi hat technique. The dude is inhuman for being able to do that live for 2 hours straight night after night

I never understood them being described as punk. They are power pop.

Saw them At Huddersfield John Smiths stadium at the weekend and it was absolutely fantastic they still have it all

I first heard greenday on the radio in probably 2005, holiday came on and I loved it. The next day I went and bought the album, it was so different to the British pop I usually listened to up until that point but I still loved it!

American Idiot (the album) carries the grand tradition of meaningful rock operas started with The Pretty Things SF Sorrow, and including Tommy/The Wall. This alone makes it impervious to poo slinging from the Dookie crowd.

Were they ever punk? Did they need a label? I never liked the desperation to categorize them. They're a band with lots of disparate elements and the rush to slot them into a specific niche felt like it was very much the result of corporate interests and made it difficult for my younger self to accept them given that the stink of record company manipulation was all over them.

Thanks for less negative/click baity titles dude! Love this channel! Keep it up 👍😎

Justin makes learning a total joy.

I dont care what any of the die-hards say, I love this album. Pretty much every song is solid, the mix is solid, and Jesus of Suburbia is an anthem! probably helps that this was the first album i bought with my own money as a teen, and one of the first "alternative" acts i was exposed to, which led down a long twisted road through every genre of rock and metal, a greater appreciation for all genres of music, and ~16 years of passionate hobbyism in the form of guitar and drums! anyway, i don't care about dookie etc, American idiot is a banger

Seen them live about a decade or so ago, And I have to say they were a brilliant live act. I was well impressed.

I didn't get in to green day when they first hit the scene. But listening to their back catalogue now they did some great tracks, American idiot, Brain stew, minority etc are classic song's.

Your analysis of the Punk Jump vs the Rock Jump is why I subscribed and continue to watch. The keen observation of the "jump" is a subtle difference between the genres. Maybe to most people the jumping style of a band is meaningless, but a bunch of meaningless things tend to matter. It's all in the details.

i use to love green day, was a great band to listen to going through my college years, but i have to say after American idiot i stopped listening as i thought the sound changed too much to a pop rock vibe. American idiot is a belting album though but dookie was by far my favorite of theirs.

Saw them on Saturday. I’m not really a fan (I went for Weezer) but Billy Joe was amazing. Had the whole ground in the palm of his hand. Would recommend.

Wow some excellent guitar insights here :) And I never realised that jumping had a grammar to it, and now you say it, of course it does :)

Green Day just connects with me like no other band. I love them

They were a joke of a band when they first came out. Us grunge fans sneered at them and their teenage angsty fans. It was like Pre manufactured punk for college girls

"Billie Joe Armstrong says he’ll renounce his US citizenship over Roe v. Wade reversal." What a tool. Justin, please don't ever make dumb political statements.

You mentioned the oddness of a punk band being on a major label. You should read Sellout by Dan Ozzi. He explores this through Green Day and a bunch of other influential bands that came after

What a great episode and its not the subject, Green day are great but Justin is excelling, doing what I've come to enjoy from Justin Rides again, again. A channel well worth supporting! 👍👍👍👊✌️.

Punk no. Eye liner does not make you "punk". They're posers

They peaked in the mid 90s but nobody's had the heart to tell them.

Anyone here after Saviors? What an album

Best live band for me. Green Day at the Nimes Arena, South of France.

he thinks he’s so punk, But wants to run and leave America…. Stay and fight poser

I usually enjoy your breakdowns and perspectives. However, I think you are wrong on this one. I view them as idealistic man-children that crap on the USA which is the only county in the world that recognizes free speech in their founding documents. They sure don’t sound like the first wave of punk. At any stage of their career.

The interesting thing I experienced in my own guitar playing journey was trying to mimic Billie Joe’s way of playing when I first picked up the guitar. Now I am trying to cover some songs of The Darkness and have to unlearn that rugged (frustrating) way of playing that Justin pointed out. Green Day has been a massive part of my formative years and nearly brought me to tears when I was fortunate enough to see them in London in June 2022. Thanks for your amazing channel Justin

Concorde by Black Country, New Road is a song I think you’d love, and it’d be great to get a reaction to it